June 25, 2015

Immediately below...

• Hyper Afrodisiac
• 4/7/15
• Wry July
• Jazz Metal
• Chasing Dragons

Hyper Afrodisiac

Funk Estate are trying to retain the euphoria and excitement around Super Afrodisiac with another variation, called Hyper Afrodisiac. So it's a 12% Imperial Stout, made with fig, honey, vanilla, cacao and ginseng, which replaces maca root.
There still room for this family of aphrodisiacal beers to grow, since the boys still haven't used power or loneliness as ingredients.
Hyper Afrodisiac will be our new release next Tuesday, on tap from 5pm.

4/7/15

Plans are well underway for this year’s instalment of our ongoing project of turning the anniversary previously known as American Independence Day into American Beer Day.
It’s the day of the year when we forget about the death penalty, industrial farming, fast food, the loss of privacy, reality TV, the Bush family, Fox news, Ann Coulter, gun culture, the TSA, the NSA, the NRA, the arms race, McCarthyism, Sarah Palin, sausages wrapped in pancakes, aerosol cheese, Donald Trump, Jim Jones, the Shawshank Redemption, scientology, torture, the Ku Klux Klan, Bill Cosby, social networking, slavery, clickbait lists, starbucks, tipping, the Iraq War, the Afghan War, the Vietnam War, the Secret War, the war on drugs, the war on terror, mm/dd/yy dates, open carry, the Patriot Act, X-Key Score, truthers, the guy who used to own the LA Clippers, Windows Vista, midichlorians, PACs, Super PACs… and instead concentrate on what we think the USA does best, which is make high quality, distinctive, often intensely flavoured beer.
Now it’s become a tradition at Hashigo Zake for the staff to take liberties with the décor on July the 4th. Back in 2011 this meant little more than a few bits of coloured paper hanging off the taps.
At some point in the last few years someone stumbled across a clearance sale on US flags and ever since it’s looked as though Uncle Sam projectile vomited all over our bar.
It’s unclear what this year’s decorating sub-committee have planned.
But we can say a little about the tap lineup. And it’s pretty stellar. Here are some teasers...

• Speakeasy Blind Tiger IIIPA. This special beer has never been on tap in the southern hemisphere before. It’s the hoppiest beer made by San Francisco’s Speakeasy. 
• Almanac Farmer’s Reserve Strawberry. We’re pretty lucky to get one of Alamanac’s sour beers in a keg. This is a blond sour ale that has spent months in a barrel with stawberries from Dirty Girl Farms.
• Ballast Point Indra Kunindra. The curry stout that sounds like a disaster but is somehow delicious. Back for the first time this year.

If things go well this Saturday then some of you will be dropping by on the 4^th of July for pre- and post-Super Rugby Final drinks. Others will be regretting not having bought a ticket and will need somewhere to watch the game. Either way we’ve got your back. Rest assured that should some famous beer run out then it will be replaced by another one of equivalent extraordinariness.
The Firetruck will be on the premises, serving suitably American fare – we’ll confirm the menu next week.

Wry July

At last… for everyone who’s felt bullied or guilt-tripped by campaigns like Dry July, we bring you Wry July. Now you can say “yeah, nah” to abstinence. During July anyone dropping a gold coin in our collection jar for Kaibosh can have a bottle of Speakeasy Scarlett Red Rye Ale for a price so low that if we mentioned it we would be in breach of the "Responsible Promotion of Alcohol" section of the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act (2012).

Jazz Hos

Jazz Metal returns on Saturday in the form of Reuben Bradley's Death Hos. Music of Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Steely Dan and Band of Gypsies will, allegedly, be stretched apart and extemporised upon by the following:

• Daniel Hayles on Keys 
• Nick Tipping on Bass 
• Reuben Bradley on Drums

This free entertainment kicks off at 9:30pm, dovetailing nicely with the Super XV semi final.
In the meantime, let's enjoy one of Jazz Metal's seminal moments:

Chasing Dragons

This Saturday's Bottle Pour beer is ostensibly a local beer and yet is incredibly rare in New Zealand. It's the 2013 vintage of There Be Dragons, the Belgian red ale made by nomadic winemaker Mike Kush in Central Otago, that's developing some of the most delicious sour flavours you could wish for. You'd have to go offshore to find any more of this release, but it will be our bottle pour on Saturday.