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.