The Geoff, Brian and Roger Show

Last night I attended the 'Marlborough Brewers Shootout'. A head to head tasting of three Marlborough breweries: Renaissance, Pink Elephant and 666 brewing.
Geoff Griggs presented the evening and two brewers were present, Brian Thiel from Renaissance and the elusive Roger Pink from Pink Elephant.

Roger pink is a hard to find man. His home/brewery is hidden in the wop wops of Marlborough, so as to avoid visiting beer nerds such as myself. If that isn't enough there are multiple 'NO ENTRY' signs along his driveway.
This is very fitting with his brewing philosophy, as Roger is a man who just wants to make good beer. He doesn't care about beer nerdery like brewing to a style, or how many IBU's are in his beers - just that they taste good. And they do!
The Pink Elephant beers of the night were 'Golden Tusk Special'(7.1%), 'Mammoth'(7%) and the unreleased 'Trumpet'(10%).


Oddly, the Golden Tusk and Mammoth were tasting very similar. Both very malty beers, full of toffee. They differ in that the Golden Tusk finishes on a sweet caramel note, while Mammoth has far more fruity ester flavours.
Trumpet was the weirdest beer of the night. I stuck my nose in the glass and said "what the hell is that?!" with a big grin.
The beer pours a reddish golden with a very thin white head.
The aroma is something very unique, I got a strong over ripe banana on the nose with some mango, spice and a whisky/rum like spirit. I wasn't sure about the banana note, but it smelled very complex.
The flavour was very herbaceous, and mildly bitter. A spicy, dusty flavour dominated. The alcohol is detectable in the finish, along with some spice and a strong astringency. However, there is little lingering flavour in this bizarre brew. Trumpet will be available in early July, in 330mL bottles.

Graeme Mahy of 666 brewing couldn't be present on the night, but two prototype brews of upcoming beers made the trip. In a first for Regional Wines & Spirits beer tastings, Graeme made special batches of 'Diablo'(5.4%) and 'Avaritia'(7.5%) on his 20L homebrew kit specifically for the shootout.


I was very excited to see these two beers on the menu, as only one keg of 666 beer has managed to find its way up to Wellington since the brewery's launch.
Diablo was touted as a 'New Zealand Brown Ale'. This sounded very unappetising to many of us, as NZBA usually indicates a brown fizzy lager ala Waikato Draught. Luckily, it transpired that this is a New Zealand take on an American Brown Ale - sigh of relief.
The beer pours a nice cherry red/brown colour with a thin tan head. Nose was of toffee malt with an odd hint of berry fruit. Toffee features in the flavour as well, with a light roast malt character. There was a prominent stone fruit flavour, and medium bitterness which cleansed the palate. I can see this being a very tasty session beer.
Avaritia was the first of two IIPA's on the night, and what a great drop. It poured a hazy amber with a thin head.
A huge amount of citrus jumped out at me, with an almost as strong toffee note. The flavour is huge, with the grassy citrus hops and sweet toffee malt fighting each other throughout the entire taste. It's a draw till the finish where toffee just beats hops, leaving a sweet flavour in the mouth.
This reminded me strongly of the american IIPA's I've had, but with an NZ grassyness to distinguish it. The only gripe I had with this beer is that I'd prefer it to finish on a bit citrus hop note, increasing the palatability.

Brian Thiel showed off Renaissance's entire year round range, including Discovery APA, Perfection EPA, Elemental Porter and Stonecutter Scotch ale. I'm sure you know these beers well if you're reading this, so I won't go into too much detail.


One thing to note is that Discovery APA is tasting far, far better than I remember. The cascade hop aroma and flavour really flourish now, making it far more akin to Epic PA. Brian explained that recently they begun filtering their beers, which removes the sediment which was dampening the aromatics in the beer. The next batch (batch 84?) is even hoppier according to Brian - so look out for this.
Making it's debut, and the second IIPA of the night was 'Marlborough Pale Ale' (8.5%). It pours a murky amber with almost no head. MPA yielded a second WTF moment, when huge grassy hops crawled up my nose. I wasn't a fan at first, as it was so grassy and earthy that it reminded me of Steinlager x10. Once it warmed some orange peel and caramel emerged while the hops turned peppery and earthy.

This is what Renaissance MPA looks like. Sexy.

In the mouth it was intensely bitter, the hops were so strong that they were peppery and are the main feature in the flavour. Hops turn lemony as the pepper fades, and at 60IBU (estimated) it was big, bitter and dry finishing.
MPA is completely different to an american IIPA, probably due to the use of a single NZ variety of hop (I forget which, he said it was the most expensive on the market), giving it the grassy NZ terroir. It really appealed to the hophead within me. I think Luke Nicholas would quite enjoy this one.
I feel an Armageddon, MPA and Avaritia side by side tasting coming.

That was it for the night, but happily we were informed that MPA was avaliable on the FYO taps so I picked 1.25L of it. Nom.

Apologies for the lengthy post, there was almost too many new beers in one night... Almost.

PS. Talking to Brian Thiel after the tasting, he revealed that the previous day they brewed a Chocolate Oatmeal Stout using imported Belgian Cocoa nibs. He described it as liquid chocolate. Look for this around Beervana time.

JP 2009

Once each year, since 2007, Emersons Brewery have been releasing a Belgian style brew under the moniker 'JP'.
Like many Emersons beers, this name has some history. JP stands for 'Jean Pierre-Dufour', who was an Otago university professor who had a passion for the diversity of Belgian beer styles. Coming from Belgium, Jean Pierre did much to advance the New Zealand craft beer industry, but sadly passed away in 2007.

The late Jean Pierre-Dufour

Jean gave the Emersons brewery much advice and feedback about their beers, and to honour this great man, the JP annual release was born.

This years release is in the Belgian Dubbel style, but is given the Emersons signature by adding star anise spice to the brew.

JP 2009: A spiced Belgian Dubbel

The beer pours almost black, with ruby edges. The brown head is quite frothy, and dissipates quickly.
Fruity aromas are foremost, dark fruits/berries. The anise spice is also quite strong, Richard must love brewing with those spices. It smells similar to Taieri George, but fruitier.
However, the flavour is completely different to the George. Initially a mouth filling astringency overcomes, possibly the alcohol showing. Warming flavours of aniseed and dark berries, then followed by a faint roast malt. The finish is quite long, and astringent.
I’m not sure I like the big alcohol flavour in this one, it takes away from the drinkability quite a lot.

The yeast used in this years vintage is the same used in the 2007 brew (which I was lucky enough to try). This Chimay yeast relinquished some amazing flavours after about a year. So perhaps ageing this years vintage will yield a more drinkable beer. Good things take time...

After work Belgians

I had an exam today, then work straight after. Time for a beer!
Belgians make my favorite beers in the world. Their styles are gutsy, unique and can get pretty out there. So I popped in to Metro New World after work and picked up a Delirium Tremens (8.5%), and a Leffe Brune(6.5%).
This is also an excuse to use my Belgian beer glasses...
I have a thing with glasses, I've gathered a pretty good collection over the last year thanks to regionals. Whenever I buy a new branded glass, I must drink the beer it is intended for from it before any other brew touches it. My Delirium Tremens is a virgin, so I'll pop her cherry tonight.

But first is Leffe Brune, which I haven't had in a while. Lets see what my palate makes of it now.

Blurry photo courtesy of my shit camera

As you can see, this one pours quite dark. But when held to the light it is a beautiful deep ruby colour.
A sweet aroma, with a lot of Belgian yeast character. Some herb is there, and a nice caramel underlying. Not too complex a nose, but very nice.
This ones got a classic Belgian character to it, bit of clove, coriander, sweetness. It's actually a bit too sweet for my tastes. Caramel chases the other flavours and brings the candy sweetness. It is saved somewhat by a quite strong bitterness near the finish.
Now that it's warmed a bit (probably at 8-10°c) the roast malt is poking through a bit, and balancing out the sweet. Much better.

Now for the beer which wins the BEST BOTTLE IN THE WORLD EVAR award: Delirium Tremens.


Why pink elephants?? Marching alligators? Pink dragons sitting on yellow balls? I don't know! All I know is that all this madness contains one of my favourite beers in the world.
It pours an orangey golden colour, with a big smooth head. This is indicative of the bottle fermentation, which also produces a bit of sediment in the glass. Sediment is okay in a Tremens in my experience, and can improve some aspects of the beer.
Aromas are strong, and plentiful. Coriander is quite strong, clove is there, candy sugar, orange peel and maybe even some apple?
Flavour is massive, I always forget how amazing this beer is. There is a quite strong spice note, which I have not found in any other beer. There is a significant fruitiness, starting with mandarin peel, then to apple as it mingles with other flavours. It is quite warming in the mouth, with a very full texture. A hint of the 8.5% ABV is there, and the finish is warm and spicy with a slight astringency.
This beer is so complex that everyone will have a different interpretation of it, but this is mine. At least it is tonight.

Beer Club Surprises

Last night I attended the Malthouse Beer Club for the first time. This is held on the second Wednesday of every month, and costs $25-$30 per head depending on the beers sampled.


Last nights menu was based around beers with big aromas.
First up was Invercargill Boysenbeery, a fruit wheat beer. This 2009 bottle seemed thinner than previous batches, but was still deliciously fruity.
Then onto two classic wheat beers, Hoegaarden and Hofbräu Münchner Weisse.
My glass of Hoegaarden was disappointingly sediment free, which resulted in a watered down flavour. I did get a good orange peel on the nose though. I'm sure you know Hoegaarden is excellent when poured correctly though.
Hofbräu Münchner Weisse was nicer than I remembered, probably the first surprise of the night. This was full of flavour. I got a whole lot of herbs on the nose, mingling with a good sweet banana. Flavour was strong and full, with bananas forming the main flavour and a nice coriander herb in the background.

Then came the 'aromatic' section. First up was Steinlager... Yeah, no.
Then came Bookbinder or 'Bookie' as many were affectionately referring to it. My first experience of Bookie (back in the day) was that it was a very hoppy beer, akin to their pilsener. It seems that Richard has decided to tone down the hops now, and what you now have is a very balanced tasty beer. The perfect session beer at 3.6%.
Finally was the NZ king of aromatic beer, Epic Pale Ale. See my previous blog for the analysis of this, it's still freakin' awesome.

The final beer was the best surprise of the night, as most bottle I've had from this brewery have been flat and sweet. Just not right. But it seems like Peak Brewery have sorted their shit out with Great End ESB (6.5%).
It poured a murky toffee colour with a big fluffy off white head. Toffee is the key word with this beer. Big toffee aromas, laced with a hint of smoke and fruit. The flavour was massive, the higher alcohol provided a big body. Toffee and caramel dominated the flavour, and the sweetness was toned down with a mild bitterness and a hint of smoke. Tasty and complex, many likened this to Renaissance Stonecutter.
Great End ESB easily won the vote for the favourite beer of the night.

I thought the fun was over, but then the proprietor of Malthouse, Colin Mallon wandered over with a couple of bottles of a beer which just arrived that day: Hook Norton Double Stout (4.8%).


What a stout! A massive aroma of chocolate, coffee, vanilla and a hint of booze (surprising for a 4.8% beer, but not a bad thing). Massive milk chocolate flavours followed by coffee and a creamy smoothness. It's not surprising that this won 'best stout in the world'. I'll be having another for sure.
Colin revealed the final surprise of the night while we were all enjoying our stout. While in England recently he organised a pallet of Brew Dog beers to be shipped to NZ exclusively for the Malthouse!


From his descriptions of the order, he will be receiving a lot of Punk IPA(6%), some Paradox Imperial Stout (10%) and Tokyo Imperial Stout (12%). Who knows what else will be in there, but I'm bloody excited for these!!

Malthouse is the best.

New Epic, Old Epic.

Last night I went to Malthouse, and had a pint of the latest batch of Epic Pale Ale (5.4%). Then I had another. This batch has a slightly altered recipe than the usual Epic.
Luke Nicholas, Epic brewer, says the malt in the latest batch was paler than usual - which has resulted in a paler coloured beer. He's also got a fresh batch of US Cascade hops in, which have a higher alpha content of 7.6% instead of 6%. Alpha is the chemical in hops which provides the bitterness for those who were wondering.


Well the pint(s) then.
The colour is definately paler, more golden than amber now. Nose is still stuffed with hops. Citrus and passionfruit aromas greet the olfactory (what a snobby word).
BIG HOPS in the flavour, seems more bitter now. I noted that the body seemed a bit thin, but was slightly rounded out by the mouthful of beautiful hops. I wasn't getting much in the way of fruit in the flavour though, the hops seem almost peppery with their bitterness.
I struggled to find any malt character through all the alpha as well, hops override.
Overall this is an excellent showcase of what American hops can do for a beer. Albeit a slightly unbalanced one.
Maybe after a few months the hops will calm down, allowing a bit of malt to round out the flavour.

Speaking of which. At last weeks SOBA beer tasting at Central City Wines & Spirits, I tasted a much older version of Epic Pale Ale, reaching its expiry date within a few months.
This breed of Epic was a much darker colour, and while the hops were still very present they didn't steal the whole show. The malt definitely made a large showing here, and fruits were in the aroma and the flavour. Very nice.

Luke is planning more changes to address the malt issue, using the more robust English Maris Otter malt. A direct result of his experience brewing Epic in England.
So with Epic Pale Ale, you're getting two (or more) completely different beers in one. You've just gotta wait a bit for your second.

First Post, New English Ales!

Hi people. I'm David, and I'm a beer snob. I love beer a bit too much, so this is where the overflow of my beer ramblings will now go, so as not to bore too many people in real life with my rants and opinions.
I'm in Wellington, which is handy as just down the road is Regional Wines and Spirits. The most awesomest bottle store evar (that I've seen).
They just got in two new English beers, Fullers IPA and Wadworth Bishops Tipple (seems like it's missing an 's' to me. OCD). Naturally I was in to grab 'em the day they arrived.
So the beer. I'm just going to type this out as I try the beer for the first time. Kind of a stream of consciousness thing.

Fullers Indian Pale Ale (5.3%)


I won't bore you with the usual IPA history, you probably know all about the story if you're reading this. My expectations are pretty high for this one, as Fullers are a pretty good, experienced English brewery. And being an English style beer they should know their shit.
Here goes then. She pours a pretty good golden amber colour (yes this beer is a female), normal head. Pretty mild carbonation. Aroma is pretty standard. I get a bit of kinda bready malt, wee bit of hop zest there too. It reminds me of a hoppy English bitter on the nose.

Pretty good flavour, nice robust malt profile. Those bready malts really come through. The goldings hops are very present in this one, providing a medium to strong bitterness. It will have to suffice to say it's a zesty citrus hop flavour, as I can't pin it down specifically yet.

I really enjoy the overall combination of flavours here, it is a superbly balanced brew. I could get pissed of this pretty easy, it's very tasty but still easy to drink.
I just burped and got another dose of hops: that's how you know its a hoppy beer.
I'll do some numbers, like on ratebeer.com:
Aroma: 7/10 Appearance: 3/5 Flavour: 7/10 Palate: 4/5 Overall: 14/20

Onto the next one, described as an 'English Strong Ale' (seems the English & Belgians have different ideas about the word 'strong')

Wadworth Bishop's Tipple (5.5%)


I have no idea what to expect from this one. I've never heard of Wadworth, this is my first of their beers. And my first English strong - as far as I'm aware. Cool looking bottle though, I love how pommie breweries put their logo in the glass of the bottle, as well as the label. This label reads "Rejoice & enjoy the fruits of our labour & be thankful that the Earth provides".
It looks pretty similar to Fullers IPA, nice deep golden colour. The head is a bit thinner on this though.
Aroma is quite sweet, with caramel and raisins. A wee bit of spice sneaks in too, pretty cool.
Hmmmmm, I don't really know what to do with the taste of this beer.
Weird, but that's not always bad. Hops are pretty grassy, not too bitter. In the background is a caramel sweetness, and once the grassy hops fade a bit you get a really spiced finish.
It seems this beer is all about the hops, with the Saaz and Styrian Goldings overriding any malt profile - resulting in a slightly unbalanced beer. It's not bad, just odd (for me).

Aroma: 5/10 Appearance: 3/5 Flavour: 6/10 Palate: 2/5 Overall: 12/20

Some pretty good beers for my blogging debut eh? I'd recommend the Fullers IPA for sure, and give the Bishop's Tipple a go if you're feeling adventurous.