March 31st, 2016

April Fitzy's Day Tomorrow

Just one more sleep until you can sample the best of Tauranga.

Seven Fitzpatrick's beers will be tapped tomorrow, giving you an unprecedented chance to try the entire range of this rarely seen, small scale 500L brewery.

On tap from midday we’ll have:
Witbier (kaffir lime & coriander seed)
Pilsner
Fitzy’s Special – ESB
Pale Ale
India Pale Ale
Citra India Pale Ale
American Brown
I swear this isn't an eleborate April fool's day prank.

Binary Solo - Jazz Robots Live in the Lounge

This Saturday's live musical act comes from the veteran Jazz trio, The Jazz Robots.
From 9.30pm this Saturday come on down for 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 are Peter Elliot (drums), Deane Hunter (guitar) and Tom Callwood (bass), and have been around since 2011 with their innovative funky/jazzy feels.
Naturally, you can enjoy the Jazz Robots for no charge.

Raisins, Oranges and Candi Sugar

I was shivering in the 3°C coolstore up at Beer Without Borders the other day, glancing around through clouds of my breath at leftover kegs from previous shipments. In my nosying-around I spied a keg of something unfamiliar, something we hadn't poured before: a keg of Almanac Paris of the West.

In fact, no one in New Zealand has had this beer on tap yet. It seems it was lost in the shadow of Almanac's hoppy sours and Dogpatch beers. Well, no longer!
On Tuesday we're giving this delicious Belgian Quadrupel with Raisins & Orange zest the attention it deserves, when we tap the first keg in NZ at 5pm.

"San Francisco, a.k.a “The Paris of the West,” has long been home to a diverse culture of bohemians and a bastion of art, creativity, and progressive thinking.
This decadent dark quadrupel-style ale was created in that same spirit–brewed with dark candi sugar, dried flame grapes, and orange peel, then fermented with a French ale yeast."

As Paris of the West is 9.5% ABV we'll be serving it up in 200ml TeKu and 300ml 'fancy' glasses.

March 17th, 2016

Barbary Coast

Almanac's Fresh Beer series looks to combine California-grown ingredients with farm-fresh beer.
The latest addition to this series is Barbary Coast Imperial Stout.
Weighing in at 10% ABV, Barbary coast boasts a meangerie of adjuncts: chillies, sea salt, vanilla, oak and cocoa. It sounds like we're in for a treat...

"Every great city has its wild side, and in 19th century boomtown San Francisco, that was the Barbary Coast. All manner of debauchery ran unchecked here for decades. But from this chaotic cauldron emerged San Francisco’s vibrant jazz culture and a rich legacy of poets, artists, writers and entertainers.
Inspired by this creative tradition, this decadent imperial stout was brewed with oak staves, vanilla, sea salt, a hint of spicy chili and Dandelion Chocolate cacao nibs."

Barbary Coast will start flowing from 5pm this Tuesday, and we'll be serving it up in 200ml TeKus or 300ml fancy glasses.

Farewell Vincent Vega

Vincent Vega Trio's guitarist Chris Armour is giving in to the pressures of westward drift, and heading off to further his music career in Melbourne. That means this Saturday is your last chance to catch the Vincent Vega Trio up close and personal in the HZ lounge.

Starting at 9.30pm this Saturday, catch VVT's hot blend of surf, funk, soul and blues. With Chris Armour - guitar, Greg Crayford - drums, Nick Lissette - bass.

All this musical talent will cost you diddly squat, so pop on down if you're in town.

On Tap and Coming Soon

There's some cool stuff out the back about to make it on tap this weekend.

Keep an eye out on your HZ apps for:

• A new Oatmeal Stout on the handpump from North End: Iron Sands
• A well aged keg of the smoky Dompost 150 anniversary beer Panhead Earles Revolver
• Next up on the sour tap is the salty and tart Funk Estate Gosetown, followed by Almanac Dogpatch Cherry
• For the hopheads there's a keg of Ballast Point Sculpin IPA on tap now, to be followed by Modern Times Truelands APA

To the Theatre!

We helped out the cast of the upcoming Circa performance of Jekyll & Hyde with a photo shoot, so they gave us some tickets to give away! 

To claim a double pass to the show (19 March – 16 April), just be the first to correctly answer a simple question on this form and the tickets are yours.

I'm just making this available to our loyal email subscribers, so get in quick.

March 24th, 2016

Easter Hours

The powers that be seem determined to make it hard to have a beer this weekend.

Friday and Sunday are two out of the three and a half days in the year that Hashigo is forced to close its doors. It also means we have to close at midnight tonight and Saturday. Of course this applies to every other shop and bar out there as well, so don't forget to stock up for Friday and Sunday if you're planning on enjoying a beer or two.

 Thanks Shop Trading Hours Repeal Act 1990!

On that note, our off-license runs till 11pm, so if you find you've left it late you could grab a rigger and a bottle or two from the bar tonight or Saturday.

We'll be open on Monday as usual, and even though it's a public holiday we won't have any silly surcharges. In fact, we'll be giving out our SOBA discount. To summarise:
Today: 12pm - midnight
Friday: CLOSED
Saturday: 12pm - midnight
Sunday: CLOSED
Monday: 12pm - late

New Vintage Release Tuesday

Next Tuesday’s release isn’t really what you’d call ‘new’ - in fact it's a beer we’ve had on tap a few times before.
However, it has been a couple of years since we’ve seen Nøgne Ø Imperial Stout.

We’ve had a keg of 2012 vintage Imperial Stout squirreled away in the big fridge up at BWB for quite a while now, and it’s time to unleash it.

Nøgne Ø describe it:
“We think the Russian tsar would have liked his stout this way. A dark, rich ale in which a generous sweetness with roasted malt bitterness.”

However, after four years aging, the beer should have integrated, dried out slightly and possibly picked up new aged flavours.

Come on down this Tuesday to see how this beast has aged, we tap the final keg of Nøgne Ø Imperial Stout at 5pm!

Carlos Navae Latin Funk

As mentioned earlier, the powers that be see fit to make us close our doors tomorrow and Sunday.

But right in the middle on Saturday, we've got some hot Latin funk in the form of Carlos Navae to help you make the most of the time that we're allowed to open.

Carlos and his band always get the crowd moving, so come on down and check them out from 9.30pm this Saturday. It won't even cost you anything extra.

April Fitzy's Day

It’s no joke - Tauranga’s best brewery is returning to Hashigo in a big way on April Fools Day.

Fitzpatrick’s brew brilliant beer, but due to their 500L brewery size not a lot of it ever makes it out of Tauranga.
Thankfully we’ve managed to secure kegs of their entire range, and we’re planning on tapping them simultaneously on Friday April 1st!

On tap from midday we’ll have:
Witbier (kaffir lime & coriander seed)
Pilsner
Fitzy’s Special – ESB
Pale Ale
India Pale Ale
Citra India Pale Ale
American Brown

Some of these are likely to run out during the night, so make sure you come on down after work and experience Tauranga’s best brews!

March 10th, 2016

Pathway to Hoppiness with Panhead 

Craft Beer College are back this Saturday with an exciting lesson on many peoples favourite beer ingredient: hops.

Even better, Panhead founder Mike Neilson (and possibly his brewing crew) will be along to tell you what goes into making a world-class hoppy beer.

Craft Beer College's lesson plan for Saturday is:

"The Pathway to Hoppiness celebrates the brewing world's obsession with hops. You will taste seven beers with a variety of New Zealand and international hops, and that build up in hop intensity. You will learn about the historical importance of hops, and the birth of the popular India Pale Ale (IPA) style of beer."

Rumour has it that Panhead's Fresh Hop Vandal will be making an appearance - your first chance at this season's wet hop beers!
Places are $44 per person, you can book by emailing Steph or over on Eventfinda.

Black Spider Stomp

Last week's Cosomonauts were so popular, we're back with more gypsy jazz this Saturday when Black Spider Stomp play the lounge.

BSS will be playing their awesome good-time gypsy jazz fusion - with Sam Thurston, James Quick and Adrian Jensen.

The stomp starts at 9.30pm this Saturday, and has no door fee as usual. But I'm sure all that jazz will make you thirsty.

Peachville, Population Brett

Making an amazing white wine barrel aged saison, fermented with 12 strains of the wild yeast Brettanomyces just isn't enough for Almanac.
Why the hell not throw some peaches and nectarines in the barrel?

Saison de Brettaville was a pretty peachy beer to begin with, thanks to the white wine barrels interacting with the funky brett. To build from this Almanac have added the real thing:

"Peach de Brettaville is a harmonious marriage of fruit and beer, bringing together our love for brett saisons and farm fresh fruit. We brewed our Saison Dolores and fermented it with twelve different brettanomyces strains, and aged it in wine barrels and our foeders with plenty of juicy peaches and nectarines."

After months of maturing and blending, this saison has developed a balance between earthy funk and stone fruit sweetness with a dry, white wine-like finish."

We're tapping a 20L keg of Peach de Brettaville this Tuesday - it's gonna go quick so don't miss out!

North End Salt & Wood

North End's new sours Rivage Brux Reserve & Baby Grand in the fridge now.

'nuff said.

SOBA Discount Changes

With the steadily increasing price of tap beers, the deduction provided by our 15% SOBA discount is also growing.
To reduce this effect and bring our SOBA discount in line with other bars in Wellington, from Sunday we'll be offering SOBA members 10% off tap beers, Sunday thru Wednesday.

March 3rd, 2016

TEDx Wellington Livestreaming

I love the TED talks format of presentations. So when I saw that an independently organised TEDx event was happening in Wellington - and was to be streamed for free online I was stoked.
I also thought it would be a good test of our sweet fibre optic internet.

This year’s TEDx Wellington is changing up the TED formula.
They’re not sharing the location, speakers/performers, exact number of tickets or even the programme for the day.

Why? The organisers explain,

“It’s an experiment. A journey. An attempt to explore the ‘what if’ question whilst banking in some of the trust from the previous years events. We believe in the adventurous side of our community and it seems they like the idea as well”

Tickets to attend the actual event have sold out, but the organisers are making a live stream available for everyone from 11am-6pm Saturday.
We’ll be playing the live stream in the red room this Saturday from opening (12pm) till 6pm.
The session times are 11am-12.30pm, 1.30pm-3pm & 4pm-5.45pm.
Come Along and watch for 10mins, or the whole day.

The Cosmonauts Return

Russian Cosmonaut Mikhail Korniyenko has just returned to Earth after a 1 year stay on the International Space Station.
Sadly after a year of microgravity, he's not quite strong enough yet to join The Cosmonauts playing the HZ lounge this Saturday.

The Cosmonauts play a high-energy blend of Soviet Folk with Italian Chanson and 19th Century Balkan Pop. Our music man has condensed this to 'Gypsy Jazz' on the chalk board for succinctness. The Cosmonauts are Frankie Curac on accordion, AJ Jensen with guitar and Andrew Laking playing double bass.

The Gypsy Jazz starts at 9.30pm this Saturday, and won't cost you a thing. But we hear beer and gypsy jazz do go well together...

Double Sour NRT!

Back in December we hosted a hoppy sour showdown between Almanac's pioneering Simoce Sour & Citra Sour (which are both coming back on tap this weekend).
With this week's new arrivals from the West Coast, we've now got two more hoppy sours to pit against one another - but this time they're not US hops.
This time it's the citrusy new German hop Mandarina Bavaria going up against NZ's own Wakatu (previously known as Hallertau Aroma).

This Tuesday only we'll be serving up both of these groundbreaking beers side-by-side in TeKu glasses for $20. Last time they sold out after just a few hours, so come on down Tuesday or you'll most likely miss out.

If you're wondering what they'll be like, the brewery has prepared detailed descriptions of both:
Hoppy Sour: Mandarina:

"Mandarina Bavaria hops are Germany’s answer to the bold, vivacious US varieties found in West Coast-style brews. This hop is the daughter of Cascade and Hallertau, combining characteristic New World citrus flavors and aromas with the subtle spice of German noble hops. 

We blended our wine barrel-aged sour blonde ale with foeder-fermented brett saison to craft a complex base of stone fruit, oak, and earthy funk to compliment the tangerine and lime-like character of Mandarina. Each sip teases a new flavor, from grass to grapefruit to peaches and finishes crisp and dry."

 Hoppy Sour: Wakatu:

"Wakatu is a New Zealand-born hop prized for its floral and citrusy aromatics. This relative of classic Hallertau hops is light on bitterness and often used in clean, German-style lagers. 

This hop finds a perfect mate in our sour blonde base beer, combining with the tropical fruit and funk to create a tart ale with hints of lemon, pineapple, and tangerine, a dry white wine-like finish, and the subtle taste of key lime pie." 

Both hoppy sours are tapped at 5pm Tuesday. See you there.

Fresh From the West

It's less than a week away now, so this is your last reminder of our new shipment tasting on Wednesday the 9th of March at 6pm.

We'll be tasting the following beers:

- Speakeasy Popgun Pilsner - German Pilsner in a can, brewed in San Fran (4.7%)
- Modern Times Funky Universal Friend W/ Pinot Noir - Brett Saison with Pinot Noir Must (7.2%)
- Modern Times Funky Universal Friend W/ Pinot Grigio - Brett Saison with Pinot Grigio Must (7.2%)
- Modern Times Mega Fortunate Islands - Imperial Hoppy Wheat Ale (8%)
- Karl Strauss Six Suits A-Hangin' - Belgian Brown aged in French oak barrels (8.5%)
- Modern Times Devil's Teeth - Imperial Stout/Old Ale with Coffee (10%)
- Almanac Truthful Statement - Dark Sour Ale Age in Bourbon Barrels with Cherries (9%)

Secure your spot in the tasting now at cultbeerstore, or over the bar next time you're in.

Fresh in the Fridge

If you can't make it or can't wait for Wednesday's tasting, we have some featured beers in the fridge already - and a few other newbies.

Pop Gun Pilsner, Truthful Statement and Peach de Brettaville are already here waiting for you.
Along with the other new bottle additions of Karl Strauss Tower 10 IPA plus Mosaic Session Ale and Maui Mana (pineapple) Wheat cans to top it off.

We've only got a limited amount of space in our fridges here, but there's plenty of space up the road at Beer Without Borders' chilled warehouse. You can purchase the full range of new arrivals over on Cultbeerstore now - you can even avoid freight charges by selecting to pick up from HZ (HZ pickup not available for smaller orders).