Pick n Go

Garage Project have blossomed from nano to micro and now macro brewing, such is the demand of their  beersies created with a uniqueness that overlap the boundaries of beer styles. The exponential success of GP is due to the amount they export to places like Australia, America and Germany. It’s like GP’s business success is to invent a beer, test it on the NZ beer boffin for a taste check, then woof, its outta here, off overseas for the big sales. Us poor guinea pigs are then left with a fickle limited supply with a get what you’re given selection for the local supermarkets.

Such a shame about the supply cause all GP’s beers are rated.  Try these 4 cans while you can.

‘Artful Dodger’ new wave English Pale 4.3%. Toasty malts similar to the English pales billow over the front of the mouth then fresh cut grassy hops with a touch of weed, probe the back with pronounced bitterness. Huge flavour from such low alcohol, and quite possibly the perfect sessionable beer for the early morning RWC?

‘Dirty Boots’ American Pale Ale 6.6% Dirty boots has kicked the hop flavour outta the park with huge pineapple passionfruit hop flavours. Very rambunctious, saliva producing bitterness with creamy mouth feel. You’ll keep constantly sipping to keep experiencing the sensations. Inspired by the grunge music that GP listen to when they’ve hopped the mosh pit.

‘Los Lobos’ IPA 8%, means ‘The Wolves’ in Spanish and rightly so as this brew rocks (also a Grammy award-winning American rock band). It’s got those big American hops that generate the essence of mangoes and tropical fruits. Smooth bitterness, luscious body all make for a deceptively easy drinking 8%er.

‘Nerissimo’ 5.6% Porter.  A black porter infused with porcini and truffle. These fun guys add a rich hit of umami, the most enigmatic of flavours, giving this brew dark and complex earthy notes. Not sweet, definitely not sour, some bitterness and finishes with a satisfying savoury saltiness that keeps you wanting more.

Pick em from Fresh Choice, before they go.

Denis beer bum Cooper

Salubrious Selections for the Silly Season Sorted

Eight Xmas shopping days are beering down on us before the fat red man sings but if you’re like me, seven and half days procrastinating before starting. Fortunately you can’t go wrong by picking the third most popular drink in the world, just behind water and tea, it’s beer!

Here’s some great Xmas gift ideas for your most significant other.

A classic from a genuine Trappist brewer, Chimay. These Monk brewers have been refining their brews for the last 154 years and in 1956 this Monastic brewery created a Christmas beer now known as Chimay Blue. This is a 9% liquid Christmas cake with rich complex flavours of malty stewed plums and raisins and a coating of almond icing. Ranging in size options from 330mls to the special celebratory gargantuan 3 litre magnum. Drink this bad boy and believe it or not, you won’t get hungover. The brews yeast residue is recovered by the Monks, dried and compressed to form beer yeast tablets, rich in vitamin B and vitamin H and recommended as a potent natural dietary supplement. Way better than a Berocca in the morning.

The full complement of Chimay Red White and Blue can be partaken with the gift box selection including a special Trappist chalice designed to accentuate the distinctive aromas and bubbles of the brews.

 

Another Belgian heritage brewery is Duvel, with a double bottle and glass gift box. This beer exudes tradition. Tastes of champagne, dried fruits, yeast and some bitterness balanced by sweet malt and an aggressive carbonation.  Perfect for celebration.

 

But wait, there’s more.

 

A gift box of ‘Tuatara Delights’ featuring their most excellent Pilsner and APA, arguably their best rated brews, plus branded Goblet glass.

 

And for the hopheads, this is the gift box for you. Twenty years ago, Coronado Brewing Co put the IPA into San Diego and kickstarted the west coast hop revolution we have come to know and love. Their beer box selection show cases the American hop nuances, beering their four most successful examples.  

 

Gifts galore at your festive FreshChoice store.

Denis older Budweiser Cooper

Sip Pause and Enjoy

For the last five weeks I’ve been living my life totally on the edge – of the couch, fixated to the flatscreen.  The column deadline is just before the finals so the end result thus far is a mystery but certainly looking forwards to it and hopefully the resolution of the afternoon hangovers.  Commiserate or celebrate, either way you can partake with a ‘Funk Estate’.

Of the three Funk Estatians, one hails from Nelson where he crafted his craft then in pursuit of his passion absconded to Wellington to further enhance his brewing career and Wellys rep as the craftbeer capital.  The three brewers were drawn together by their love for lagers, affection for ales and an all-round passion for a pint.

Have a squiz at these four funkalicious finals refreshers

‘Parleyer Pilsner’. This brew is way bigger than its 4.5% would suggest.  A spritzy tart lime bitterness that leaves a clean crisp refreshing aftertaste.  Its got that exhilarating Savea get up and go!

‘Sophisticuffes’ 6%.  Is a hophisticated IPA with peppery orange and mango flavours and a backhand offload of bitterness. Very Rich and McCawsome!

‘Oh Lordy NZ Pale Ale’ 5.5%. Up front this brew has a punchy grassy and passionfruit hop character but also its a beer of two halves as it is equally well balanced with smooth biscuity malts.  This brew is a bit like the French side as it’s very easy to put away.

‘Pucker Up Berliner Weisse’ 4.2%. Oh’lordy, hope I spelt that right? A Berliner Weisse is a wheaty sour style of ale. The taste starts with citrusy orange then a gentle sourness  adds a multi-faceted complexity unheard of for such a low alcohol brew. Low alcohol, arrggh, you trying to kill me? Fortunately the flavours in this thirst-quenching brew will still smash ya bro with a cutting Skudder side step of crispness.

A loss doesn’t beer thinking about but thinking about beer does, so charge down a funky black magic woman from Fresh choice for a fairy-tale finish?

Denis Craft (Can’t Remember A Forking Thing) Cooper

Chillaxing Beers

You know its cold when you walk through the meat department at Freshchoice and can actually feel some warmth. These are the darkest days and appeal to the darkest beers and there is no better comfort beer than a stout stout. A stout can be as bitter as a Hurracanes support’s club or as sweet as a Marty Banks dropgoal. Either way, strong roasted malt will dominate the flavour. Because of its sweet or bitter qualities, Stout is also very good to cook with and sometimes you can even add it to the recipe. And in case you think its too cold for a cold beer, the flavour profile of a stout will usually improve if not served chilled.

For instance, Kereru Brewing’s “For Even Greater Justice Wood Fired Toasted Oat and Coconut Imperial Porter” gets warmer, more coconut flavor develops.  Tastes very much like a coconut topped marshmallow biscuit except at 8.5% you get warm fuzzies. 

Townshend’s “Key Stone Milk Stout” 5.5%. it’s called a milk stout as it contains lactose, a  sugar derived from milk and this imparts a very creamy milk taste to the gentle roast malt flavours. Forget you glass of milk before bed, this is way better.

Lord Almighty “Ursus Stout” at a lord almighty 12%ABV. Appropriately, Ursus is the name of a big American black bear. Tastes of dark roasted malt that’s just on the edge of charry bitterness. Its robust body with heavenly chocolate coffee notes and a soy sauce bitterness.  This is one smooth strong gnarly bear.

Tuatara “Black” 6.5% is part of a seasonal one off series and fortunately, is black by popular demand. Beguilingly smooth brewed with real chocolate which comes through in the aroma. A milky cocoa taste with lots of coffee and a bitter malt finish and very easy to drink. The brew comes in a lizard spine necked bottle and may well raise the hairs on your neck on the inside.

So, axe the chills and get a stout from your warm and happy place, FreshChoice.

Denis short but stout Cooper

Craft Beers Have Your Meals Sorted

Craft brewing is a constantly evolving culture and in many ways the definition is in the eye of the beerholder. With more craft breweries hopping up worldwide the creativity of the craft brewer needed to standout amongst the crowd is becoming ever beerzarre. Great food goes with great beer and some brewers have taken food and beer pairing to extremes and literally combined the two.

Try this for a set menu of malt morsels with suggested beer pairings:

Entrée:
‘Pumpkin Savior’ 5.6% from Rogue Farms. This rogue tastes like a brown ale with a delicate pumpkin and spicy background. You wait for it to end with a sweet note but instead it finishes pleasantly dry.

Beer pairing with Garage Projects ‘Spiced Saison’. The spritzy spricy cloves and nutmeg from this brew complements and enhances the Rogue’s pumpkin flavours.

Main:
‘Indra Kunindra’ by Ballast Point, 7% India styled export stout. It’s a stout Scotty, but not as we know it. Smells like it tastes, curry, lime and coconut with a heat that will have you gasping for air and flapping your hand wildly in front of your mouth. Too much and you’ll end up vindaloo. Goes well with a dipping sauce of white rice.  A limited release so get it whilst it’s hot!

Beer pairing with Good George IPA, with its big refreshing citrus hoppiness to help cut through the Kunindra’s heat.

Dessert: 
Garage Project’s Bossa Nova, a 7.7% tropical fruit salad IPA. Fermented with a Belgian yeast to produce slightly tart yet refreshing hopatropical flavours of apricot, pineapple, passionfruit and watermelons. The flavours are so fruit salady that you expect to find watermelon and passionfruit pips in each mouthful.

Beer pairing with Victory at Sea by Ballast Point, a 10% porter with coffee and vanilla.  This brew is wicked. The coffee and dark roasted malt flavours are certainly there but nicely subdued by the vanilla adding a smooth and satisfying milkyness. It gets the lick.

Get your five plus a day and beer pairings from Fresh Choice Nelson.

Denis behind bars Cooper

Ah-Ooooh Werewolves of Taupo

He’s a hairy-faced fellow, a craft brewer from Taupo, doing things with hops that will make you feel mellow. That is James Cooper, founder of Lakeman Brewing and he styles himself as a mythical beer drinking beast, as would 90% of the NZ male population. James aims to produce easy drinking flavoursome beers from premium malts, hops and the crystal clear waters of Lake Taupo.

His range includes Pilsner, Pale Ale, Lahar, Hairy Hop IPA and Taupo Pale Ale and all have a howl of a lot of hop forward flavour. In just two years brewing, he’s already tasted instant success. At the 2014 New Zealand Beer Awards Lakeman Pale Ale picked up a bronze medal in the British-style ales category and Lakeman Taupo Pale Ale won bronze in the US-style ales class.

And lately he’s been overheard at Beervana. Lakeman’s stand was the first to run dry and his foray into darker ales with ‘Jack Black Stout’ ranked third on the people’s best-rated beer list. It’s not on the shelves yet so keep a big eye out for it in the beer fridge at Fresh Choice.

Four of Lakeman’s line-up are in the pale ale style and craftily demonstrate the nuances of what different hop varieties can do to the flavour profile without rippin your lungs out.

The ‘Taupo Pale’ 5.7%, is my favourite, laden with a forest of hops with notes of blackcurrant, pines, grasses and lime complemented with an underlying maltyness.  Scarily satisfying.

Another equally good pale ale only different, is the ‘Lahar’ 5.6%. It exudes a tropical fruity aroma and overflows with smacks of blackcurrants and lashings of lychees with a touch of grapefruit. Monstrously good.

The ‘Pilsner’ 5.2%, had an intriguing complexity not often found in a pils. It has a sharp vanilla-like taste with a cutting bitterness, robust body and earthy woody hops. Huge bite in this brew.

For hop forward ales this guy is the beast. Pick up a Hairy Box Sampler for your hairy-faced feller for Father’s day and he’ll go Ah-Ooooh!

Denis ♬who loves brew the most♬ Cooper

Green Beer

Just as fresh herbs taste somewhat different to dried herbs, same goes with the hop cone. Because of the volatile nature of hops they are quickly dried straight after picking in an attempt to preserve all the aroma, flavour and bitterness that we have come to know and love, crave and cherish and adore…err, you get the picture.

Moving on, so the thing is, what does beer taste like with fresh hops, or otherwise known as wet hops, green hops or harvest beers, and sometimes seasonal beers?

Short answer, green. Long answer, earthy, woody, grassy green. Here’s a list of local fresh hop brews in my order of pungent hop power.

10/ Funk Estate ‘Oh Lordy’ 5% NZ Pale Ale; lord almighty green and mango hoppyness. 

9/ Renaissance ‘Grandmaster’ Fresh hop imperial India Pale Ale 8.5%; a barley wine cum double IPA, exudes earthy lime hops.

8/ The Mussel Inn ‘Lawn Moa’ Fresh hop lager 5%; a salubrious taste of freshly mown lawn clippings.

7/ Parrotdog ‘Kakapo’ Wet Hopped IPA 6.5%; a big fat green hoppy parrot.

6/ Panhead ‘The Vandal’ Fresh Hop 8%; get smashed on this fresh green hop customisation.

5/ Sprig & Fern ‘Harvest Pilsner’ Fresh hopped 5%; a ferntastic sessionable with green sprigs of passionfruit.

4/ Townshend ‘Oldhams Tap Pilsner’ 5.3%; grassy, grapey, and piney from a Tappy hop garden.

3/ Garage Project ‘Sea of Green’ Pilsner 5.8%; bitterly green lime hops that you get drowned in.

2/ Tuatara ‘Conehead’ Air-hopped IPA 6%; astonishing piney green passionfruit hops, finishing with a lagerish bite. 

1/ Enlightenment ‘Fresh Hopped Black the Ripa’ 6.66%; a hop mosaic, green, black and pale, all at the same time. A proper black IPA with heaps of malt and reeks of hops.

Fresh hop from FreshChoice. These will go faster than a kiwi saver kick start fund. Get em while they're hop.

Bellynote: ParrotDog have just been announced ‘champion small international brewery’ at the Australian Beer Awards. Kiwi beating Aussie in their backyard yet again!!!

Denis reviewing brewing Cooper