Friday Five: The Best of the Great Kiwi Beer Festival

Here are some totally unstructured notes from the Great Kiwi Beer Festival which we attended on 25th February in Christchurch (to accompany the random photos on My Week in Pictures).

Out of a sense of beer-loyalty, our first beverage of the day is from the Yeastie Boys. We are rewarded with great flavours. I have a Hud-a-wa’ while Him Outdoors goes for a former favourite: Pot Kettle Black. Mine is malty, biscuity, nutty, fruity, with a hint of camembert – surprisingly refreshing for a strong beer (6.8%) and a great way to start the day!

Next we visit the Wigram Brewing Co where Him Outdoors has a Mustang Pale Ale, which he declares features subtle hops with herbaceous overtones. I have a Ginger Jerry, which is cold with a sharp bite; it pours a lovely pale yellow colour with lazy bubbles and with hints of honey and lemon you might expect from a wheat beer. It is, however, predominantly ginger in flavour (as the name would lead you to suspect) with a spicy finish, and turns out to be one of my favourite beers of the day.

At Mike’s Organic Brewery, Him Outdoors has another old favourite, Mike’s Ale. This is the beer previously known as Mike’s Mild (brewed in the English style) but it has recently undergone a name change as some punters think ‘mild’ means low alcohol and low flavour, which is certainly not the case. We chat to Mr Mike himself, who proudly explains that the family-owned brewery is the oldest one here, having been going for 23 years.

I sample a Strawberry Blonde, which tastes a bit like a spritzer – probably due to the carbonation levels. It’s very fruity and beery, tasting like a Pilsner with lots of strawberries thrown at it. It’s pretty and pink and most likely aimed at girls – although not in the throwing bottles of beer at people sense. I don’t think I’m ‘that sort of girl’.

Him Outdoors has an intermediate Mendip Bitter from Peak Brewery. He says it tastes great but the texture is not so flash – perhaps it didn’t travel well? At Brew Moon I have a Hophead Organic IPA which tastes quite full of tannins beneath the sharp hops. Him Outdoors asked for stout but gets Amberley Pale Ale instead. It’s smoother than the IPA and has a better mouthfeel.

We can’t pass the Twisted Hop hand-pull pump and are rewarded with a fantastic IPA – a refreshing, crisp, citrusy, strong ale, a perfect mixture of hoppy and nutty flavours and a great texture; ideal for drinking on a sunny summer day, and I love it! Him Outdoors has another intermediate – a Ballast Point Schooner Wet Hop Pale Ale, which smells and tastes like blood oranges.

The Townshend ESB is alright but not as special as I remembered, and no, I can’t pinpoint why. Usually this is excellent, so I shall just put this down as a bad pint and revisit another day. Him Outdoors plumps for a Bavarian wheat beer, which he merely describes as ‘very disappointing’ and then pops over for a chat with Dale Holland of Dale’s Brewery. Dale won the supreme award at New Zealand’s largest home brew competition in 2010. Since then he has been brewing small batches of his beers at the West Coast Brewery in Westport. Him Outdoors has one of his Belgian style beers made with Belgian yeast and Maris hops, which is (apparently) very smooth and pleasing.

At the Sprig and Fern, we both opt for the Scotch Ale which has a terrific distinctive flavour; lots of malt and chocolate flavours with a subtle hop. Honey-cured bacon and avocado butties from Black Betty’s perk us up and enable us to continue with the tastings. After 2pm it really fills up with massive queues for everything: food; beer; toilets...

Him Outdoors has the porter from Tuatara – this well-balanced porter is his favourite, although nothing beats drinking it from a hand-pull pump in The Malthouse in Wellington; now that really was special. I enjoy the Helles with its tasty bubble-gum characteristics. Wide Boy Steve tries Moa for the first time and loves it. I’m used to it (I drink it at Jack’s Point after every race I do out there) but he is suitably impressed.
 

I move on to The Big Smoke from 8 Wired – my notes say ‘lovely!’ underlined many times. It is a smoky, hoppy, dark porter and eminently drinkable. Another hit is the West Coast Brewery Draught, which is ‘nutty and nice’ (my tasting notes are getting increasingly banal) and tastes like beer should.

 

Some lads are refused beer – they have no glasses or wristbands, and the ambience is beginning to change. It is still a beautiful sunny afternoon, however, with innocuous background music from the not-hugely-dynamic bands. I confess I find the Black Seeds almost insufferably dull without sufficient levels of intoxication.

The Captain Cooker Manuka Beer from Mussel Inn is nicely beery and flavoursome, with a hint of sweetness. The young lad we have with us (the son of friends) pronounces the Ballast Point Coronado Idiot to be ‘unenjoyably alcoholic’ – an interesting comment from a drinker who chooses his beer for its abv. I have heard much about Ballast Point – an American brewery from San Diego – who are all for experimenting and crafting excellent ales in traditional styles. I tried their Blue Eye IPA which is both hoppy and yeasty and very appealing – I will look out for more of their brews in the future.

 

I finish up the day with a Yeastie Boys Pot Kettle Black – it is still the best in the business; so smooth and subtly blended. I really do love this stuff! And so, it makes it into my top five beers of the day which are, in no particular order:

5 Favourite Beers of the Festival

1. Pot Kettle Black - Yeastie Boys
2. Ginger Jerry - Wigram Brewing Co
3. IPA - Twisted Hop
4. The Big Smoke - 8 Wired
5. Draught - West Coast Brewery

Beervana 2009: Tasting Notes (Part Two)

I am able to try an IPA from Nøgne Ø, of which we have never heard before. I find it has notes of varnish and isn’t overly drinkable – I can just taste alcohol rather than beer. Him Outdoors claims it’s ‘flowery’ – maybe jonquils then, as their fragrance gives me a violent headache. He has got an Imperial Stout so we swap – this is very, very nice; black with dark brown froth.

The boys turn up with a none-too-fresh-looking chilli in a beer glass. It’s a gimmick lager which bites your tongue from Mussel Inn. Why would you do that to a beer? It’s just silly. To be fair, when the Weevil arrives (two hours late) and wants to catch up, she aims immediately for something she knows she likes, the Monkey Puzzle Extra Strong Ale from the same place, which she announces is ‘a good starter’.

There are talks throughout the evening on such topics as ‘beer and cheese matching’, ‘brewing organically’, ‘the right glass for your beer’ and ‘women and beer mythbusters’. An announcement over the public address system keeps reminding us that these talks are on, but although I would like to listen to Neil Miller and Martin Bosley talk about food and beer, I don’t feel that now is the right time to do so when I am too busy sampling the delights myself – I’ll get a curry later; that will do for food and beer matching tonight.

I am bought a random beer which turns out to be an IPA from the Twisted Hop. My notes at this point read ‘Lovely. I like it. More of this sort of thing’. I am finding it increasingly difficult to balance my pen, programme and camera, and also to write coherent notes evidently.

As Him Outdoors talks to strangers he finds a long-haired ale-lover from Stockport. He actually lives in Auckland and has come down this weekend especially for the beer festival. He is in raptures over the Great End ESB at the Peak Brewery. We try it and I can see why. It is cask conditioned and served via a hand-pull it tastes like something I would expect to find in Coniston. It claims to be ‘extra strong and extra bitter’; my notes read ‘very strong, very fruity and a little bit extra.’ The Weevil reckons it tastes like a Scottish Cal 80, Bellhaven; she’s all for her comparisons.

When we try the Old House ESB from the Townshend Brewery, she decides it is like a Tetley's Mild from Haddon Hall. Just in case I don’t realise how high praise this is, she adds, ‘This is the best beer I’ve had in New Zealand’. The brewing chaps are a little concerned when she asks for ‘more of your finest flattest beer please’ until she bats her big brown eyes and tells them she loves it. I’m impressed too (by the beer rather than the eyes – I’ve seen them all my life) and although it smells slightly of cabbage, it is flat and fulsome and English-tasting.

We head back up to the Arrow Brewing Company for Some Wee Heavy Scotch Ale which is pleasant and sweet and, well...heavy. The chaps provide tasting notes which claim it contains flavours of toffee and orange brandy’. At this stage I think we should probably take their word for it. The Weevil notes, ‘Another flat one – but more fruity Kiwi style’. Him Outdoors has finished noting things. In fact, I think he has misplaced his programme but he has appointed himself chief photographer, hence lots of blurred shots of drinkers’ feet.

We save the best until (nearly) last and savour a drop of Pot Kettle Black from Yeastie Boys. It is still the best beer in show, and they have pretty smart t-shirts too. It’s like a Terry’s Chocolate Orange with hops and alcohol: very tasty indeed!

The adjacent stall is the Green Man Brewery apparently trying to save the world one beer at a time. We join them by starting with an IPA, which is reminiscent of bananas and cloves in a totally nice and tasty, and finishing shortly afterwards with the Strong, which is strong and tasty. I must admit to trying this last time round and not remembering a whole lot afterwards. After a couple of sips of this blend of Dopplebock matured on whisky barrel wood and blended with Best Bitter, a similar thing seems to happen. Is this déjà bu?

So in summation, my top 5 in no particular order are:
Tobin’s Cask Ale – Arrow Brewing Company; Tricerahops Double IPA – Ninkasi; Old House ESB – Townshend Brewery; Great End ESB – Peak Brewery; Yeastie Boys – Pot Kettle Black