August 31, 2017

Sculpin Daze

A couple of weeks ago we announced that our estrangement with the Ballast Point brewery is over. The reasons were outlined here. So far we’ve seen a grand total of two signs of dissent about this, but they were stated with so little conviction that it’s hard to tell if they were even meant seriously.

If anyone is unhappy that service of Ballast Point is resuming we have great news for you. When it comes to Wellington outlets not serving Ballast Point beer, you are spoiled for choice. It’s almost as if there’s a meticulously planned and spectacularly successful boycott going on.

To compensate for that quasi-boycott, we’re pushing the boat out for this tomorrow’s National Sculpin Day. Not only will we be joining around 14 other outlets around the nation serving all FIVE variants of the most celebrated IPA that’s regularly available in New Zealand, we’ll sneak some other Ballast Point beers on tap at the same time.

The centrepiece of Sculpin Day is the limited release that is Unfiltered Sculpin. Now this beer is embargoed and no-one in New Zealand has tried it yet. However if we - hypothetically - had been slipped an embargoed sample of this beer, our guess would be that the slightly reduced bitterness and increased late-hopping make this a fruitier and easier drinking take on the classic.

The full lineup that will be going on tap on Friday then, is as follows:

• Sculpin
• Unfiltered Sculpin
• Grapefruit Sculpin
• Habanero Sculpin
• Pineapple Sculpin

And those bonus beers:

• Longfin Lager
• Manta Ray Imperial IPA
• Victory at Sea Coffee Vanilla Imperial Porter

But wait, there’s more.

All the Sculpins will be available in 200ml pours, so you can try all five without over-indulging. We’re also offering Victory at Sea Ice Cream Floats for $15. We’ll have Ballast Point’s own Three Sheets Silver Rum on offer for $10.

There will also be an inspired food special. But we’ll leave that a mystery until tomorrow.

But Wait, There’s Even More

Friday also happens to be the birthday of the amazing Llew of the dormant Wild & Woolly brewery. Somewhere in amongst all the Ballast Point kegs, we’ll find a way to sneak at least one of the remaining kegs of Wild & Woolly beer, so Llew can hold court all night.

The Election

During the living nightmare that was last year’s American presidential election we actually had quite a lot of fun screening those tremendous, tremendous debates and then the actual election night coverage. Could our own parliamentary election be as gripping? The answer isn’t the emphatic no that it might have been a month or so ago. We’ll test that theory tonight. There’s a debate and we’ll try screening it on at least one telly. Come in and yell at the screen.

New Release Tuesday

Next week we’ve got the recent Red IPA created by Cassels and Sons in Christchurch. In their own words… “highly complex malt grist which produces an attractive amber/red hue with an interesting dried fruit and rich malt character”.

On tap from 5pm.

Music

We don’t have live music this week but on Saturday the 9th our old friend Darren Watson will be with us in a format that we haven’t seen from him before – a duo. His partner in blues will be bass player Steve Moodie, who happens to be the bassist for Darren Watson and the Dangerous Experts. And we’re looking forward to having that particular four piece back in November.

On Tap Now

• Wild & Woolly Basilisk
• North End Collective IPL
• North End Forty South Green Hop Reserve (handpump)
• Baird Fruitful Life IPA
• Adroit Theory God Is An American
• Townshend Hey Blondie Remix
• North End Iron Sands Oatmeal Stout
• Kereru Moonless Stout (handpump)
• Mike's One More Pale Ale
• North End Pilsner
• Beer Baroness Prickly Wilson

 

Rock The Cash Bar II

Remember that the second installment of our music quiz (well, Hadyn's music quiz, but we're delighted to collaborate with him on this) will be on October 2. Save the date.