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.