Death From a Weed

“The arrival of hops to brewers in England in the 1500’s led to a moral panic. Hops were condemned as a ‘wicked and pernicious weed’, one which would lead to the erosion of social and moral standards. Thank goodness they were right!” Quoted from the label on Garage Projects ‘Pernicious Weed’ and endorsed by every red blooded human in godzone.

So here’s the thing, how does this brew, abundant in NZ hops, compare with Garage Projects other catahopic IPA monster, ‘Death From Above’, which is totally full of American hops?
DFA has a sweet fruity malt aroma and a rich browny orange liquid beneath a non-caring white head. Tasting of mango, apricot, grapefruit and a cutting hop intensity of lime, is truly hop heaven. It leans on a malt background resulting in a rich smooth mouth feel and a bitter sweet finish.

PW however, has an even more intense hop aroma than DFA but a lighter more straw colour liquid. On taste there is more bitterness straight up but then sooths out into a roar hop flavour like you’ve just consumed hop flowers, branches and the entire vine root to stem, then subdues into an afterglow of earthy white grapes.

Both brews deliver in aroma when nose meets the glass and then performs in flavour when gulp meets the gullet.  These two beers illustrate the flavour effect different hops can have. For me, DFA is slightly better simply because of the richer smoother mouth feel as she goes down. Consequently, if you’re not a hop head then you must have old pommy ancestors.

Just a suggestion at what malt can do to an IPA is illustrated in Garage Project’s latest creation, ‘Pan Pacific’, brewed for autumn. Made with NZ and Aussie hops, it’s aptly based on Anzac biscuits and is amazingly like a biscuit in a bottle but with a hoppy edge. Non sweet, subtle bitterness, comes either from the hops or,,,toasted coconut, perfect for cooler nights.

Death from above via a pernicious weed, that’s the way to get to hop heaven! 

Denis beerly alive Cooper

Let’s Get Ready To Rumble

The good old US of A, land of the triple decker huge over the top big as Texas everything, well, that is everything except their corporate breweries with their pissy yellow ales and lagers. How can the land of supersize me have such insipid low alcohol no flavor beers with as much desire as brown toilet paper? I’d sooner buy 12 frosty pigs!

Something carrying a bit more of a punch is American craft brewer ‘Iron Fist’ where all their brews go gangbusters. These brewsters are the first to agree with me saying “Put the pack of light lager back with all its buddies and rule your taste with an Iron Fist!”  Big talk but these guys can back up their claims with some knock out swigs.

Their ‘Velvet Glove’ is one smoooth imperial oatmeal stout. This decadent stout pudding is like beer butter possessing rich silk chocolate coffee tiramisu flavors. It floats like a butterfly and the 9% abv stings you like a bee.

A rebellion from an iron fist could be asking for trouble but Iron Fists ‘Imperial Rebellion Farmhouse Ale’ is nowhere near revolting. The rebellious part is that it’s a Belgian style ale brewed with local flavour featuring Motueka and Nelson Sauvin hops giving a huge zesty fruit flavour counter punched with jabs of toffee malt. Weighing in at 9.3% it’s a real head banger so you might ultimately see the floor coming at ya.

 

Another Belgian style only with a Californian twist is the ‘Dubbel Fisted’. Coool, this means a glass in each hand right?  Aroma and flavour blows striking from all directions with this bad boy. Smells of malted over ripe fruit, and tastes like tart port plum cherries, with the twist being the caramel upper cuts to subdue the tartness. This brew tastes like a Belgium ale only malty and is out for the count at 8.1%

So, a unanimous decision, go a round with these feisty hard hitting Yankee brews, and withstand flavour TKO’s bigger than Texas, then get supersized!

Denis ‘sometimes PC but always DC’, Cooper

Buses and Wood Pigeons

 

Recently there has been some dispute over who is NZ’s beer capital, Nelson or Wellington? Who really cares so long as whilst performing the beerienteering, the journey between each brew bar is short? Nelson has its cycleways and a brew ride whereas Welly has the buses. For $9:50 you can have an unlimited amount of bus rides per day, getting as far north as Upper Hutt, visiting the 16 watering holes listed on the Welly brew map, before arriving at Upper Hutt, where coincidently is Upper Hutt’s first brewery ‘Kereru Brewing’.

If Kereru sounds a bit ‘oh naturale’, well, they are. Priding themselves on “making beers vegan and free of chemical preservatives”, something I’m certainly in favour of, not wanting any animals in my beer.

A fine example of Kereru’s ethos is a gluten free beer called ‘Auro’ the Latin word for gold. It’s precisely that, a golden liquid with a white wine aroma. How they get such a crisp clean almost sour taste without any malted barley or wheat grain is beyond me? If I was gluten intolerant I’d be thanking the hop gods for this easy to drink refreshing drop that belies its 5%abv.

Another all natural preservative free Kereru brew is the Silverstream Pale Ale: The style is called an ’ordinary bitter’ but this one is a mildly-hopped session beer. It’s malt biscuity, slightly sweet and has hints of a balancing wheat sharpness.  At 3.8% this is an all day cricket watching quencher, with enough flavour to keep you hoppily sipping between overs.

The armchair beer of the Kereru range is ‘Hop To It Pale Ale’, 5.9%.  An assertively-hopped IPA. Hoppy wood aroma, smooth fullish body with citrusy almost lemony bitter hop flavour and a bisecting maltyness through the middle. A taste rollout from the ‘not over the top’ bitter, to sensitively sweet, perfect at the end of a stressful day.

Here’s the thing, Nelson officially is NZ’s craft beer capital and the bus fortunately goes past the Nelson Fresh Choice, which is Nelson’s craft beer capital.

Denis ‘crack the good stuff’ Cooper

Wheat Your Whistle

Find choosing one of the 400 beer options from the Grocer’s platter daunting therefore disregard the foreign varieties that you can’t pronounce, then choose again. Germans have been brewing since 1400s so should know a wee bit about it by now. They started off by brewing with wheat fostering one of Germany’s greatest and most distinctive beer styles

If you have been put off by the unusual slightly acidic taste of wheat beer then you should try a genuine “Weissen bier” (wheat beer) and the best way to partake is with the world’s best wheat works – ‘Schneider Weisse’

These guys make it simple for none-German speakers by naming their 7 different beers simply Tap 1 through to Tap 7.

Tap 5 has a slightly sour but smooth creaming soda like body that tastes of overripe apricots and pears. A balancing wheat taste comes through that reminds me of Paeroa without the lemon and gives a refreshing afterburn.

Tap 6 is the bottom jump (biggest) of the Schneider Weisse and pours like pear pulp with a serious amount of beer pollution. It’s recommended to swill the bottle when pouring to extract all the tasty murk flavours. This is one fruit cake with plenty of sherry and could almost be used as a dessert flambé with its 8.2%abv.

Tap 7 is a thinner bodied sourish brew with light wheat, nuts, clove and cinnamon flavours that grow on you the more you drink.  The effervescence is extremely refreshing.

Another famous wheat works from Germany is Hofbrau who is one of the big six breweries in Munich that supply beer to the famous Oktoberfest beer festival that celebrates autumn.

They brew a complex Schwarze Weisse (dark wheat) that brims with walnut and banana bread flavours and is equally at home as a BBQ refresher or complimenting a dessert. It’s harsh at the start but mellow at the finish.

The Hefe Weizen (yeast wheat) brew has a lazy haze with notes of bananas and spices that only the real German yeasts produce.

All these brews fizz and you don’t need no thigh slapping Oompah band to enjoy em!

Denis Sommelier Cooper (not pronounced smellier).

Happy New Beer!!!

New Year, new beer, new cheer and perhaps a new dare?   Dare to try something different that might challenge your beer buds?  Maybe you’re intimidated by the plethora of craft beer variety available, most with bold outlandish flavour variations, so you therefore stick loyally to the reliable bland Beer Baron brews?  Fortunately the ‘Lakefront Brewery’ from Milwaukee, USA may have this conundrum sorted.  With their easy-drinking flavourful but not over the top beers that quietly massage the taste buds without ripping them out like some craft brewers pride themselves on, Lakefront may transition you into the craft beer market.

The ‘Klisch Pilsner’ - named after the two brothers who founded the brewery from a homebrew kit like all successful beermeisters seem to do - is a refreshing summertime brew. Tasting like a crisp sharp clean lager only with a slight Belgium bent via twists of fruit and subtle yeast flavours.

The ‘Fixed Gear’ is red ale with rye grains that create colour, caramel flavours and whiskey overtones combining with big American hops resulting in a tingly tang.  This one will keep your pedals going round while looking for the gear shifter.

And, like all good bike riders, get your coffee hit with ‘Fuel Café’.  Tasting like a cold vanilla espresso, this will definitely give you some mojo for the sprint finish with its 6.4%abv.

‘Eye P A’ wafts of hops, and tastes of grapefruit and brown sugar.  Initially the hop bitterness curls the tongue to the roof of the mouth then the smooth malt flavours flatten it back to normal.

So if you’re a binger or sipper these ’transition beers’ cover all the four seasons we seem to be having this summer!  I can’t think of a better dare?

Bellynote:  Must mention another tongue curler from America but this one is made solely with NZ green bullet hops and funnily enough it’s called ‘Green Bullet’, from Green Flash Brewery.  It’s a seasonal release triple IPA 10%er and man, the strong piney hop taste is as bitter as an Indian O.D.I. player!

DC, doing the drinking for you!

With Kiwi Ingenuity You Don’t Need a Brewery to Make Beer

“We don't have the resources nor the abilities to run our own brewery, so we make do with what we have” says ‘8Wired’ brewer Søren Eriksen. A recipe using local ingredients, and renting the kettle from neighbouring Renaissance brewery is all that’s needed to craft his unique brews inspired with ingenuity in flavour. Now, that’s what I call a crafty hoperation from this 2011 NZ brewer of the year!

Speaking of local, one of 8’s main ingredients is the Nelson sauvin hop. Named after the Sauvignon Blanc grape it has similar characteristics to the wine and imparts a strong tropical fruitiness to 8’s ‘Saison Sauvin’. The saison beer is a style from Belgium, brewed for thirsty farm workers who couldn’t drink the dodgy water, however ‘Saison Sauvin’ ain’t no rehydrater at 7%! .  The brew has a somewhat cloudy mustard colour exactly like the label. Generating a quickly dissolving head and little carbonation this fullish bodied brew reveals notes of hops, pineapples, bananas and cloves, and just enough smooth bitterness to offset any malty sweetness. And with the oncoming season to be jolly, this would make a refreshing quenching festive and summertime BBQ brew.

Another 8Wired sauvin hop dominated brew is their ‘Hop Wired IPA’ (Instant Pleasure Arousal). Clear golden brown with a foamy white head. Wafts of a hop fruit bowl, medium to full bodied and booming hop tangelo tang.  Lingering bitterness and a subtle finishing maltiness with just enough alcohol (7.3%) to ease the silly season stresses.

If you want twice as much pleasure then try the 'Super Conductor' Double IPA. Crack the bottle and get hit with such a distinctive puff of fruity hops you’d almost expect hop flowers on steroids to tumble out whilst pouring.  Spawning a thick creamy white head atop a slightly hazy orangy brown fluid. Instant mouth pucker as soon as the liquid fills the mouth and then flavors of bitter dried apricots from this full bodied brew.  The finish is so dry you’d think you’d just swallowed powdered hop flowers. Better to leave this 8.8% beauty for later on in the evening when BBQing is done and you’ve adjourned to the couch waiting for Santa to descend.

Stop the press! Just released in time for Xmas is 8Wired ‘Semi-Conductor’ session IPA. Brewed with a blend of American and NZ hops, this brew has a busload amount of flavor, but unlike the aforementioned high alc brews, the ‘Semi-Conductor’ comes with minimum regret at 4.4%.  Come in for lunch from the beach cricket then enjoy one (or two) of these effervescent hop tangers, feel like you’re indulging a much more alcoholic brew. Get refreshed and quenched with the citrusy hops, and then return to stumps without tripping over every grain of sand on the beach, shamazing!

Sauvin, so there, some great festive brews, all made with the devotion of some fence wire!

Belgium Beers Bigger than Marty Banks Boot

Belgium is to beer what McDs is to America.,  The Belgium beers combines French flair, German precision and Dutch sturdiness into a unique range of beers, some very sweet, some dry, some sour and some mixtures of all. One thing for sure is that they are all big beers and all have a lot of history and world famous for their Abbey beers. The Belgium beers are strong beers as a result of a law in 1919 banning the sale of distilled spirits in bars so brewers strengthened their beers to meet the demand for more robust drinks. This law has only been rescinded since 1984; the end result is big beers with big flavour variations. Belgians also like their yeast and bottle conditioning is more common in Belgium than anywhere else in the world and this has had a large influence on modern craft brewing.

One of these living brews is 2013 world ale winner “Gulden Draak” from Van Steenberge with a gulden medal. Pours a creamy tan head with mahogany red juice. Fruity on the tongue with strong malt toffee sweetness balanced with hop whiskey like bitterness and full body barrel aged woodiness.  Don’t serve chilled as you won’t appreciate the myriad of flavours.  This guy is a sure head wobbler, either from the 10.5% alcohol or from just shear enjoyment.

Contrasting the Draak is the “Sloebar” still a big beer but more subtle in body and flavours. This brew has the slightly yeasty taste which the Belgium’s go for, and gives a pleasant bitterness enhancing an orange hoppiness with a creamy effervescence that makes it refreshing and leaving you thirsting for more.

The “Piraat”, also from Van Steenberge and also a gold award winner, but in 2012, is a hazy amber and tastes rich in complex flavours of malt and hops.  Starts sweet on the tongue then ends with a grassy zing with a dry finish.

 

One of the few remaining historic Belgium beers is the Kwak and this brew is a real kwacker. Beautiful deep bright amber colour with a creamy tan head and a spicy malt aroma. Tastes like  caramel rum sauce over bananas with a background yeastiness to keep it mildly bitter. You can feel this guy smoothly and warmly going all the way down to your stomach as the 8.4% kicks in.

 

Different yet again is the “Duchesse De Bourgogne” and is the sour sovereign of Belgium beers. This is a lambic style beer which is brewed with wild yeasts and with at least 30% raw wheat, the malt flavours are not balanced by hop bitterness but more by lactic acidity. Once your mouth unpuckers from the sourness, flavours will hit from all directions.  This is one taste phenomenon that all drinkers should try and then realise that it’s not how much you drink, it’s how much you have yet to drink!