June 26th, 2014

Ramen Returns

Ramen Shop pop ups have been absent from Hashigo Zake for a couple of months now, as the guys were set up a physical Ramen Shop in Newtown. I'm sure you've all been in to the new shop to get your ramen fix, but this Friday the noodles are coming to you!
That's right, the Ramen Shop guys now have enough staff to keep the shop running while also popping up around town!
So from 5pm tomorrow night you can order yourself a delicious bowl with your pint - what better way to round off the working week?

LTM

Our free live gig this Saturday comes from the Louis Thompson-Munn Trio.
LTM will be playing a mix of originals and groove staples drawing from funk, soul, jazz, hip-hop and R&B from 10pm Saturday.
As usual we're covering the band's fee so you can enjoy them for free.

F#@k Yeah!

As announced last week, next Friday is our over the tap takeover of American beers celebrating American Independence day. 
We won't be doing anything by halves this year, expect an overload of red, white & blue with delicious American fare provided by The Fire Truck.
Thanks to our buddies over at Beer Without Borders we've managed to create a nicely varied tap lineup, which will initially look something like this:

- Ballast Point Grunion Pale Ale
- Ballast Point Big Eye IPA
- Speakeasy Big Daddy IPA
- Almanac Bourbon Sour Porter
- Almanac Golden Gate Gose

- Coronado Orange Ave Wit
- Rogue Chocolate Stout
- Ballast Point Pescadero Pils
- Ballast Point Sextant Stout (Handpump)

If you're thirsty enough, we'll be able to rotate some of these on tap:
- Left Coast Tommy
- Rogue 7 Hop IPA
- Ballast Point Sculpin IPA
- Ballast Point Indra Kunindra
- Rogue Farms Pumpkin Patch Ale
- Ballast Point Wahoo Wheat
- Ballast Point Longfin Lager.

Don't miss this once a year showcase of some of 'Muricas best beers, on Friday July 4th.

Sock Hop

A new shipment from California has just arrived at Beer Without Borders - conveniently timed for the above US tap takeover. Another bonus being new seasonal beers from your favourite West Coast Breweries.

Keep an eye out for some new bottles over the next week, but on tap this Tuesday will be Coronado's (very) recently released Imperial IPA - Sock Knocker.

Sock Knocker Imperial IPA is part of the company’s Brewer’s Series - a seasonal series featuring small-batch brews. According the the brewery: "Amarillo, Centennial, Columbus and Simcoe hops unite to create an immensely floral, botanical nose and a veritable explosion of citrus and pine on the palate." 
Sounds pretty good eh? It weighs in at 8.5% ABV, the same strength as Coronado's year-round hop bomb Idiot IPA, but apparently this one contains significantly more hops than even Idiot IPA.... Scary.

Sock knocker will be on tap from 5pm next Tuesday!

June 19th, 2014

Post Fest

I'm guessing quite a few of you attended SOBA's annual Winter Ale festival on the weekend, I've been hearing heaps of positive things about it. We're now quite looking forward to running the Pacific Beer Expo in October. We've managed to secure a few leftovers from WAF, so look out in the coming week for:

• Kereru Weizenbock
• Behemoth Hazelnut Milk Stout
• Martinborough Imperial Stout
• A cask of Townshend Keystone Milk Stout
• Moa Cherry Sour

Speaking of Moa, they've been quite well behaved recently as far as offensive marketing is concerned- hence the upcoming tap spot. Moa may have learned their lesson, but it seems Williams Warn need a kick in the butt now.

Vincy Princy

This Saturday’s free gig in the lounge comes from the Vincent Vega Trio. Known for their 'hot blend' of surf, funk, soul and blues with Chris Armour (guitar), Andy Russell (drums), Nick Lissette (bass). Come on down and chill out with some good beer and good music. As usual, the guys kick off at 10pm this Saturday.

Honey

This Tuesday we’ll have Almanac’s Honey Saison on tap for the first time - all the way from San Francisco. Brewed with Bay Area honey from Marshall Farms, wheat, California two-row barley, French oak and fresh, local ginger root for a hint of spice. Balanced with earthy Mount Hood and Saaz hops. Honey beers often get lumped into the sweet, sugary category of beer - but most of the time the opposite is true. Honey sugars are highly fermentable, so almost 100% is consumed by the yeast which actually drys out the beer. The flavour components of the honey tend to remain which give the beer its character. Almanac's Honey Saison shows this well, with a great balance between saison yeast flavours, hops and honey. Half of the Beer Diary Podcast agrees. Catch Almanac Honey Saison on tap Tuesday from 5pm.

'Murica Day

We had a wee dress rehearsal of July 4th last Friday with the launch of 'Murica Pale Ale. You may have noticed the large amount of stars and stripes adorning the bars walls and ceiling.

Because bigger is better, you can expect four times as much on Independance day, but the main show will be the eight American brewed beers on tap as well as one on handpump.

We're confirming the line-up with Beer Without Borders currently, a well timed shipment of kegs from Speakeasy should be arriving a few days before so you can at least expect some super fresh Big Daddy!

We've also booked in the Fire Truck food truck to provide american style fare on the night.

Full details of our annual celebration of everything 'murican will be revealed in next weeks newsletter.

June 12th, 2014

'Murica!

Behemoth’s next 'bigger tasting beer' - 'Murica APA' has its Wellington launch at Hashigo Zake tomorrow.

Behemoth brewer Andrew Childs is a well known hophead, so it follows that 'Murica is a big hoppy number. He says ‘Murica APA is: “bittered with Columbus, then late in the kettle there is Centennial, Columbus and Simcoe. Then its dry hopped with a redonk load of Simcoe and Amarillo hops... love me some hops yeeeeehaw! (fires guns into air)”

'Murica weighs in at 6% ABV and apparently has a bitterness almost akin to an IPA.

To supplement the launch of 'Murica, the Fire Truck food truck. On the menu tomorrow is:

- Goat with Jerusalem artichokes Brussel sprouts and baked miso

- Brisket with goats cheese and wasabi dumpling

- Mushroom, aubergine and kale with seeds and grains

Mmmmm... The festivities kick off from 5pm tomorrow, so pop down after work and join us.

Black Spider Stomp

Following a successful Jazz festival last week, this Saturday the guys from Black Spider Stomp are back in the lounge playing a swinging gypsy mix of original compositions and Django Reinhardt classics.

As usual, the fun kicks off at 10pm and will cost you nothing to listen in to.

Mata Mocha

Next week Mata brewing from Kawerau feature in our New Release Tuesday for the first time.

Mata have been going from strength to strength recently, releasing brilliant new beers like Tumeke IPA and one of the best session beers I've had, Ka Pai Autumn.

Usually they'll jump right in to these new brews with a full sized batch, but their latest idea was something they'd never tried before, so they opted to brew small 50L test batches first.

Two batches of Mocha Trial were brewed, experimenting with different levels of vanilla, coffee blend from café bean in Whakatane and cacao from Wellington chocolate factory.

The first trial of this beer goes on tap this Saturday at SOBA's Winter Ale Festival (tickets here!), and the second debuts at the bar on Tuesday!

Mata Mocha Trial #2 will be on tap from 5pm Tuesday, the brewery is keen for some feedback so let us know what you think and we'll let them know.

June 5th, 2014

All That Jazz

Wellington's annual jazz festival kicks off tonight, and once again we're getting amongst it. This weekend sees a bumper lineup of music with gigs tonight, Friday night and Saturday night.
Tonight, Rhino Boogie play their unique funk/hip-hop fusion.

Tomorrow night, we have guitar maestros Leigh Jackson & Nick Granville performing Gypsy Jazz/Bebop Fusion with Umar Zakaria on bass.

Saturday night sees The Carlos Navae Quartet return with Afro-Cuban Jazz, Soul, Funk and Caribbean beats.
All of these performances start at 10pm and are free as usual, so why not pop down for some great beer & music this weekend.

Tribute to a Rogue

Some sad news arrived last week, when we learned Rogue Brewery co-founder passed away at the age of 71.

Rogue beers have been key to Hashigo Zake's success, without Jack creating Rogue back in 1988 we wouldn't be the same.
Tomorrow we're putting a couple of Rogue beers on tap (Mocha Porter & Yellow Snow IPA), to drink to Jack and all he contributed to the world wide beer industry. Come and join us in a toast.

Just Another Pale Ale?

Almanac’s Extra Pale Ale recently arrived from San Francisco.

It isn’t your standard ‘hoppy pale ale’, this one is brewed with heaps of sweet Mandarin oranges from a local San Francisco farm, then dry-hopped with generous doses of aromatic Cascade, Columbus, Centennial, Simcoe and Galaxy hops.
Almanac love barrel aging, so this beer is finished with lightly toasted American oak.

Extra Pale Ale will be on tap from 5pm Tuesday!

SOBA

We love what the Society Of Beer Advocates stands for, and have supported them for almost five years with a discount for members "a pint for the price of a 330ml, Sun-Weds".
Initially that meant a $2 discount, but as beer costs inevitably increased the difference in price between a half and pint increased, along with the SOBA discount. It has reached a point where SOBA discount on some beers is no longer cost effective.
This method of applying a discount also makes things unclear when it comes to discounting beers we only serve in 330ml glasses.
Don't worry, we're not abolishing the SOBA discount, just changing it. To deal with these issues, we are changing our discount to an easy 15% off tap beers, Sun-Weds. We hope this continues to encourage you lovely SOBA members to frequent our humble establishment.

Two Decades of Beer

Hashigo Zake regulars Ted and Frances have been involved in the local and national beer scenes for decades. Chances are you've seen them at the bar or around Wellington at some stage. But Ted & Frances haven't just been enjoying beer over this time, they've also been cataloging notes and opinions.
Friend of T & F's Dale Cooper has now made it possible for two decades of beer notes to be made available to all.

Check out the huge record here. There's a massive record of NZ beers, with details on many beers and breweries which I never knew existed, and lots from Ted & Frances' overseas adventures.