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.