Got no holidays at Christmas so took the opportunity of the
long labour weekend to spend a holiday in the windy city for some much needed
R&R (rugby and rate beer). And what
a great hopportunity that turned out to be.
As luck would have it, not only was the final of the ITM cup
on but also ‘The Great Pacific Beer Expo’ was on with 36 state of the art craft
brews to sample. Holy hole in the Cake tin Batman, this actually sounds like a
daunting task for my little taste buds as I’m only ever a one or two at the
most oneday beer sampler. This sounds like a challenge that I cannot resist and
I certainly hope that all the single brew a day tastings that I’ve done over
the last few months have trained me enough to take on such an event? Even the two o’clock start time is enough of
a challenge as its three hours before my normal beer o’clock.
Thankfully the program was divided up into 2 two and a half
hour sessions with the main emphasis on the first session being beers with a
lower alcohol content served to provide some means of pacing one’s self thus
enabling the taster a chance to see the second session. For me this didn’t work as I’d sampled 10 of the brews in
the first two hours which was heaps for me and I still wanted to be coherent
for a proper second session but with
nothing else to do for the last half hour before the swop over I had another two
more samples. I think that in reality the two sessions were just to provide
only half the available brews at a time because of the limited space available
at the St James.
I must confess, picking the first brew to try was the
hardest part of the day. The plan was to go for ever increasing hoppyness and
then finishing with darker beers and stouts. Also, an emphasis on trying to taste the local
brewers, as I felt it to be more likely to purchase these if there were some
that I particularly fancied.
Well organised by organisers with food chips being a
compulsory part of the provided beer chips, dirty glasses that could be
replaced with clean glasses, or even clean glasses with water in as a palette
cleaner, but their piece de résistance was definitely the waterproof beer list.
Good to see the place well represented by the female variety
which bodes well that the variety of
craft beer can provide for all and every taste peculiarity and especially nice
to talk to some of them to get their perspective on the taste sensations. Apparently, this expo was unique in that
unlike some of the other beer festivals, the pacific beer expo was small and
intimate enough that the punters soon spread the word on any exceptionally nice
samples and this would then have people descending on the said brewer and the
formation of an instant queue. In the end this is how I decided what to try
next, by noting what the longest queue was as I was starting a sample and by
the time my sample was finished then so would be the queue.
At the end of the 5 hour long session all that I could
manage was to taste 20 brews as my pocket does have a bottom and I needed to
successfully negotiate the two flights of stairs to get out of the place.
Here’s the sample of the samples in drunken order of
tasting…
ParrotDog Barrel Aged
Sleuthhound 6.6% aged scotch ale from Wellington. This was a great way to
start the day. This brew did taste like scotch so consequently was to be
sipped. It was smooth and dry with imperceptible hops but a pleasant malt
finish. 6.5/10
Garage Project Weasel
Cah Phe Dah. Strong coffee aroma big thick coffee crema head, dark coffee
coloured liquid, and surprise surprise, it tasted like a lightly fizzed cold
coffee beans. It is called cahphe after all, derr! 6.5/10
Jungle Tropical Wheat
Orange and Mango 4.2% from Singapore. Aroma of mangoes and lemons and a
hazy gold colour. Tasted like a cyder with a refreshing fruity bite, not sweet,
maybe not beer but would be a great alternative for a cyder and perhaps
acquiring a beer palate. The ladies
liked. 6/10
Baylands Pacific
Sunset 4.6% Blueberry Wheat Beer, Wellington. Another one the ladies liked
and probably maybe because of its pink liquid colour and watermelon smell. I couldn’t detect the blueberry flavour but I
heard it from a reliable source(me missus) that there was a subtle blueberryness to it.
To me the hint of hops and the wheat tinges made for a very refreshing beer
that you could have just before a beer. 6/10
Funk Estate Pinky and
the Grain 8.8% Pink Pepper Saison, Wellingtion. 8.8%, now we’re talking! After
seeing that it was a clear amber colour with no ‘pinky’ I gave it a go. This tasted like a Belgium beer, with a
complex fruity flavour, strong wheat and yeast notes, then a hot peppery bite
at the end. Hot enough to make you want to gulp some more, then some more, then
some more. 7/10
8 Wired Saeson
Chardonnay Barrel Aged 6.5%. I would have liked to have spent more time with
this slightly hazy, fruity, dry, slightly sour beer. With similar fruity tastes
of a chardonnay wine, it had such complexity to it that I kept bumping up my
out of ten score from 6 to 8. Plus it tasted great with satay chicken!
Pretty Things Yeastie
Boys Our Turn/Your Turn 6.8% American Wheat Ale with Lindenflower Wellington/Massachusetts. Hazy amber hue with
wafts of lindenflower and hops it had a bitter musty hoppy taste that once
again grew on me the more I partook. 7.5/10
Southern Tier Compass
9% Sparkling Ale with Rose Hips, Lakewood New York. Hint of hops in the aroma
of this clear amber brew with a light creamy head. Tastes of citrusy hops that are not over the
top, but combine well with just enough malt to make a full bodied smooth easy
to drink ale, be careful, 9%!
Kereru Pohutakawa
Golden Ale 5% Upper Hutt. Aroma of malt and wooden barrels, dark amber
colour and a foamy white head. A bitter ale with no sweetness which was not
expected from the malt aroma. A modicum of manuka tang makes this brew taste
clean and green and seemed like I was drinking a forest. 6/10
Fork & Brewer /
Brayden Rawlinson MoonBlink Black IPA Wellington. I rate black IPAs so was
looking forwards to partaking. Strong hop aroma and a dark liquid underneath a
creamy ash head. Taste was big on hops but lacking on malt which seemed strange
coming from such a dark brew. 7/10
Four Horsemen of the
Hopocalypse 10.3% Triple IPA, Auckland. An extremely hard name to pronounce to the
barman when soberish. A rather
nondescript aroma but a beautiful clear red brown colour with creamy off white
head. This brew has got something special apart from its full bodied viscous
mouth feel and it might be, believe it or not,,,,strawberries, but not as we
know them! 9/10
Lobethal Double
Hopped IPA 5.9% Lobethal Aussie.
Clear copper with creamy white head. Medium bodied with both vibrant hop
and malt flavours and a smooth mouth feel. 8/10
Mike’s Hemp IPA
5% Urenui Taranaki. OK, only tried this just to see if it was good for trips
and pleased I did, not because of any trips but because this was a powerpacked
5%er. Clear copper manhogany with a foamy white head. Medium bodied with an
earthy bitter hop taste. One of the best 5% IPAs I’ve tried. 7/10
Southern Tier Crème
Brulee 9.6% Spiced Imperial Milk Stout, Lakewood New York. This brew had
the biggest queues and for good reasons, it also had the biggest flavours.
Smells like Kahlua, tastes like bubbly Kahlua. This had the flavour explosion
that I had come for. Distinctly a dessert brew and when combined with the crème
brulee from the food choices, was sensational. Possibly everybody’s favourite?
9/10
666 Brewaucracy
Devils in the Detail, Highly Hopped Belgium Tripel, Hamilton. Pale amber colour,
medium bodied and tasting of bitter, slightly citrusy tasting hops. Unfortunately was not quite as Belgiumy
tripel as a Belgium tripel 6.5/10
8 Wired Wired Feijoa
10% Strong Pale Ale Barrel Aged with Feijoas, Blenheim. Aroma of sour feijoas.
Tasted like sour feijoas and ripe bananas but I liked it. Fruity and refreshing,
not sweet with plenty of complexity to savour. 7/10
Renaissance Barrel
Fermented Grizette 4.6%, Blenheim. I like Renaissance beers, especially
their Stonecutter scotch ale and I like sour Lambic style sour beers, but the
Grizette, pink with no head, delivered a sour dry bland taste and was my
grizaster. I am getting pretty fussy at this stage of the day so might need to
go back to this if I see it at the lollyshop? 4/10
Murray’s Wild Thing
10% New South Wales, Aussie. Black almost purple liquid under a brown creamy
head. Aroma of sweet malt. Tasting of smooth malt with pleasant whiskey notes
and no harsh coffee taste that’s often in strong stouts. This one is an all
nighter winter beer (10%, maybe half the night!) 8/10
Speakeasy Double
Daddy 8.5% Imperial IPA, San Francisco. Clear amber colour underneath a
white creamy head. Powerful hop aroma with a good hop flavour without the
extreme bitterness that you get with most U.S. west coast brews. A refreshing
dry finish. 8.5/10
Liberty Darkest Days
Stout 6% Auckland. Nothing new here, you can buy this stuff from your local
lollyshop no probs. It’s still a very drinkable bitter chocolate coffee with smooth
mouth feel stout. (I wished Liberty had their Alpha Dog there as this is a real
bitch of a beer). 7.5/10
At the end of the day my favourite drink may have been the
Hopocalypse cause it was the only drink I had two of and I wanted to finish on this
big beer, and see if my enunciation had improved over the afternoon.
There you go, finally, beer there, drunk that, shamazing!
