July 30th, 2015

The Subway to Beervana

In just two weeks, every beer geek worth their salt will descend upon Wellington.

Beervana has been encouraging Wellington's beer industry for years now. In each instance a fresh batch of newly enlightened beer lovers emerge -it's probably where many of you had your first beer epiphany.

So naturally the industry supports Beervana back.

In the build up to the main event on Friday and Saturday, dozens of beery events will be held city-wide on "The Road to Beervana" (RTB).

Hashigo Zake has put together a schedule of spectacular events from the 11th - 14th August to get you warmed up for the big weekend.

First up on Tuesday the 11th, is a special New Release Tuesday from Lord Almighty. We're starting off as we intend to continue with the massive Ursus Imperial Stout hitting the taps for the first time ever from 5pm. Ursus weighs in at 12% ABV and will be joined by a few other Lord Almighty beers, including a new batch of their Yakima IPA.

Wednesday the 12th is our only sit-down tasting event of the week with Whisk(e)y Wednesday. This one started out as a simple whisky/bourbon & beer matching, but our resident Scotsman Ross was more ambitious than that.

As well as whisky and bourbon, he's keen to see which beer styles go best with top-shelf gin, tequila and rum. He's going to be doing plenty of experimentation in the lead up to find some great combos, which I'm sure is a burden he can bear.

The tasting kicks off at 6pm and will run for around two hours. Ross will be taking you through five beers matched with five spirits, which adds up. So make sure you've had dinner before-hand!

Places are $45, and are available for booking at cultbeerstore or over the bar.

Thursday the 13th is when we drag some kegged gems from our cellar/cool room for Timeless on Tap.

For a beer to stand up to the ravages of time, it needs to be BIG. We've been collecting various vintages of big beers from NZ and around the world for years, and we're cracking into four of the best on RTB Thursday.

From home we'll have Renaissance 2013 Tribute (10.8%) pouring alongside 8 Wired 2013 iStout  (10%). Delving into our stores from abroad, Moylans Old Blarney Barley Wine 2012 (10%) and the big bad Mikkeller Big Worster Chardonnay BA 2013 (18.3%) will also be on tap.

Having even a half of each one of these would be a little irresponsible, so we'll be offering a tasting flight with 150ml glasses of all four on the Thursday night only.

Friday the 14th isn't technically part of the 'Road to Beervana', seeing as that's when Beervana starts... But that's not stopping us from featuring Tauranga's best brewer Fitzpatrick's.

The Fitzpatrick's brewery is only 500L, so almost all of their beer is consumed locally. Beervana Friday is a rare chance for locals and pilgrims alike to taste the whole range of Fitzy's beers in one place.

That's Fitzy's Imperial Porter, IPA, Pale Ale, Kaffir Lime Wit and American Brown Ale all on tap. A great warm-up or warm-down for your Friday Beervana-ing.

Binary Jazz Solo

This Saturday, The Jazz Robots invade the HZ lounge for the first time.

Groove-based jazz inspired by all sorts of styles and greats like The Head Hunters, Jeff Beck, John Coltrane, Steve Coleman, Jimi Hendrix and The Miles Davis Quintet. The Jazz Robots have been around since 2011 with their innovative funky/jazzy feels. Featuring Peter Elliot (drums), Deane Hunter (guitar) & Tom Callwood (bass).

The ‘bots boot up at 9.30pm this Saturday, no operation fee.

Double Single Track

Croucher’s series of single hop IPAs continues with the release of two more ‘Single Tracks’, following the stunning Citra edition.

The whole point of a single hop IPA is to really find out how a certain hop variety affects a beer.

With both Amarillo and Centennial releasing simultaneously, we thought: why not have them both on tap so you can really geek out and compare the hops?

So from 5pm this Tuesday only we’ll have both single track Amarillo & Centennial IPAs on tap for your drinking pleasure.