January 30th, 2014

So Music, Much Listen

It’s a bumper music weekend at Hashigo Zake. Tomorrow night the Nick Granville Group is launching their new album ‘Refractions’ on Rattle Records. Refractions is the first outing on Rattle Jazz for Nick Granville, who will be playing selections from the new album from 9.30pm till late.

On Saturday night, we have the final HZ performance of the always energetic Adam Page and the Counts - they're sure to go out with a bang. The Counts have never failed to wow an audience and get them up off their seats. The show starts at 10pm Saturday night, and as always, won’t cost you a dime.

Let’s try that again

Damn it! Bloody Auckland Anniversary Day. If you came in on Tuesday to try our advertised new release Bellerose Blonde, you would have been disappointed. We expected the new european shipment containing the kegs of Bellerose to be sent Monday to arrive in time for Tuesday, little did we know Monday was Auckland anniversary day! So the beer handily arrived on Wednesday… Luckily we had a backup from our new California shipment; Ballast Point Pescadero Pils - which was so damn good it all went Tuesday.

Now that we’ve actually got the beer on hand, I can guarantee that this Tuesday from 5pm we’ll have Bellerose Blonde (French IPA/Biere de Garde hybrid, by the brewery founded by Gerard Depardieu) on tap.

Spontangoodness

As I write this our crack team of sticker-putter-onners are labelling the many thousands of bottles in our new euro shipment to bring them in line with NZ law.

The focus for this shipment was big, experimental and interesting beers. Geek beers, if you will. There are so many exciting crazy beers that we won’t initially be able to fit them all in the fridge! But I’ve selected a few of the most exciting to bring in today/tomorrow.

Mikkeller’s ‘Spontan’ Series brings a traditional Belgian sour Geuze style beer together with various fruits to see how they pair with the earthy, sour base beer.



We’ve received eight new spontanbeers bringing our total to twelve(!). Beers such as spontanriesling, spontangooseberry, spontanpeach, spontanrosehip, spontansauternes, spontan…. you get the picture. Look for them lined up at the top of the naughty fridge.

Also arriving are 330ml bottles of the acclaimed Mikkeller Beer Geek Brunch Weasel, the first imperial stout to be brewed with Kopi Luwak ‘poo coffee’. The smaller size means you can experience this beer for a lot less moolah than the 500ml bottles cost in the past.

Finally, we’re receiving 1.5L magnums of Mikkeller Festival Special Edition 2013 - Stella 4. Only 558 bottles of this imperial stout will ever be produced. So If you’re looking to show off, this is the perfect beer to share - but it’ll cost you!

BagelBowl

This Monday is biggest sporting event of the year, Super Bowl Sunday. This year’s game between the Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos is being played in New York (in an outdoor stadium in the middle of winter).

If you actually understand this game and want to watch it, we’ll be opening at 11.30am on Monday so you can get a seat. As is becoming a tradition for the Super Bowl, we’ll be serving our famous 24 hour slow cooked chilli and in the spirit of the host city, bagels with cream cheese.

Seeing as we don’t have any beer from Seattle or Denver, we’ll be offering bottles of New York’s Southern Tier IPA at a special Super Bowl price.

Zombie Apocalypse Bunker Hours

Due to X-Ale and the costumed zombie apocalypse, Hashigo Zake’s opening hours will be altered next weekend.

On Friday the 7th we’ll be opening our doors at 3pm, and closing at 8pm with security on the door the whole time to keep out the hoard.

Saturday the 8th is X-Ale, which is sold out! Only X-Ale ticket holders will be permitted on Saturday, from 1pm to 6pm. If you’ve bought a ticket, your name will be on the door.

Sayonara Sam and Shig

Sadly, tomorrow is Sam & Shiggy’s last shift, they’ll be knocking off for the last time around 5pm. After that you can buy them a beer and quiz them about/wish them well on their future endeavours.

January 23, 2014

Staff Graduation

Some may have heard already, but next week Hashigo Zake says farewell to two of its longest serving staff members, Shiggy and Sam.

Shig has been with us since before day one, helping strip the branding of the previous bar (and his previous employer) and give Hashigo the character it has today.

When Shiggy joined us he had a passion for cocktails and flare bartending, we quickly saw that replaced with a passion for good beer. This combined with his slick business sense saw him help found Funk Estate brewing co, and now he is graduating from Hashigo to become part-owner of the new San Fran on Cuba St.

Sam joined us soon after our opening, shifting careers from chef to bartender. His passion for flavours and experience with US beer made him a great fit for the bar, and a great homebrewer.

Sam still occasionally flexed his culinary muscle, hosting many a legendary beer & food matching. We watched Sam’s knowledge of beer and love of homebrewing grow over his years with us, and we’re proud to see him become the new assistant brewer at Panhead Brewery.

While we’re sad to see them go, it’s a huge opportunity for both and we’re proud to have had them for as long as we have.

If you’d like to farewell them yourself, Sam and Shig’s last shift ends at 5pm on Friday the 31st of Jan, after which they’ll be on the opposite side of the bar than usual (so you can buy them a beer).

We’ve got the next batch of beer geeks lined up to fill their spaces and begin their first semester at HZ, so don’t expect any decrease in service or knowledge behind the bar!

Première Bière Française

Beer Without Borders’ first euro shipment should be arriving in Wellington any day now, and I’m excited. Not only does this shipment contain new weird and wonderful offerings from well known brewers like Mikkeller & De Molen, but also a brand new brewery from the land of baguettes and bleu cheese - France.

Brasserie des Sources is a small brewery in the Saint-Amand-les-Eaux region of Northern France. It was founded in 1997 by a few chaps, including one you may have heard of - Gerard Depardieu. We’ll have their flagship beer Bellerose Blonde on tap from 5pm Tuesday, described as a ‘mix between French "bière de Garde" and IPA with distinctive aromas of citrus and lychee with a hoppy but refreshing aftertaste’.

Back to School

Craft Beer College is back at HZ for 2014, starting with their Beer 101 tasting on Saturday February 15th.

Beer 101 is a basic guide to craft beer, tasting seven different craft beers from New Zealand and around the world. They’ve even coaxed Mike Nielson of Panhead Brewery to join them and explain more about his offerings and share some of his experiences opening a new brewery.

Those wishing to book one of the last few spots at this tasting should email Steph at info@craftbeercollege.co.nz to secure your spot. Tickets are $38.

Bar Noods

Tomorrow night we’ll be putting our regular food menu on hold, so the legendary Ramen Shop can take over our cupboard of a kitchen. From 5pm till about 8.30pm you'll be able to enjoy handcrafted noodles with your handcrafted beer.

Hi Carb Boil Up

This Saturday 25th January, Hi Carb Boil up play HZ for the first time! Ben Would, Rio Hemopo and Justin Firefly Clarke will fill the lounge with Neo soul, jazz, roots, afrobeat and funk goodness. Starting at 10pm, free as always!

Next week will see a bumper music weekend, as Nick Granville launches his new album ‘Refractions’ with a gig on Friday night and Adam Page and The Counts playing their last ever HZ gig on Saturday night!

X-tremely rare Tickets

What the hell? There are still X-Ale tickets left? Oh, only eight of them.

Surely there are eight readers out there that want to experience some of the most intense, crazy beer their lives on the 8th of Feb.

If you’re a bit slow and require more convincing, here are some more tidbits:

- La Boca Loca will be catering, with delicious mexican food options.

- 8 Wired are bringing two beers to x-ale, both fermented with the wild yeast Bretannomyces

- Kereru is working on a salty Gose style beer, which may include some seaweed…

- Garage Project is giving us a sneak preview of one of their (very strong) yet to be released barrel aged beers

- There may or may not be a secret surprise beer from an up and coming Wellington nano-brewery…

So come on you eight, get a move on and buy your tickets here.

January 16, 2014

Immediately below...

• The Big Announcement
• Capital Takeover
• Needs More Brewery Launch
• Saturday Funk
• Get your X-ale tickets soon!

The Big Announcement

Thank you to all who participated in our annual survey, this year’s turnout was the largest yet!

The major winners are… Drumroll please…

Favourite Overseas Brewery: Rogue

Runner up: Ballast Point

Your Beer of 2013: Liberty C!tra

Runner up: Funk Estate Super Afrodisiac & Panhead XPA

New Zealand Brewery of 2013: Liberty & Garage Project

Runner up: Panhead

Most Promising New or Emerging Brewer: Panhead

Runner up: Baylands

There’s too many results to go over in a single email so please head here for the full results and dissection. As Stephen Fry would say, we think they’re quite interesting.

Congratulations to all winners, but especially to Liberty Brewing who came out 1st equal for brewery of 2013 and whose C!tra IIPA took out Beer of 2013 and best IIPA for the third year running! You guys sure love your C!tra...

There is no trophy for these results, except the love and respect of all who took part. Nawww.

Capital Takeover

As mentioned last week, we’re dedicating our taps to beer brewed in Wellington over the upcoming Wellington Anniversary long weekend.

From tomorrow until Monday, our taps will only pour beer brewed in Wellington including a few new and exciting examples such as Garage Project VPA (relaunching for 2014), ParrotDog ClippedWing Session Ale, Kereru Maidstone Vienna Lager and a new Pilsner from Baylands Brewery “Party Pils”.

There’ll also be plenty of Wellington classics from breweries such as Panhead, Remedy, Fork & Brewer and North End.

Needs More Brewery Launch

Our wholesale arm, Beer Without Borders have been very busy sourcing excellent new breweries to import.

We experienced Michigan’s Lakefront beer for the first time on Tuesday, and next Tuesday we can sample the offerings of Almanac Brewery from San Francisco.

Almanac’s offerings are a bit more out there, with Golden Gate Gose (a salty wheat beer), Single Source IPA (with hops sourced from a single hop garden) and Bourbon Sour Porter. These beers promise to be an exciting experience for even the most seasoned palate.

Saturday Funk

This Saturday from 10pm Nick Granville is back, delivering funky tunes with Lauren Ellis on Drums and Ali Isdale on Bass.

Unsurprisingly, entry to this funky gig is free. You should be spending your hard earned money on good beer anyway.

Get your X-ale tickets soon!

At the time of sending only one third of X-Ale tickets remain, almost guaranteeing a sell out. If you’re holding off buying your tickets for any reason, I recommend getting them asap, as it’s highly likely they’ll all be gone soon. Get them here!

If you need any more convincing, here are a couple more beers to look forward to:

- Mikkeller It’s Alive White Wine Barrel Aged with Mango

- Mikkeller/3 Floyds Boogoop

- Nøgne Ø Underlig Jul Spiced Ale

We’ve got a few locally brewed extreme ales lined up too, but still have to confirm they’ll be ready by X-Ale before we announce… Maybe next week...

Get X-cited for X-Ale

Immediately below...

• X-citing Announcements
• Barman Musicman
• (Din)Ramen
• Innovation from the HZ I.T. Department
• Make your vote count
• Welly Beers for Welly Weekend
• Lakefront Fronts Up
• New in the Fridge

X-citing Announcements

Last week we revealed our intention to remain closed to the public during the the costumed madness that occurs February 7th & 8th.

Instead, Hashigo Zake will be the venue for the most extreme beer festival held in New Zealand. Today we can reveal more details, and you might find yourself actually wanting to come to town on that infamous weekend.

The important details:

• 
  X-Ale 2014 will be held at Hashigo Zake, 25 Taranaki St.
  
• 
  It will be held on Saturday the 8th of February, 2014.
  
• 
  X-Ale 2014 will open at 1pm, and close at 6pm giving you 5 hours to work through the beers on offer.
  
• 
  
  Tickets will cost $50, and are available here.
  

Your ticket includes:

• 
  One 100ml sample of each of the 13 beers on offer (that's 1.3L of extreme beer!).
  
• 
  A printed Spiegelau souvenir glass.
  
• 
  One item of food. We're still finalising who will be doing the catering this year, but it looks like we'll partner with a well known Wellington restaurant.
  

Now that you’ve got the basics down, here’s just a few of the beers we’ll be serving at New Zealand’s extremest of beer festivals:

• 
  

  De Molen Rasputin Buffalo Trace Bourbon Barrel Aged (11.4%)

• 
  

  Schloss Eggenberg Samichlaus (14%)

• 
  

  Mikkeller Big Worster Barrel Aged Malaga (18.3%)

• 
  

  To Ol SnowBall Saison White Wine BA (8%)

• 
  

  Our very last keg of Southern Tier Creme Brulee (9.6%)

• 
  

  Plus much more to be announced!

Considering all of the above, the $50 price tag is EXTREME VALUE. There are only 90 tickets available, so get in quick. Buy them here!

Barman Musicman

Josh, our humblest of bartenders, hides an immense talent which is not apparent behind the bar.

This Saturday, Josh’s secret mastery of the saxophone will be laid out for all to witness when his band Oy Azoy plays the Hashigo lounge for the first time.

Oy Azoy is a seven piece Klesmer fusion band, Klesmer being a traditional style of Jewish music. Oy Azoy fuse this traditional sound with jazz, Surf-Rock, Ska and Funk. Seven band members means we’ll have to remove a bit more furniture than normal, and can guarantee a big noise, energetic atmosphere and good times. As usual, this entertainment comes free of charge and starts at 10pm this Saturday.

(Din)Ramen

Following on from the great success of our first Ramen Shop dinner residence a fortnight ago, tomorrow (Friday) we’ll have hand-made noodley goodness available from 5pm till about 8pm.

For something a bit different, I highly recommend the chilled kimchi ramen with pork belly & spring onion added. My mouth has never been so happy.

Innovation from the HZ I.T. Department

Our I.T. intern Ryan has been busy over the last week playing with a Raspberry Pi mini-computer to drive a new, larger menu.

The extra space afforded by the bigger screen meant he could fit a live bus feed. This very cool innovation pulls live bus times from Metlink’s website and displays them at the bottom of the menu, showing buses leaving from the nearby Courtenay Central, Body Shop and Burger Fuel bus stops.

It’s currently in beta while some bugs are figured out, but works most of the time. Check it out on your right as you enter the bar.

Make your vote count

Votes have been pouring in for our annual customer survey, thank you to all who have voted. If you’re yet to vote and have a few spare minutes please fill out the survey here.

Entries will be cut off on Wednesday for statistical analysis, and results will be announced in next week’s email.

Welly Beers for Welly Weekend

Last year we celebrated the growing Wellington brewing scene by serving only Wellington beers on tap for the entire Wellington anniversary weekend.

This year there’s even more to celebrate with fresh Wellington breweries popping up last year and more on the horizon.

So next weekend from the 17th till the 20th our taps will be dedicated to beers from the likes of Panhead, Baylands, Kereru, Fork & Brewer, ParrotDog, Northend & Garage Project.

We’ve got a few new and exciting beers lined up, so it’ll be well worth popping in during your long weekend.

Lakefront Fronts Up

Our new California shipment has been released by customs, so we’re looking forward to a bigger than normal New Release Tuesday next week.



We're releasing not just a single beer, but multiple beers from the newly imported Lakefront Brewery from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Come down from 5pm to be among the first in NZ to try Lakefront's IPA, Fixed Gear, Cafe Stout and Riverwest Stein.

New in the Fridge

Along with the new kegs came some new bottles, including a new Californian brewer: Iron Fist.

In the fridge right now is:

• 
  

  Iron Fist Imperial Rebellion (strong saison with Nelson Sauvin and kaffir lime leaf).

• 
  

  Iron Fist Velvet Glove (Imperial Stout).

• 
  

  Iron Fist Nelson the Impaler (5% pale ale with Nelson Sauvin hops).

• 
  

  Lakefront White (Belgian witbier).

• 
  

  Green Flash Green Bullet (10.1% triple IPA, made with NZ green bullet hops).

January 2nd, 2014

Immediately below...

• The Great HZ Survey of 2013
• X-treme Hints
• The Counts Return
• Hopefully New Release Tuesday

The Great HZ Survey of 2013

2013 was a big year for beer in Wellington, and all signs point to 2014 being even bigger. Thank you to all of our wonderful customers who spent time with us in our beer dungeon last year, we couldn't exist without you! With 2013 now at an end, it is now time to find out from the people whose opinions matter to us the most what the best of the year in beer was.

We’ve put together our annual survey, so we can find out what our customers favourites of the year have been. We’ve made a few suggestions to help jog your memory, but feel free to enter your own options. Fill out the survey here, after a couple of weeks we’ll announce the results and analysis.

X-treme Hints

The 7’s is one of Wellington’s most celebrated annual events, but for much of the hospitality industry it is the most dreaded weekend of the year.

Wellington becomes inundated with costumed revellers from throughout the country, out to party hard from morning to night.

In previous years we’ve opened, and found that our normal customer base tends to (justifiably) stay away from the zoo that descends upon the city. This coupled with the fact that our doorman has to turn away more people than allow through means it’s barely commercially viable for us to be open during the sevens.

The last straw came in 2013 (you don’t want to know what happened), and we announced we would not be open to the public for the 7’s this year.

But fear not! The more eagle-eyed of our Twitter followers may have notice a couple of un-subtle hints at what we’ll be doing instead during this ‘munter halloween’.

In 2012 we held a small extreme ale festival in a brewery-less ParrotDog Brewery.

I am pleased to announce that this year, X-Ale will be held at Hashigo Zake during 7’s weekend, on Saturday 8th Feb. Keep an eye out for next week’s e-mail, which will contain more info on tickets, times and beers!

The Counts Return

Adam Page and The Counts were our first ever live act, setting in motion what is now a stalwart tradition of live music Saturdays. Adam, Ricky and Ed have got back together to do another round of bar gigs, and this Saturday will grace our lounge with amazing improvised jazz, swing and seduction. This will be their second to last gig ever as Adam is heading back to Aussie later this year, so you’d better not miss it.

The following Saturday our own bartender Josh will performing in the lounge with his Klesmer band Oy Azoy. Such a multitalented bunch we’ve got behind the bar.

Hopefully New Release Tuesday

The latest shipment from California has arrived! Sadly, it is currently being held hostage by customs. With the current public holiday induced slowness, it is unclear how long it will be before the beer is released.

All going well, we’ll have it by Tuesday and can unleash Green Flash Symposium IPA. Originally brewed for the 2008 Craft Brewers Conference to show off San Diego’s brewing style, now re-brewed and released to the public. Symposium has hops added at every step during the brewing process, and ends up at a whopping 75IBU, and 7% ABV. Fingers crossed for a speedy customs inspection or we’ll have to delay a week.

December 19, 2013

The Warm Fuzzies

A big thank you to all who came along to support Kaibosh and Room at the Inn at last Fridays Kegs for Christmas charity event. After draining both kegs on the night, we raised just over $1500 for the charities. All of the staff had a great time, it’s a great feeling being able to use our passion for craft beer to help some worthy causes.

Darren Watson’s Final Gig

As previously reported, we’re sad to be losing one of our favourite Saturday musical acts. The legendary Darren Watson recently announced he is giving up late night gigs to focus on recording. Maybe he’s getting ‘too old for this shit’, but Darren still manages to exude energy and musical talent every time he takes the stage in our lounge.

Darren and his Underground Blues Band play their last gig at Hashigo Zake 10pm Saturday. The cost to participate in this historic event is $0.

Tauranaga in the Spotlight

As our little Mikes machine in the corner usually hosts wee cute 10L kegs of Mike’s beer, you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s tied to Mike’s Brewery. However, as we are stubbornly determined to remain a true free house, we’ve insisted that we rent it from Mikes to keep it a free tap. Even when Mike’s was the only brewery filling the proprietary german designed 10L kegs which fit the machine. Now Fitzpatrick’s brewing has joined Mikes in supporting the 10L keg format, and we can show the free-ness of the tap.

We have just received a sizeable lot of these 10L kegs filled with Fitzpatrick’s beer, including Pale Ale, ESB, American Brown Ale, Imperial Porter and Summer Ale. The latter Summer Ale is a brand new beer, and as such will be our New Release Tuesday beer on the 24th.

Totes Mcgotes, Malted Oats.

There were a few new names in our recent shipment of beer from Townshend, and in classic Townshend style some have a story. Taupo Point Pilsner is a pilsner made with a new, unnamed experimental hop from NZ Hops and is on tap right now. At first I thought the name of the new hop was ‘Taupo Point’. But after further investigation I discovered it is named thusly because Martin Townshend went on a yachting trip to Taupo Point while the beer was fermenting.
Another new name from the mind of Martin is Totes Mcgotes, a beer made using only malted oats in the grist. The name is a reference to the movie ‘I Love You Man’ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hojeYoMIv4&feature=youtu.be&t=9s), chosen simply because it rhymes with malted oats.

Ramen for Dinner

Who can really be bothered cooking after all that Christmas indulgence? Why not come down on the 27th and just have some delicious Ramen shop for dinner! We’ll be serving Ramen from 5pm the day after Boxing Day!

A Reminder

If you’re one of the five people who stick around in Wellington over the Christmas/new year period, remember that we’ll be opening as usual at midday every day except for Christmas day.

December 12, 2013

Summer Sommer

Friday the 13th will be a day for multitasking. At the same time as launching the 2013 batch of of Garage Project’s Summer Sommer, we’ll also be holding a charity event benefiting Kaibosh and Room at the Inn christmas dinner. You can support these causes by multitasking too! Simply come along tomorrow from 5pm and buy a Garage Project tap beer, which will also be a donation to the afore mentioned charities. Threatening to steal the show from Summer Sommer will be Lord Cockswain’s Courage Blended Porter. You may know this bourbon barrel aged imperial porter from its bottle release, but this is the first time it will be on tap. All proceeds from LCCBP will count towards the donations. Donating to charity by drinking beer? Everyone wins!

Christmas Opening Hours

No table of dates required here. We’ll be closed on Christmas day (as required by law), otherwise we’ll be opening every day at midday as per usual. Easy.

Black Spider Stomp

If you’re out and about on Saturday night, why not pop in and have a great beer with some great music. This week Black Spider Stomp bring to the lounge their swinging gypsy mix of original compositions and Django Reinhardt classics for a night of old-school traveller fun. Playing from 10pm Saturday, and as always, no charge.

Ramen Shop Friday

We’re opening early at 11.30am this Friday so you have more time to grab a bowl of delicious noodley goodness that is Ramen Shop.

New Release Hoffday

Baylands brewery’s love affair with rye malt and David Hasselhoff continues on Tuesday with the release of the first test batch of ‘Knight Ryder’. This seasonal misfit is a 6% chocolate rye stout, so should be perfect for summer drinking. Aidan just brewed a small batch on his 50L test kit, so only one keg of this beer exists. Come and give the brewer some feedback from 5pm this Tuesday.

New & Coming soon

New to the fridge are some exciting Belgian sours! Lindemans Cuvee Renee Geuze Grand Cru (dirty-in-a-good-way), Liefmans Cuvee Brut Kriek (sour cherry) and Liefmans Goudenband (subtly sour brown). New in the bottle from the states is Green Flash Saison Diego featuring orange, ginger and grains of paradise (whatever those are). Also Speakeasy Butchertown Black Ale, a masterfully balanced black IPA.

On tap now is Twisted Hop’s new IIPA ‘Double Hopback’ and newcomer Stewart Brewing’s ‘Top of the Hops Pilsner’. Coming soon on tap is Behemoth’s newly released Chur! pale ale, and Golden Bear’s Ale/Lager blend ‘IPAL’.

December 5, 2013

Rogue Liberation... Beer Without Borders... Double Pumpkin... Saturday Soul... Summer Sommer 2013... Big Bad Christmas...

Rogue Liberation

As mentioned last week, we recently received our biggest shipment of Rogue beer yet. Thanks to the kind people who attended Santa Session, we now have plenty of space in our fridge for beers from this shipment. Look out for the striking yellow 750ml bottle of Rogue Honey Kolsch, and 355ml bottles of the bizarrely delicious Hazelnut Brown Ale.

Liberty is also helping fill all that fridge space, with two new 330ml bottles - the well known ‘Oh Brother’ Pale Ale and brand new ‘Halo’ Pilsner. These are both crafted at their new Auckland brewery, and are excellent value for money. Halo Pilsner uses the recipe Jo Wood and Martin Townshend thought up for their wet hopped pilsner ‘Oldham’s Tap’, using regular pellet hops instead of wet hops straight from the vine.

Beer Without Borders

Some big news was announced this week with the wholesale department of Hashigo Zake becoming its own company, Beer Without Borders. You may have seen an article in the paper or on Stuff detailing the new arrangement. This won’t change anything at Hashigo except for what’s written on the tiny ‘imported by’ stickers that we spend hours applying each shipment, and the red room should look less like an office during the day.

Double Pumpkin

Speaking of Beer Without Borders - their latest shipments from Baird and Rogue contained a new pumpkin ale in each - arriving just in time for the traditional pumpkin beer drinking season to be over.

A sensible bar would spread these out, but what the hell. New Release Tuesday this week, features Rogue Pumpkin Patch Ale and Baird Country Girl Kabocha Ale. Kabocha is technically a Japanese squash, described as ‘elegantly sweet’. Baird’s Country Gurl bucks the trend of adding spices to pumpkin ales, letting the flavour of the squash speak for itself. Rogue’s Pumpkin Patch is a classic American Pumpkin Ale, with all the spices you’d expect to see in a pumpkin pie (ginger, cloves, vanilla bean, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg). Interestingly, all of the gourds used in both of these beers were grown by the breweries themselves. Baird Country Girl Kabocha Ale and Rogue Pumpkin Patch Ale will be on tap this Tuesday from 5pm. Anyone providing the staff with pumpkin pie may have a glass of each on the house...

Saturday Soul

This Saturday’s live act sees songstress Kirsten Te Rito team up with James Illingworth to funk up the jazz and ground the soul. Live in the lounge from 10pm Saturday, tickets are available nowhere, because it’s a free gig as always!

Summer Sommer 2013

When we brought Nøgne ø brewer Kjetl Jikun to visit NZ in 2011, his first collaboration was carried out on Garage Project’s 50L plant, which was all they had back then. The resulting cøllab

was a strong golden rye ale with Pohutukawa honey called Summer Sømmer (video here). Last year it was scaled up from 50L to their full sized kit, and now the 2013 edition of Summer Sømmer is here.
We’re launching Summer Sømmer on the auspicious date of Friday the 13th December, from 5pm. All proceeds from Summer Sømmer will be donated to charity. The GP guys said they’d ‘see what’s knocking about’ as well, meaning some GP rarities will possibly be accompanying it on tap.

Big Bad Christmas

Time is running out to book your place in our final beer degustation of the year. Sam has been working with the chefs from Big Bad Wolf to create some amazing matches like Captain Cooker with Paua smoked bacon terrine & Nogne O Underlig Jul matched with Christmas Ham.

Tickets are $90, and are available from cultbeerstore.co.nz