Too Crafty or Not Crafty Enough
Hashigo Zake endorses and congratulates Newmarket Liquorland on their tweet that shook the world. Their simple assertion that the insult to many brewers contained in the packaging of Crafty Beggars beer was reason not to stock the product is a great example of the market holding the industrial breweries to account for their marketing practices.
By the way, there is a misconception out there that Liquorland is owned by DB. It was actually sold to Foodstuffs some time ago and the individual stores are (we understand) now owner-operated. Which helps explain how several of them, including Newmarket Liquorland, came to be customers of the wholesale arm of Hashigo Zake.
Funking Out
A few weeks ago Funk Estate's (and our own) Shiggy made a lightning trip to the Twisted Hop brewery in Christchurch to collaborate on a strong dark rye saison. Yes, once again Funk Estate are making a black version of a normally pale beer. The result - Funkn'Twisted is getting a release at a Belgian festival in Christchurch on Saturday. We'll follow up with a release here on Tuesday. Funkn'Twisted is described as being bitter, fruity, slightly tart and funky with caramel, chocolate and raisin flavour.
We're also expecting to have some of a second (parti-gyle) beer, called Twisted Funk, made by performing a second mash with the same malts used in Funkn'Twisted. This lower gravity beer has been hopped with Sorachi Ace, so maybe we can expect some lemon curd with the caramel and chocolate malts.
There's talk of getting both beers on both handpump and tap simultaneously, although this will depend on the cooperation of the logistics industry. Whatever turns up on Tuesday will be fresh, slightly unpredictable and on tap from 5pm.
Geeking Out
We've had our share of publicity lately, but being mentioned on the Dominion Post's technology page might just be a new pinnacle. (Down the bottom, not related to the "Budget desktop system for under $700" headline.)
But really the credit belongs to Open Source and Android evangelist, Robin Sheat. Robin's app is here.
Coincidentally, as Robin's work was being recognised, another regular customer, Jay Neilson, was working on an application to do a similar job for Windows 8 phones. That is now available here.
We're flattered and grateful that some of our favourite customers have gone to this much trouble to make it easy for us all to know what's on tap.
Easy for Android and Windows users, that is.
While we're getting technical, here's an article on Wired magazine's site giving us a scientific justification (if one was necessary) for disliking green bottle beer.
Rocking Out
The Nick Granville Trio return this Saturday for more funk and R&B. As usual, it's a 10pm start and a non-existent cover charge.
Look Out For
As always, there's no shortage of goodies on the horizon. For example:
- From Christchurch's Resolution comes an Octoberfest beer called Biergarten.
- From Auckland's Schipper's Beer comes another lager style with Germanic origins - Herr X, a Vienna Lager.
- We've stocked up on beers from Renaissance and Hallertau, which means plenty of beers like Elemental Porter, MPA, Statesman and Maximus IPA.
- Our last keg (for now) of Oggy's Torrey Pines IPA.
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