March 13th, 2014

Geek Out!

Kereru's For Great Justice coconut porter has made a name for itself, being a hugely rich and moreish beer at only 4.5%. But have you ever wondered what flavours come from the underlying brown porter and which come from the big sack of toasted coconut? Brewer Chris Mills has, and so have we.

To this end, Kereru has kindly made available to us a rare keg of un-coconutted FGJ base beer, aptly named For Science! This Tuesday from 5pm, Chris will be at the bar for a very beer-geeky event. You'll be able to have a 300ml serve of both beers side-by-side, for a special price. I predict some blending.

Needs less Hops

Speaking of Kereru, Chris the brewer will be at the Craft Beer College's "Miracle of Malt" tasting this Saturday.

The tasting will feature the more malt focused beers of the Kereru range and a few from other breweries.

Chris will be answering all your pertinent barley related questions and explaining what goes in to making such balanced beers.

There's less than 5 spots left in this tasting, so if you'd like to bulk up your knowledge of malt, email info@craftbeercollege.co.nz to book your place.

JB3 Trio

This Saturday night JB3 are bringing the Boogaloo and New Orleans Funk with Reuben Bradley - drums, Callum Allardice - guitar, Jake Baxendale - sax. As usual, this is a free gig for your listening pleasure while you enjoy a Saturday night beer or two.

Geek Out Some More

A rare opportunity for some extra special beer-geekery has presented itself, and we simply couldn't pass it up.

The Four Horsemen of the Hopocalypse is a Triple IPA. A collaboration between four of the best brewers NZ has to offer: Luke Nicholas (Epic), Steve Ploughman (Hallertau), Joe Wood (Liberty) and Kelly Ryan (Good George). They get together once a year to brew the, strongest, most bitter, hoppiest beer possible with the equipment at their disposal.

Hops are added to this beer at almost every single point of the brewing process, maxing out bitterness and hop aroma (they reckon it's about 160IBU). To balance the extreme hopping a huge amount of malt is used, pushing the ABV up to 12%.

This years 4 Horsemen IIIPA has just been released, and we've scored a rare keg fresh from Hallertau. Fortuitiously we've been aging a wee keg of last year's 4 Horsemen at our coolstore, so why not see how age affects such an insane beer by having them both on side by side?!

While we're at it, why not compare how big malty beer ages as well? So along side the Hopocalypse will be fresh and aged kegs of Ballast Point Victory at Sea Imperial Porter on side-by-side!

The date for this geekery is Thursday 20th of March, one week from now. With both beers being rather strong, we'll be offering a smaller serve of each to compare side by side for a special price.

Now and Coming Soon

Slightly by accident, we've currently got Liberty C!tra IIPA (9%, 99IBU) and C!tra Junior Mini IPA (4.5%, 45IBU) on tap - you guessed it - side by side.

Because I haven't mentioned IPA's enough in this email, I'd better let you know we've also got a keg of Epic Hop Zombie lined up to come on this week, so keep an eye out for that.

For those who are sick and tired of big hoppy pale ales, the trusty Renaissance Stonecutter Scotch Ale is on now, Green Flash Double Stout is coming on tap shortly, and we'll have Funk Estate Berliner Weisse sour wheat beer on tonight sometime.