March 3, 2011

Saturday's Fundraising... Liberty Brewing... Tasting News... On This Week...

Saturday's Fundraising

It's our goal not to impose on our customers - with loud music, bad beer, intrusive marketing etc. And normally that would include pressuring people into contributing to a cause.

Last Saturday was an exception as the twin blows to our collective morale from the murder of a customer and the Christchurch earthquake demanded drastic action.

The amount raised on Saturday was substantial and substantially more than expected. (If anyone wants specifics, come down and ask.) Clearly a lot of people made a point of coming in on a night that they otherwise would not have.

Without prompting a couple of breweries - Townshend and Liberty - volunteered stock to offset our losses, so I'd like to acknowledge them.

And we're leaving Red Cross collection boxes on the bar for a while longer.

Collective back-pat over.

But the crisis remains and the brewing industry is organising coordinated fundraising events this Friday. In Wellington there is an event at Bar Edward in Newtown. We understand that some beer has been donated by breweries and will be on sale with proceeds going to earthquake relief. There will also be an auction at 7pm. For anyone who has wanted to take home some of our branded glassware and attire (i.e. without stealing them) this will be your chance.

Liberty Brewing

For many of us Liberty Brewing's Summ!t Imperial IPA was our favourite beer of 2010. That beer was actually brewed at Hallertau for Liberty Brewing, which is still best known as a supplier of equipment and ingredients for home brewers. But Joseph Wood was so encouraged by the success of last year's IIPA that he has scaled up his home brewing to the point that Liberty is now officially a brewery too.

Liberty's batch size makes it possibly the smallest commercial brewery in the country. (Joe and Lighthouse's Dick Tout will have to get together to see whose is smaller.) Which means that he has only approached two outlets to carry his initial output - ourselves and Auckland's Hallertau.

Now we'd been talking to Joe about this for months and had adapted our equipment to cope with his corny kegs which aren't normally used by commercial brewers. But it was still a small surprise when eight of these little kegs turned up on Saturday afternoon - carried from Taranaki, appropriately, by a fellow home brewer and customer (thanks Matt!) rather than a freight company.

Joe's first commercial beer from his own outlet is actually two beers - the same beer made with two different American hop varieties, namely Simcoe and Amarillo. The style is West Coast Blonde, so it's a relatively easy drinking, even delicate blonde ale, but with plenty of hops and 5.5% ABV.

At the time of writing the Amarillo version is on, but these corny kegs don't last long and it could be back to Simcoe soon. Our advice is: don't get hung up on which version it is, just enjoy.

Tasting News

We have just started accepting bookings for next Tuesday's tasting of beer from Squatters in Utah, incorporating three versions of the Mussel Inn's Captain Cooker. Please understand that volumes are limited and air-freighting these beers over wasn't cheap. See http://www.cultbeerstore.co.nz/products/squatters-and-captain-cooker-tasting to book.

Planning is under way for two events in April. Firstly our barman and semi-retired chef Sam Whitney was so inspired by Shiggy's efforts with last week's Food and Sake event that he is planning a Food and Beer night. Sam is a remarkably talented and experienced chef, so expectations are high. We're tentatively scheduling this for April the 12th.

On top of that, it has been noticed that our stocks of various sour beers are looking very good right now, particularly with a couple of Mikkeller beers arriving any day. So lovers of intense flavours should keep April the 19th free.

Note that we aren't ready to take bookings for events in April just yet.

On This Week

To our surprise last week's order from Christchurch distributor BeerNZ arrived this week. It included several Three Boys and Twisted Hop beers. Now we don't know when either will be brewing again (although Three Boys are quite bullish) so this could be the last chance to savour the Pilsner, Wheat and Golden Ale of Three Boys or Twisted Hop Challenger for a number of weeks.

Two Bear Republic beers are on right now - Hop Rod Rye and Red Rocket. Racer 5 will be back soon after as well.

And we believe we may be seeing the fruits of more experimentation at 8 Wired in the near future.

And finally, our long awaited shipment of Scandinavian beer, including eleven (yes eleven!) kegs from Nøgne ø, is on the wharf or (by the time you read this) safely housed in our secure storage facility. Either way, it is in Wellington. Lots of fun coming...

February 24, 2011

Time To Change Our Luck... What's On Tap?... Tasting News...

Time To Change Our Luck

Late last week we learned that the victim of a shocking murder being covered in the media was in fact someone with a connection to Hashigo Zake. Matthew Hall was an experienced home brewer who had assisted some of our staff in their own brewing and had attended the first of our occasional home brew tastings.

Everyone at Hashigo Zake extends our profound sympathies to the friends and family of Matthew Hall.

We were scratching our heads trying to come up with a suitable way to acknowledge his tragedy when the earthquake struck.

This is not a time for holding back. So here is what we're doing:

Every cent spent at Hashigo Zake between 6pm and midnight this Saturday will be shared between two beneficiaries. The first is Atareira. This organisation was nominated in the printed guide to the funeral of Matthew Hall, so we're simply following their suggestion. The second beneficiary will be an organisation providing Christchurch earthquake relief, possibly the Red Cross.

The hope here is that anyone wanting to contribute to either of these causes can actually enjoy doing it. So if you have no plans for Saturday night, this is a rare opportunity to simultaneously drink and do a good deed.

What's on Tap?

Note the question mark. We're less sure than ever about what we'll be serving over the next few days and weeks. Every week we get a delivery from BeerNZ, the Christchurch craft beer distributor, of South Island beer, and Christchurch beer in particular. This is probably our single biggest source of products and we don't know when this supply line will resume.

This doesn't mean we're about to run out of beer. But it will be harder to predict what will be on and it will mean that the average latitude of the beer we serve will be heading north for a while. Expect more than the usual amount of Tuatara, a little Hallertau and Galbraith's hopefully, maybe more Mike's, Epic and Croucher and probably a slightly higher than usual number of imports on tap.

In particular, lovers of hand pumped beer might have to wait a few days while we sort out supplies. Please bear with us.

We can announce that our first ever kegs of Moa 5 Hop Ale have arrived, as well as a keg of Moa Pale Ale.

And Ballast Point Sculpin IPA - the world's 3rd best IPA (according to ratebeer.com) will be on soon.

Tasting News

We did just have one piece of good news. A small order from Squatters Brewery in Salt Lake City just turned up, which was something of a surprise since we haven't been invoiced for it yet or paid excise. (No-one tell Customs.) So we don't know what it's costing us yet.

Now for those who haven't heard, Squatters are the new US brewer of the Mussel Inn's Captain Cooker. We have enough of the US version to try alongside some from the Mussel Inn and Invercargill Brewery (where most Captain Cooker is actually brewed). We also hope to have Andrew from the Mussel Inn come up for the event. There are a few other details to confirm so please don't try and book yet. But we're aiming for March 8th.

February 17, 2011

Yeastie Friday... New On Tap... Tasting News... San Francisco Beer Week..

Yeastie Friday

The Craft Beer TV Roadshow reaches Wellington tomorrow (Friday). We're told that the film crew on wheels will be at Hashigo Zake around lunchtime to capture some footage and, perhaps, the wisdom of some local identities in the craft beer business.

One of those identities is Yeastie Boys' Stu McKinley who immediately proposed that we share the love by offering specials on the Yeasties' two current releases - Europa and Rapture.

So from opening time tomorrow (midday) and for as long as 20 litres of each beer lasts you can get a small serving of both for $10. And if you buy a pie at the same time we'll knock $2 off that too.

For those who've forgotten, Rapture and Europa are summer ales with identical recipes except for one key ingredient - the yeast. Europa is fermented with a Kölsch yeast and has been on tap and handpump at Hashigo Zake already. Rapture is fermented with a Belgian Abbey yeast and came out this week. The ABV of Europa is 4.2% and we understand that the ABV of Rapture came out higher at 4.5%.

New on Tap

The big news of the week is the Rapture, as discussed above. But there's more - as well as the non-force carbonated version for the hand pump, we have a keg of Rapture's fizzy version, for those who struggle with beer in its flat, "tepid" form.

Another beer that attracts the same kind of religious fervour as the Rapture is Hopwired. 2010's favourite beer (as voted by our customers) has been away too long. One keg going on some time in the next few days - keep an eye on http://hashigozake.co.nz/beerlist.html to find out when.

And another favourite makes a welcome return over the next few days - Twisted Hop IPA.

Tasting News

Perhaps that should be Tasting Non-News. Our first tasting of the year, next week's Food and Sake Evening is fully booked. We look forward to seeing those of you who did get in in time at 6:30pm on Tuesday.

Meanwhile we're still waiting to hear about our special order of Utah beer that will make up our next event. Please keep the faith!

Meanwhile an alternative form of regular beer tasting has been quietly getting under way here at Hashigo Zake. Many of Wellington's most dedicated home brewers - including one or two of our own staff - have been organising occasional tastings of each other's output. See http://www.facebook.com/pages/Wellington-Home-Brew-Tasting/153593614688475 for more info.

San Francisco Beer Week

Yes don't pretend you didn't realise that this is San Francisco Beer Week. To celebrate we've rushed our one former San Francisco resident staff member back from his tour of the South Island to work this Saturday night. And until Sunday you can get $1 off any of the large Bear Republic bottles.

February 10, 2011

2011's First Two Tastings... New This Week... Yeastie Friday... A Plug..

2011's First Two Tastings

Matched Food and Sake

This year our first tasting event of the year is an innovation - our first ever Matched Food and Sake evening. Our own Shigeo Takagi, as well as being our in-house sake expert, has been playing a big role in building our capability at catering for functions. He also spent some time in Japan recently, looking for ideas for this event.

So on the 22nd of this month from 6:30pm he'll be in charge of food and drinks for the lucky few who get in and book. To book, go to http://www.cultbeerstore.co.nz/products/matched-food-and-sake-evening.

Mile High Beer

Plans are inching forward for a pretty unusual tasting. One of the owners of Squatters Brewpub in Salt Lake City wandered into Hashigo Zake on Christmas Eve, leading to a small one-off order that we hope will be winging its way here soon. Included in the package will be the US version of Onekaka's own Captain Cooker. Confused by that last sentence? Check out: http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/squatters-captain-cooker-manuka-beer/134563/.

Once we know the beer has left the brewery we'll confirm a date and price.

New This Week

8 Wired have spent most of the last 18 months looking for ways to blow us away with beers that are strong in flavour, alcohol or both. Their latest beer is designed to turn that paradigm on its head. It's Underwired (yes, Underwired) and it claims to be an IPA with 2% alcohol. To find out more, read Søren's own blog about it at http://8wired.blogspot.com/2011/01/underwired-how-low-can-you-go.html.

Our research on the Golden Eagle Brewery has been pretty thin, but we've decided to throw caution to the wind and put on a keg of their South Island IPA.

If the South Island IPA lets us down there will be plenty of old friends returning, such as Emersons 1812.

At some point in the next few days the wheat beer tap will be thrown over to a Californian, in the form of Coronado Orange Avenue Wit. Other Californians coming on soon include Green Flash 30th St Pale Ale, Bear Republic Apex IPA and Coronado Islander IPA.

Yeastie Friday

A week tomorrow (the 18th) Luke Nicholas and Kelly Ryan of NZ Craft Beer TV cruise in to town to interview Stu McKinley of Yeastie Boys (and apparently yours truly) on our very own premises. Stu has suggested that we mark the occasion by putting the Yeastie Boys' current pair of releases - Rapture and Europa - on our hand pumps at the same time and offer lunchtime specials. More details next week.

A Plug

Some of our best customers don't actually live in Wellington. That's some feat so to show our appreciation we'd like to draw attention to an upcoming performance by one of you.

Charismatic multi-instrumentalist Adam Page breezes into Wellington from Adelaide occasionally to squeeze a performance or two between his tireless search for fine beer. He has a show at Downstage this Sunday that we would endorse if it weren't for the fact that it's a world premiere, so we can't possibly have seen it. More details here: http://www.downstage.co.nz/index.php?page=shows&id=151.

Anyone attending Adam's show on Sunday can show their ticket at Hashigo Zake before or after and receive the same discount as SOBA members.

February 3, 2011

Ratebeer.com... 2011's First Tasting... Upcoming Treats... The Sevens... The Superbowl...

Ratebeer.com

New Zealand breweries have done well in Ratebeer.com's new announcement of the top beers in Australasia. That is to say, New Zealand breweries did particularly well compared to Australian ones. But there are no New Zealand breweries or beers in the worldwide top 100 lists.

Now Ratebeer are quiet on exactly how they aggregate their results, but we know that 8 Wired's Hopwired IPA was a deserved first place getter because that's consistent with the way you, our customers, voted in our survey of everyone's favourite beers of 2010.

But what's really interesting about Hopwired's success on Ratebeer is the fact that most of the recent ratings have come from abroad. Søren has managed to send a few pallets of beer off to Denmark and the US and it looks as though the hardcore beer geeks in those countries are lavishing it with praise.

So perhaps if it wasn't for overseas consumers, 8 Wired beer would miss out on some of the accolades it is now receiving. Similarly, Epic Armageddon and Renaissance Elemental have had a good year on ratebeer and we understand that both of these have been made available in Australia and beyond over the last year.

Now Ratebeer doesn't have nearly as much of a following in New Zealand as it does in certain other countries, particularly the US. And it's notoriously skewed by the biases of its most regular contributors. (I.e. an average Imperial Stout or Imperial IPA will get a higher score than a really good Kölsch.) But it serves a useful purpose sometimes, especially when championing up-and-coming or experimental breweries like Mikkeller. Or 8 Wired.

So perhaps patriotic fans of local beer could do a simple service to our heroic local brewers by turning into authentic anorak-wearing beer-geeks and spending quality time on ratebeer.

If the idea appeals, here are a couple of notes:

• The administrators of ratebeer weren't born yesterday, and they discount scores that are extreme or that come from novice "raters".
• We would be remiss if we didn't mention SOBA's own Beer Map, that lets customers at bars anywhere in New Zealand track what they're drinking where, for the benefit of fellow consumers. In fact we (Hashigo Zake) are sponsoring prizes for top contributors. Go to http://soba.org.nz/BeerMap.aspx.
• Ratebeer.com has a competitor called Beer Advocate, which is arguably equally deserving of your attention. (We also subscribe to the Beer Advocate magazine and have copies available at the bar.)

2011's First Tasting

This year our first tasting event of the year is an innovation - our first ever Matched Food and Sake evening. Our own Shigeo Takagi, as well as being our in-house sake expert, has been playing a big role in building our capability at catering for functions. He also spent some time in Japan recently, looking for ideas for this event.

So on the 22nd of this month from 6:30pm he'll be in charge of food and drinks for the lucky few who get in and book. To book, go to http://www.cultbeerstore.co.nz/products/matched-food-and-sake-evening.

Upcoming Treats

Wanaka Brewski will make a rare appearance on the pilsner tap.

On Monday (as discussed below) Ballast Point Big Eye IPA will be one of our Superbowl Special beers.

Right now the one and only keg in New Zealand of the big, rich Pete Brown Tribute Ale from Bear Republic is on tap.

Renaissance's new weiss beer that was a runaway success a couple of weeks ago is back and will be on tap soon.

Frankly there are so many distinctive and delicious beers in the On Tap Soon section of our menu that it would be tiresome to list them all.

The Sevens

The Wellington Sevens begins tomorrow and if last year is anything to go by, many of you are planning to lock the front door and stay in.

Last year was our first Sevens weekend as a business. Accepted wisdom is that it is the biggest event of the year for Wellington hospitality businesses. However we found that after we had applied our usual standards when it comes to admitting the paralytically drunk, we didn't actually do much business. We assumed that it was because you, the responsible portion of our customer base, didn't venture into town.

This year we've been informed that the council are making greater than ever efforts at managing the chaos that takes place on the 4th and particularly the 5th. This means that even our portion of Taranaki St will be closed to vehicles from 9pm on Saturday. Counter-intuitively though, pedestrians coming from the waterfront will be herded away from our vicinity and towards Tory St, which will be considered the "safe" way into Courtenay Place. To put it another way, it's going be slightly harder than usual (depending what direction you are coming from) to get to Hashigo Zake.

So this message aims to reassure our faithful, responsible customers that between our own door staff and the council's measures there is no reason to fear coming down on the 4th and 5th.

The Superbowl

Hot on the heals of the Sevens comes Superbowl Monday (or Superbowl Sunday as it's known in the US). Last year we took the participation of New Orleans in the match as a cue to make Gumbo and do some specials on American beer.

This year the match is being played in Dallas, so it seems appropriate to revive our fabulous twelve-hour, beer-infused chilli. We'll serve it with sour cream, corn chips and cheese.

Sadly neither of the teams (Steelers & Packers) is from the same city as a brewery that we import. We'll have to settle for a couple of beers from Oregon and California. So bottles of Rogue American Amber Ale and glasses of Ballast Point Big Eye IPA (on tap) will be discounted, and discounted again for anyone ordering our signature chilli.

The coverage on telly starts at midday, which coincidentally is when we open.

January 27, 2011

The Sevens.. The Superbowl.. Brewing - A Dangerous Occupation.. Fishhead.. On the Water.. Web Store News...

The Sevens

As this email goes out Wellington's annual convention of exhibitionism, binge drinking and errr.. sport is eight days away.

Last year was our first Sevens weekend as a business. Accepted wisdom is that it is the biggest event of the year for Wellington hospitality businesses. However we found that after we had applied our usual standards when it comes to admitting the paralytically drunk, we didn't actually do much business. We assumed that it was because you, the responsible portion of our customer base, didn't venture into town.

This year we've been informed that the council are making greater than ever efforts at managing the chaos that takes place on the 4th and particularly the 5th. This means that even our portion of Taranaki St will be closed to vehicles from 9pm on Saturday. Counter-intuitively though, pedestrians coming from the waterfront will be herded away from our vicinity and towards Tory St, which will be considered the "safe" way into Courtenay Place. To put it another way, it's going be slightly harder than usual (depending what direction you are coming from) to get to Hashigo Zake.

So this message aims to reassure our faithful, responsible customers that between our own door staff and the council's measures there is no reason to fear coming down on the 4th and 5th.

The Superbowl

Hot on the heals of the Sevens comes Superbowl Monday (or Superbowl Sunday as it's known in the US). Last year we took the participation of New Orleans in the match as a cue to make Gumbo and do some specials on American beer.

This year the match is being played in Dallas, so it seems appropriate to revive our fabulous twelve-hour, beer-infused chilli. We'll serve it with sour cream, corn chips and cheese. Sadly neither of the teams (Steelers & Packers) is from the same city as a brewery that we import. Nevertheless will find an excuse to offer some kind of deal on certain beers from our recent delivery of American goodies.

Brewing - A Dangerous Occupation

Yes that may surprise some but there are innumerable ways for a brewer to suffer grave injuries. We recently learned that Mike Nielson, brewer at Tuatara and godfather of the Wellington home brewing scene, spent a week in hospital and is still recuperating at home. Our best wishes go out to Mike and we hope for everyone's sake that he's back in the saddle shortly. We understand that he has recovered sufficiently to consume liquids.

Fishhead

The latest issue of Fishhead magazine is out, which means the second instalment of Hadyn Green's beer column and its second ever Hashigo Zake advertisement. We recommend.

On the Water

Just in case anyone was getting bored with the lineup over the last month or so (as if)... Arriving in the next week or two will be dozens of kegs from two of our favourite breweries. Here's a hint - they're both from whale-hunting nations.

Web Store News

New Zealand's greatest web store for craft beer (The Cult Beer Store) just got a little more useful to our local customers. You can choose "Collect from Hashigo Zake" as a shipping option and avoid paying the freight charge.

We're also in the process of updating the merchandise offerings, so t-shirts and glassware will be there for purchase too.

January 20, 2011

Online Photo Exhibition... Findings of Our Best of 2010 Survey... Findings From Our Own Sales in 2010... 2011 Tastings... New Treats... Rock Music History Lesson...

Online Photo Exhibition

Back in October we invited photographer Jed Soane to come down to Hashigo Zake and document our venue in pictures. For those who don't know him, Jed is a popular figure in New Zealand's craft brewing scene. He has set out to record New Zealand brewing photographically, one brewery at a time, and the results are pretty special. (We recommend giving the Beer Project a visit.) Jed is also the only person we know to have patronised the Mikkeller bar in Copenhagen.

The photos Jed took that Wednesday evening in October turned out to be equally special. And as part of the renovation of our own website we've been able to make a home for them online.

We're delighted with the way the photos capture not only the character of Hashigo Zake, but the personalities of some of our customers and staff.

Having said that, we know that some of you may have reservations about having your image on a public website and we will respect the wishes of any subjects who don't like what they see of themselves. Also, we promise to only use these photos for what we consider "exhibition" purposes, and not in any future advertising.

The set is at http://hashigozake.co.nz/photos.html.

Findings of Our Best of 2010 Survey

Our 2010 Survey was something of an afterthought, but it was launched with a suspicion that our customers would relish the chance to take part in our small but tastefully conceived exercise in mutual beer appreciation. And so it proved. If we had an expectation of participation levels we surpassed them by furlongs.

So thanks and congratulations to those of you with sufficient beer knowledge to differentiate between our nominees and come up with answers.

Favourite Pilsner

This was extremely competitive but we shouldn't be surprised that Emerson's Pilsner came out on top. But not far behind, and sharing second place were Croucher Pilsner and the Sprig and Fern's Harvest Pilsner.

Favourite Pale Ale

Tuatara APA was the clear winner in this category and so far ahead that it is hardly worth mentioning any other contenders. Except that if we combined the votes for Yeastie Boys' Yakima Monster and Motueka Monster then that blend would have been a comfortable second, still a long way behind Tuatara APA.

Favourite Wheat Beer

Three Boys Wheat won this category but Tuatara Hefe wasn't far behind.

Favourite Porter

We confused things here by including a hoppy porter and a couple of imperial porters and the result was a tight contest. But Yeastie Boys PKB came out ahead of Flying Dog Imperial Porter and Renaissance Elemental Porter.

Favourite IPA

With so many memorable IPAs available last year this should have been a close contest. But 8 Wired Hopwired has clearly made far too much of an impression on us all and it was the clear winner. Epic Armageddon led the peloton.

Favourite Stout

There was another comfortable win for Three Boys in this category, with the legendary Oyster Stout. Renaissance Craftsman Chocolate Stout was runner-up.

Favourite Imperial IPA

This turned out to be a neck-and-neck contest amongst three great local beers - two of them new in 2010. The champion was Renaissance MPA. Liberty Summ!t was not far behind and close too was Mike's IPA.

Favourite Hand-pulled Beer

Purists would object to us lumping all hand pulled beers together and it made for a well-and-truly split vote. Winner by a nose was Yeastie Boys Punkadiddle and tied for second were Townshend Cathcart NTA, Townshend/666 Sutton Hoo and Twisted Hop Challenger. Twisted Ankle and Renaissance Voyager weren't far behind either.

Favourite Amber Ale

This was another runaway win for 8 Wired with Tall Poppy. We were delighted to see one of Emerson's Brewers Reserve beers - Oreti Red - come in second.

Favourite Specialty Beer

The most popular of the weird, weirdly flavoured or just obscure beers was Mussel Inn Captain Cooker. We shouldn't be surprised really, although some sensational beers such as Invercargill Smoking Bishop, 8 Wired Big Smoke, Mike's Whisky Porter and Yeastie Boys PKB Remix all trailed it.

Favourite Brown Ale

There was a small list of candidates but it still took a great beer in 8 Wired Rewired to run away with the category.

Favourite Strong Beer

This was category of misfits and show ponies with a variety of styles but a lot of big special beers. The dark horse turned out to be Renaissance Stonecutter. Rogue XS Imperial Stout and Emerson's Weizenbock were the next two.

Favourite Pie

Perhaps the most important category in the whole thing turned out to be a two horse race between Venison Vindaloo and Pork and Chorizo, with the Pork and Chorizo prevailing.

Overall Champion

Finally we invited participants to name their three favourite beers of 2010, with no suggestions offered. We scoured the free-form text at great length, decrypted some peculiar answers and figured out which beers got the most votes.

Fortunately the results turned out to be consistent with the previous category results. So we are delighted to announce that of the beers served on tap at Hashigo Zake in 2010, the people's favourite was:

8 Wired Hopwired

And the runner-up was:

Tuatara APA

A couple of observations:

• Some of these winners and runners-up had very limited availability. Beers such as Emerson's Oreti Red, Liberty Summ!t and Sprig and Fern Harvest Pilsner must have been pretty special to get the attention of so many. If only they were made more regularly...
• According to the names entered voluntarily on the survey, 50% of brewers didn't vote for any of their own beers.

Here they are in a more concise form:

Category	Winner
Favourite Pilsner	Emerson's Pilsner
Favourite Pale Ale	Tuatara APA
Favourite Wheat Beer	Three Boys Wheat
Favourite Porter	Yeastie Boys PKB
Favourite IPA	8 Wired Hopwired
Favourite Stout	Three Boys Oyster Stout
Favourite Imperial IPA	Renaissance MPA
Favourite Hand-pulled Beer	Yeastie Boys Punkadiddle
Favourite Amber Ale	8 Wired Tall Poppy
Favourite Specialty Beer	Mussel Inn Captain Cooker
Favourite Brown Ale	8 Wired Rewired
Favourite Strong Beer	Renaissance Stonecutter
Favourite Pie	Pork and Chorizo
Overall Champion	8 Wired Hopwired
Runner Up	Tuatara APA

Findings From Our Own Sales in 2010

It's interesting to compare and contrast what customers vote for in a popularity contest and what they buy. Clearly availability is a big differentiator. I.e. you can only buy what we have to offer and many of your and our favourites are only ever available for a short time.

Or perhaps we've been getting it hopelessly wrong all along by stocking completely the wrong products, and the survey results above will lead to greater customer satisfaction in 2011.

But several breweries who starred in the results above (8 Wired and Yeastie Boys in particular) simply don't make enough to satisfy demand, because they aren't (yet) full-time businesses.

Biggest Selling Beers of 2010

According to our electronic tills, these were Hashigo Zake's top sellers in 2010, in descending order of volume:

1. Three Boys Pils
2. Emersons Pils
3. 3-Boys Wheat
4. Croucher Pils
5. Renaissance Discovery

And our biggest selling breweries were:

1. Three Boys
2. Renaissance
3. Emerson's
4. Croucher
5. Twisted Hop

2011 Tastings

A few weeks ago it was easy to drop hints about our plans for tastings in 2011. Now it's mid to late January, well... it's time to deliver. So here we go...

February 22 is the date of our first ever Sake / Food Matching. Our own Shigeo Takagi, fresh from touring his homeland in the manner of a celebrity chef, is planning a menu of the finest sakes available in New Zealand paired with appropriate morsels of food. Details and prices are still to be confirmed, but please put it in your diaries.

New Treats

There were times in the winter months last year when we seemed to have multiple announcements about novel and exceptional new beers every week. The last few weeks have been quiet though and we've had to pad out these emails with fluff about release parties and fatuous product surveys.

But the hiatus is over and the good times are back. So stand sit back, relax and prepare to change your plans for the (long) weekend because here come some agenda-changing new offerings:

• Daps Classic is a brand new pale ale from a brand new brewing company in Napier going under the name "Naturale". Please let us know what you think of it.
• Renaissance have made a wheat beer! At this rate the Pope will come out and Winston Peters will quit politics. They're saying it's a summer seasonal and don't even have a name for it, but we gather that it's a 5% Bavarian-style weissbier.

  Whatever they say, it will be on tap soon.

• The Yeastie Boys are back with one, and, sooner or later, two different but similar new beers. Actually the first of them snuck onto one of our hand pumps last Friday. It was Europa - a refreshing summer ale fermented with a Kölsch yeast. Yes - a Kölsch yeast. Kölsches generally go down like a cup of room-temperature Rheineck with hopheads, but the odd exception sneaks through (e.g. Hallertau Luxe!). And the rate at which our first 20 litres disappeared suggested there will be no resistance to Europa.

  This week we have Europa in both its CD and 12" hand pumped and cold, fizzy releases. It will be followed any week now by Rapture - the same moderately hopped, balanced summer ale, fermented with a Belgian abbey ale yeast.

  For more information on these two beers, please read our Rock Music History Lesson below.

• Søren Erikson - a.k.a 8 Wired Brewing - continues to give us reasons to be thankful. This week he has agreed to submit his latest experiment to the ultimate test.

  As if brewing a big, rich Belgian-style Tripel with three different yeasts wasn't experimental enough, Søren has doubled-down and brewed what might be New Zealand's first (semi-) commercial, sultana-infused Quadrupel. (As far as we can tell, Quadrupel is not even a BJCP-recognised style.) And as with the Tripel, Søren is hedging his bets by using different yeasts.

  So waiting in the vault are: The Sultan of Swing (Ardennes yeast fermented) and The Sultan of Swing (Westmalle yeast fermented). Søren isn't yet happy with the portion fermented with Unibroue yeast.

  We're looking for glasses small enough to serve these 11% monsters in. But we recommend asking for 150ml at a time.

Rock Music History Lesson

The following information should be well and truly understood by a high proportion of our regular customers. But for those who don't get the Rapture/Europa reference, please read on.

New York's Blondie were pioneers of the New Wave and Punk scene in the mid-70s. There was a time when they were considered raw and edgy, even though their lead singer was a playboy bunny who possessed "a bombshell zombie's voice that can sound dreamily seductive and woodenly Mansonite within the same song". By the 80s they were having chart success in obscure outposts of rock n' roll like New Zealand. And yet they had enough nous and nerve to be the first act ever to make money from a song featuring rap.

That song was Rapture - a peculiar blend of disco, pop, jazz and hip hop. It was on an album called Autoamerican, released in 1980. Also on Autoamerican was Europa - a mainly instrumental, orchestral piece that strangely wasn't a hit in New Zealand.

For the record, many people of taste and discernment consider Lars von Trier's 1991 movie Europa (a.k.a. Zentropa) to be the most interesting artistic work to go by that name.

Oh - and there was this.

Whatever memory works for you please sit back, relax, sip and reminisce about your favourite 20th century cultural touchstone.