July 29, 2010

Immediately below...

Fresh South Island Beer

Another First

Wedding FSA

Met the Brewer

Free Crown Caps for Home Brewers

Mysterious Gatherings

Fresh South Island Beer

From famine to feast: just last night we were scratching our heads trying to find just the right beer to put on an empty tap. This afternoon no fewer than 16 kegs of beer from seven different South Island breweries turned up at our door. (And Shiggy had to single-handedly haul them away.)

As well as some reliable staples from Renaissance and Three Boys, there's no shortage of exciting rarities to get us all salivating. Please read on...

Golden Bear's Winter Ale, which we tried a few weeks ago, gets another turn. And we still have good stocks of Patriots Pale Ale too.

Dux de Lux's Nor'Wester is always hard to source, but we have snapped up one more keg.

Townshend Brewery have taken their Rosedale Bitter, which we've often had on our hand pumps, and produced a kegged version. At only 4% ABV it's refreshing to have a moderate strength session ale on a tap as well as a hand pump.

Renaissance's Craftsman is back, for all those who appreciate a well and truly chocolate infused dark ale.

We've nabbed some more 3 Boys Oyster Stout, since there wouldn't be much point ordering their summer release yet.

Last but not least, a certain Danish brewer living in Blenheim has put together a new batch of his most famous product. We've secured not one, but two kegs of this beer, apparently before it was due to be kegged. It's best not to divulge how we got them. We can't make promises about when the first of these stealth kegs will make it on, but it will probably be between 6pm and 10pm tomorrow (Friday the 30th).

Another First

A few days ago, and after much confusion over keg couplers, we became the first bar in New Zealand to offer Meantime IPA on tap. This is as hoppy as many a New Zealand or American IPA, but the hops are English Fuggles and Goldings, making it a refreshing change. And there can be nothing more fitting than having an IPA that's actually been shipped from England. (Unless we were actually in India.) It's a remarkable beer to have on tap, and only a handful of kegs are available from the importer, us.

Wedding FSA

In amongst the plethora of South Island beer mentioned earlier is another that's destined for one of our handpumps. It would be fitting if it goes on the handpump sold to us by Stu McKinley, because the beer is Wedding FSA. Apparently FSA stands for Fritha and Stu Ale (or something similar) and has been brewed in anticipation of the forthcoming nuptials of Wellington's very own Yeastie Boy.

Will it be bad luck to drink the wedding beer before the wedding? We've got a hand pump needing beer, so we aren't going to wait for an answer. Cheers Stu.

Met the Brewer

We have to pay tribute to Richard Emerson. He had a five day stint in Wellington last week, during which he was whisked from event to event by his minders at Regional Wines and Spirits, made to taste and talk about his product for hours on end and was required to remain upbeat the whole time. For the last leg of this ordeal he was delivered to our door, and, seemingly unaffected, mingled with his many admirers, played guess-the-whisky, consumed the countless beverages bought for him and generally showed why he remains New Zealand Craft Brewing's biggest personality. And the complimentary keg of Weizenbock didn't hurt either. All in all Saturday evening (normally a strange, strange time for our business) was a lot of fun to be part of.

We took advantage of Richard's good nature to secure as big a supply this year's JP as possible. Geoff Griggs' review of the beer is here.

We also have Bookbinder on tap right now, and Emerson's Pilsener back on soon.

Free Crown Caps for Home Brewers

We have a large, large box of crown caps with Beervana 2009 stamped on them. Free to good, brewing homes.

Mysterious Gatherings

We understand that among our patrons tomorrow evening will be a group of people who have one thing in common with each other - the medium by which they made their plan to meet. How weird is that?