March 5th, 2015

It's Peanut Butter Jelly Time

Choice Bros is the brainchild of Kerry Gray - bearded rainbow overalls wearer, brewer and all round great guy.

A few weeks back we hosted his very traditional English pale ale 'Modern Love' on tap for a new release Tuesday.

This Tuesday will feature another of his beers, but the polar opposite of Modern Love.

On The Brain is a Peanut Butter and Raspberry English Ale. Yep, peanut butter and jam beer.

I was fortunate enough to try the other keg of this beer that Kerry made for Martinborough BrewDay, and I can confirm that it indeed does taste like peanut butter and jam on toast!

It manages to not be too cloying (ala Rogue Voodoo Doughnut beers), while still showing lots of interesting peanut and raspberry character.

How does one infuse beer with peanut flavour without ruining it with oils you ask?

Luckily Kerry has the sharing spirit of a homebrewer, and let me know that such a thing as 'peanut flour' exists. It is a by-product of peanut oil production, leftover after all of the oil has been extracted meaning you can add peanut solids to a beer without any oil! So Kerry tracked down this (very expensive) ingredient and added it to On The Brain to impart it's distinct nuttyness (yes I'm aware peanuts are legumes, jeez).

We managed to snag the only other remaining keg of On The Brain after the first was quickly conumed by BrewDay punters.

I'm guessing this keg will be just as popular, so make sure you're at the bar 5pm sharp this Tuesday to experience one of the most interesting local beers of the year.

Warkworth's New Claim to Fame

Over the past six months or so, 8 Wired have been slowly making the move from contract brewing at Renaissance in Blenheim to brewing on their own equipment in Warkworth.

This wasn't an easy task, with hundreds of barrels filled with wonderful sour and strong beers in storage needing to be transported northwards.
Thankfully the precious cargo made it in tact.

8 Wired's new brewing equipment started arriving in mid-december, and was ready to brew Warkworth's first large scale beer by late January.
'Begin as you mean to go on' is the saying, so in that spirit the first beer brewed on 8 Wired's shiny new kit was First Blood, an 8% Double Red IPA.

Rather than doing a release event at one location, Soren thought it would be best to share their first beer with everyone who made it possible by supporting 8 Wired over the years.

So on Tuesday along with On The Brain we'll be tapping our first keg of Warkworth-brewed 8 Wired in celebration of their milestone. Come get some!

Surf Funk Saturday

This Saturday's live music act comes courtesy of The Vincent Vega Trio.

They're bringing a hot blend of surf, funk, soul and blues with Chris Armour on guitar, Andy Russell with the drums and Nick Lissette on Bass.

They'll be kicking off at 9.30pm& and won't cost you a thing.

Bombs and Grenades

Bommen & Granaten is De Molen’s beery take on a dessert wine. It’s fitting then that this version has been aged in old wine barrels from the Bordeaux region.
However, at 15.2% ABV this beer is stronger than most dessert wines!

The brewery says:

“With 15% ABV is was more than obvious that we had to name this dessert beer Bombs and Grenades. The use of champagne yeast has had its effect on both flavour and body. There’s plenty of fruit like orange, tangerine and sweet apples. It’s powerful and full bodied but still easy going."

This Saturday only, instead of having to buy a whole bottle of this sweet as beer, you can grab a 150ml pour for $7.50 instead.

Introducing Wild & Woolly

Llew Bardecki has been a good friend of mine for years now. We met through homebrewing circles, and were quickly swapping brews and advice. I was always impressed with Llews innovative approach to brewing.

I'll always remember his homebrewed 'Zombie Apocalypse Beer' - a beer made only with ingredients you'd be able to loot from a supermarket in a zombie apocalypse. The best thing about it was that it tasted kinda like beer, but that's still impressive given the restrictions. I know where I'll be heading when the zombies come.

Naturally I was super stoked when I heard Llew was looking to open a wee commercial brewery to make his beers on a larger scale.

After months of searching, a suitable property for his 500L brewery was found in Mount Cook (in King St, behind pizza hutt). Llew's commercial venture was christened Wild and Woolly, (due to his love of llamas), and Annika of Tiamana Brewing joined him to make a the part-time operation more viable.

The wee 500L kit was assembled using much of Llews knowledge as an electrical engineer, and a lot of help from Annika and thier friends.

We're proud to be the venue to officially launch Wild and Woolly into the wild, with four of Llew's adventurous brews on tap Thursday next week (12 March).

On tap will be:

Pygmy Fruit Bat:

"Pygmy Fruit Bat table saison. At 3.6%abv it's a refreshing summer day drop. The rocotto peppers leap out at you on the nose, followed by a dry mouthfeel with a touch of mango and finishing with some chilli heat."

Complete Cock-Up

"Complete Cock Up pale ale is a collaboration brew with our friends at Wellington homebrew shop Brewtopia. This beer was the result of a terribly difficult brewday, but it's turned out fabulously. It's a 5% pale ale generously hopped with NZ Pacifica and Wai-Iti hops, then fermented with a blend of two Belgian ale yeasts, an American ale yeast, and even a bit of Brettanomyces for good measure. Lovely stuff!"

Basilisk Berliner Weisse

"Wonderfully refreshing Basilisk Spiced Berliner Weisse, with kaffir lime leaf, lemon zest and Thai basil"

Basilisk was the first beer brewed on the new 500L kit.

The fourth beer is still a secret, but I'm told it may contain gummy bears...

To celebrate the brewery opening us an Llew will be getting generous with the samples. So you'll definitely want to be here for the ceremonial first pour at 5pm Thursday March 12.

Meet the Wild & Woolly Man

Two days after the Wild & Woolly brewery launch, we'll be hosting a Craft Beer College tasting featuring Llew himself (and his beers). Llew will be chatting about his beers, the difficulties of opening a new brewery and of course, malt.

The Miracle of Malt with Wild and Woolly Brewing is "a celebration of the miracle of malt and the contribution it makes to the flavour and colour of beer. You will taste seven beers that will all showcase the importance of malt in the brewing process and highlight the impact on ABV."

Book your spot at the above link or by emailing info@craftbeercollege.co.nz