January 2nd, 2014

Immediately below...

• The Great HZ Survey of 2013
• X-treme Hints
• The Counts Return
• Hopefully New Release Tuesday

The Great HZ Survey of 2013

2013 was a big year for beer in Wellington, and all signs point to 2014 being even bigger. Thank you to all of our wonderful customers who spent time with us in our beer dungeon last year, we couldn't exist without you! With 2013 now at an end, it is now time to find out from the people whose opinions matter to us the most what the best of the year in beer was.

We’ve put together our annual survey, so we can find out what our customers favourites of the year have been. We’ve made a few suggestions to help jog your memory, but feel free to enter your own options. Fill out the survey here, after a couple of weeks we’ll announce the results and analysis.

X-treme Hints

The 7’s is one of Wellington’s most celebrated annual events, but for much of the hospitality industry it is the most dreaded weekend of the year.

Wellington becomes inundated with costumed revellers from throughout the country, out to party hard from morning to night.

In previous years we’ve opened, and found that our normal customer base tends to (justifiably) stay away from the zoo that descends upon the city. This coupled with the fact that our doorman has to turn away more people than allow through means it’s barely commercially viable for us to be open during the sevens.

The last straw came in 2013 (you don’t want to know what happened), and we announced we would not be open to the public for the 7’s this year.

But fear not! The more eagle-eyed of our Twitter followers may have notice a couple of un-subtle hints at what we’ll be doing instead during this ‘munter halloween’.

In 2012 we held a small extreme ale festival in a brewery-less ParrotDog Brewery.

I am pleased to announce that this year, X-Ale will be held at Hashigo Zake during 7’s weekend, on Saturday 8th Feb. Keep an eye out for next week’s e-mail, which will contain more info on tickets, times and beers!

The Counts Return

Adam Page and The Counts were our first ever live act, setting in motion what is now a stalwart tradition of live music Saturdays. Adam, Ricky and Ed have got back together to do another round of bar gigs, and this Saturday will grace our lounge with amazing improvised jazz, swing and seduction. This will be their second to last gig ever as Adam is heading back to Aussie later this year, so you’d better not miss it.

The following Saturday our own bartender Josh will performing in the lounge with his Klesmer band Oy Azoy. Such a multitalented bunch we’ve got behind the bar.

Hopefully New Release Tuesday

The latest shipment from California has arrived! Sadly, it is currently being held hostage by customs. With the current public holiday induced slowness, it is unclear how long it will be before the beer is released.

All going well, we’ll have it by Tuesday and can unleash Green Flash Symposium IPA. Originally brewed for the 2008 Craft Brewers Conference to show off San Diego’s brewing style, now re-brewed and released to the public. Symposium has hops added at every step during the brewing process, and ends up at a whopping 75IBU, and 7% ABV. Fingers crossed for a speedy customs inspection or we’ll have to delay a week.

December 19, 2013

The Warm Fuzzies

A big thank you to all who came along to support Kaibosh and Room at the Inn at last Fridays Kegs for Christmas charity event. After draining both kegs on the night, we raised just over $1500 for the charities. All of the staff had a great time, it’s a great feeling being able to use our passion for craft beer to help some worthy causes.

Darren Watson’s Final Gig

As previously reported, we’re sad to be losing one of our favourite Saturday musical acts. The legendary Darren Watson recently announced he is giving up late night gigs to focus on recording. Maybe he’s getting ‘too old for this shit’, but Darren still manages to exude energy and musical talent every time he takes the stage in our lounge.

Darren and his Underground Blues Band play their last gig at Hashigo Zake 10pm Saturday. The cost to participate in this historic event is $0.

Tauranaga in the Spotlight

As our little Mikes machine in the corner usually hosts wee cute 10L kegs of Mike’s beer, you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s tied to Mike’s Brewery. However, as we are stubbornly determined to remain a true free house, we’ve insisted that we rent it from Mikes to keep it a free tap. Even when Mike’s was the only brewery filling the proprietary german designed 10L kegs which fit the machine. Now Fitzpatrick’s brewing has joined Mikes in supporting the 10L keg format, and we can show the free-ness of the tap.

We have just received a sizeable lot of these 10L kegs filled with Fitzpatrick’s beer, including Pale Ale, ESB, American Brown Ale, Imperial Porter and Summer Ale. The latter Summer Ale is a brand new beer, and as such will be our New Release Tuesday beer on the 24th.

Totes Mcgotes, Malted Oats.

There were a few new names in our recent shipment of beer from Townshend, and in classic Townshend style some have a story. Taupo Point Pilsner is a pilsner made with a new, unnamed experimental hop from NZ Hops and is on tap right now. At first I thought the name of the new hop was ‘Taupo Point’. But after further investigation I discovered it is named thusly because Martin Townshend went on a yachting trip to Taupo Point while the beer was fermenting.
Another new name from the mind of Martin is Totes Mcgotes, a beer made using only malted oats in the grist. The name is a reference to the movie ‘I Love You Man’ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hojeYoMIv4&feature=youtu.be&t=9s), chosen simply because it rhymes with malted oats.

Ramen for Dinner

Who can really be bothered cooking after all that Christmas indulgence? Why not come down on the 27th and just have some delicious Ramen shop for dinner! We’ll be serving Ramen from 5pm the day after Boxing Day!

A Reminder

If you’re one of the five people who stick around in Wellington over the Christmas/new year period, remember that we’ll be opening as usual at midday every day except for Christmas day.

December 12, 2013

Summer Sommer

Friday the 13th will be a day for multitasking. At the same time as launching the 2013 batch of of Garage Project’s Summer Sommer, we’ll also be holding a charity event benefiting Kaibosh and Room at the Inn christmas dinner. You can support these causes by multitasking too! Simply come along tomorrow from 5pm and buy a Garage Project tap beer, which will also be a donation to the afore mentioned charities. Threatening to steal the show from Summer Sommer will be Lord Cockswain’s Courage Blended Porter. You may know this bourbon barrel aged imperial porter from its bottle release, but this is the first time it will be on tap. All proceeds from LCCBP will count towards the donations. Donating to charity by drinking beer? Everyone wins!

Christmas Opening Hours

No table of dates required here. We’ll be closed on Christmas day (as required by law), otherwise we’ll be opening every day at midday as per usual. Easy.

Black Spider Stomp

If you’re out and about on Saturday night, why not pop in and have a great beer with some great music. This week Black Spider Stomp bring to the lounge their swinging gypsy mix of original compositions and Django Reinhardt classics for a night of old-school traveller fun. Playing from 10pm Saturday, and as always, no charge.

Ramen Shop Friday

We’re opening early at 11.30am this Friday so you have more time to grab a bowl of delicious noodley goodness that is Ramen Shop.

New Release Hoffday

Baylands brewery’s love affair with rye malt and David Hasselhoff continues on Tuesday with the release of the first test batch of ‘Knight Ryder’. This seasonal misfit is a 6% chocolate rye stout, so should be perfect for summer drinking. Aidan just brewed a small batch on his 50L test kit, so only one keg of this beer exists. Come and give the brewer some feedback from 5pm this Tuesday.

New & Coming soon

New to the fridge are some exciting Belgian sours! Lindemans Cuvee Renee Geuze Grand Cru (dirty-in-a-good-way), Liefmans Cuvee Brut Kriek (sour cherry) and Liefmans Goudenband (subtly sour brown). New in the bottle from the states is Green Flash Saison Diego featuring orange, ginger and grains of paradise (whatever those are). Also Speakeasy Butchertown Black Ale, a masterfully balanced black IPA.

On tap now is Twisted Hop’s new IIPA ‘Double Hopback’ and newcomer Stewart Brewing’s ‘Top of the Hops Pilsner’. Coming soon on tap is Behemoth’s newly released Chur! pale ale, and Golden Bear’s Ale/Lager blend ‘IPAL’.

December 5, 2013

Rogue Liberation... Beer Without Borders... Double Pumpkin... Saturday Soul... Summer Sommer 2013... Big Bad Christmas...

Rogue Liberation

As mentioned last week, we recently received our biggest shipment of Rogue beer yet. Thanks to the kind people who attended Santa Session, we now have plenty of space in our fridge for beers from this shipment. Look out for the striking yellow 750ml bottle of Rogue Honey Kolsch, and 355ml bottles of the bizarrely delicious Hazelnut Brown Ale.

Liberty is also helping fill all that fridge space, with two new 330ml bottles - the well known ‘Oh Brother’ Pale Ale and brand new ‘Halo’ Pilsner. These are both crafted at their new Auckland brewery, and are excellent value for money. Halo Pilsner uses the recipe Jo Wood and Martin Townshend thought up for their wet hopped pilsner ‘Oldham’s Tap’, using regular pellet hops instead of wet hops straight from the vine.

Beer Without Borders

Some big news was announced this week with the wholesale department of Hashigo Zake becoming its own company, Beer Without Borders. You may have seen an article in the paper or on Stuff detailing the new arrangement. This won’t change anything at Hashigo except for what’s written on the tiny ‘imported by’ stickers that we spend hours applying each shipment, and the red room should look less like an office during the day.

Double Pumpkin

Speaking of Beer Without Borders - their latest shipments from Baird and Rogue contained a new pumpkin ale in each - arriving just in time for the traditional pumpkin beer drinking season to be over.

A sensible bar would spread these out, but what the hell. New Release Tuesday this week, features Rogue Pumpkin Patch Ale and Baird Country Girl Kabocha Ale. Kabocha is technically a Japanese squash, described as ‘elegantly sweet’. Baird’s Country Gurl bucks the trend of adding spices to pumpkin ales, letting the flavour of the squash speak for itself. Rogue’s Pumpkin Patch is a classic American Pumpkin Ale, with all the spices you’d expect to see in a pumpkin pie (ginger, cloves, vanilla bean, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg). Interestingly, all of the gourds used in both of these beers were grown by the breweries themselves. Baird Country Girl Kabocha Ale and Rogue Pumpkin Patch Ale will be on tap this Tuesday from 5pm. Anyone providing the staff with pumpkin pie may have a glass of each on the house...

Saturday Soul

This Saturday’s live act sees songstress Kirsten Te Rito team up with James Illingworth to funk up the jazz and ground the soul. Live in the lounge from 10pm Saturday, tickets are available nowhere, because it’s a free gig as always!

Summer Sommer 2013

When we brought Nøgne ø brewer Kjetl Jikun to visit NZ in 2011, his first collaboration was carried out on Garage Project’s 50L plant, which was all they had back then. The resulting cøllab

was a strong golden rye ale with Pohutukawa honey called Summer Sømmer (video here). Last year it was scaled up from 50L to their full sized kit, and now the 2013 edition of Summer Sømmer is here.
We’re launching Summer Sømmer on the auspicious date of Friday the 13th December, from 5pm. All proceeds from Summer Sømmer will be donated to charity. The GP guys said they’d ‘see what’s knocking about’ as well, meaning some GP rarities will possibly be accompanying it on tap.

Big Bad Christmas

Time is running out to book your place in our final beer degustation of the year. Sam has been working with the chefs from Big Bad Wolf to create some amazing matches like Captain Cooker with Paua smoked bacon terrine & Nogne O Underlig Jul matched with Christmas Ham.

Tickets are $90, and are available from cultbeerstore.co.nz

November 28, 2013

Darren Watson's Final Gigs... Big Bad Wolf's Christmas Charcuterie... The Ramen Shop... Santa Session... Rogue XS Russian Imperial Stout... Finally...

Darren Watson's Final Gigs

Wellington's own living blues legend, Darren Watson, has announced that he'll retreat from the rough and tumble of pub gigs at the end of this year and concentrate on recording and ticketed concerts. It's an entirely reasonable decision, but it means we'll only get to host two more performances from Darren and his Underground Blues Band here at Hashigo Zake.

This is the very much the end of an era - some of us remember Darren and Chicago Smoke Shop playing gigs around Wellington in the 80s. The second to last such gig is this Saturday at 10pm. The final one will be on December 21. No matter how much sentiment is attached to these final performances, our cover charge remains the same - $0.

Big Bad Wolf's Christmas Charcuterie

The final (for 2013) and most ambitious of our collaborations with Big Bad Wolf takes place on Sunday, December 8, on the charcuterie's own premises over on Wakefield St. All our previous food and beer matching events with Big Bad Wolf have been enormously popular and received rave reviews. The eating and drinking starts at 4pm. Tickets are limited and are available from our own Cult Beer Store.

The Ramen Shop

Asher and Tsubasa bring the Ramen Shop back to Hashigo Zake tomorrow. From 11:30am we'll be serving their ramen bowls, including freshly made noodles, an interesting variety of toppings and, best of all, delicious porky broth.

The Santa Session

We've learned that a certain, long standing tradition of the Wellington craft beer scene has been moved to take place on the first Tuesday of December, clashing just nicely with the 2013 Santa Session. We could complain, panic or hastily reschedule. We even thought of having a second Santa Session, but there can only be one Santa Session in any calendar year. So in the end we're just going to suggest that this is a golden opportunity for those who missed out on places in the Santa Session to snap them up from those who would rather go to Beer Options.

For those happy to keep their Santa Session booking, we'll see you at around 6:30 on Tuesday.

Rogue XS Russian Imperial Stout

Back in the day, Rogue XS Russian Imperial Stout was one of our early big sellers. Black as the bottom of a cave at midnight, packed with coffee, chocolate and liquorice flavours, finishing gratuitously bitter and poured from a ceramic bottle that seemed to absorb light, it was very much one of the original "cult beers" that helped establish Hashigo Zake's reputation.

Supplies of it have been erratic since then, so it's good to know that New Zealand's original importers of Rogue Ales are, about now, taking delivery of our largest ever order of this beer. In fact it's the largest order of Rogue beer we've ever received. There will also be new season Yellow Snow, fresh Chipotle Ale, more Beard Beer and a couple of new beers in the form of Integrity Ale, Honey Kolsch and Rogue's own Pumpkin Ale, made with pumpkins grown on their own farms.

Hold your breath.

Finally...

The era of the celebrity-guest beertender begins tomorrow night in Auckland, when our own Dave Wood helps programme the taps at Brothers and dispenses beer and advice to their customers. It will be like "Playing Favourites" but with beer instead of songs. And the list of beers is, unsurprisingly, pretty stellar.

November 7, 2013

Santa Session... Wellington Beer in Auckland... New Release Tuesday... On Tap Now or Soon...

Santa Session

The 2013 Santa Session has provoked a decent amount of interest from many of the people that we hoped it would, so we thank those of you who have booked already and advise that those dithering that half the places are now gone.

For those who don't know what we're talking about, here's how it works:

We set up a pouring station away from the main bar and stockpile a wide variety of bottled beer that we rotate through as the evening goes on. Ticket holders are welcome to come back to our pouring station over and over again and get their glass refilled with whichever beer we're pouring at the minute. Some of the beer may be slightly past its best, some of it you may not have heard of and some will be absolute gems that we simply have too much of.

The action lasts two and a half hours, starting at 6:30pm on December the 3rd. Tickets can be bought over the bar or at our web store. And of course there's a substantial discount for SOBA members.

Wellington Beer in Auckland

A couple of Wellington breweries don't have the attention they deserve in Auckland at the moment, so today (Thursday) we're coordinating with Brothers Beer in Auckland to give them a little bit of a profile. Specifically Kereru and Remedy Brewing will be on tap this evening. There will also be recent releases from Funk Estate and ParrotDog to ensure that Brothers is oozing with Wellington-ness this evening.

Why are we telling you this? Simply in case anyone reading this happens to be residing in Auckland right now and/or because you have Auckland friends dying to know what the next big thing in the beer world is going to be.

New Release Tuesday

There's an element of shame, embarrassment and risk associated with next week's new release. The shame and embarrassment comes from the fact that most of us should have tried it already but missed out. This is because it was scheduled to be served at the Pacific Beer Expo, but the content of the keg didn't match the name written on the top.

The beer in question is Liberty/Hallertau KomissionA the New Zealand Pale Ale brewed to commission the new, shared Liberty/Hallertau brewery. The risk of rescheduling it as our new release on Tuesday is that we don't know for sure what will come out of the next keg called KomissionA. We may have to have a backup beer just in case.

So Liberty/Hallertau KomissionA may or may not be our new release next Tuesday at 5pm.

On Tap Now or Soon

We're having a beer festival in slow motion right now. Leftovers from the Pacific Beer Expo are steadily making their way on tap. Insane, decadent, extravagant, exotic and generally special beers are taking abbreviated turns on tap. For instance, look out for:

• Jungle Brewing's Tropical Wheat and Kiasu Stout.
• The Yeastie Boys/Pretty Things collaboration - Our Turn Your Turn.
• Green Flash's Saison Diego
• Speakeasy Prohibition Amber Ale
• The extremely pink Baylands Pacific Sunset.

October 31, 2013

Big Thanks... 2013 Santa Session... Music on Saturday... New Release Tuesday... Ramen... Finally...

Big Thanks

Hashigo Zake has a number of people to thank for the enormous success of Sunday's Pacific Beer Expo.

First and foremost we thanks the hundreds of people who did "get" what the festival is about and how it works, knew not to question why the ticket price was what it was, and came along and enjoyed themselves. It's not our style to wait at the door with survey forms, so we can only go by the anecdotal feedback we've received. And that feedback suggests that attendees were pretty happy and satisfied. So thank you for coming.

Steph Coutts of Craft Beer College and her pool of willing volunteers are one of the reasons why Wellington is at such an advantage when it comes to the organisation of beer festivals.

We got all sorts of help from Goldings Free Dive. And ParrotDog and Garage Project helped make sure we had enough taps to pour that number of beers.

A number of brewers went to a lot of trouble to supply us with new and/or interesting beers. A few even attended. One actually volunteered to pour his own beer.

For once we are in a position to make a nice early announcement about next year's Pacific Beer Expo. It will take place on the Saturday and Sunday of Labour Weekend (October 25 & 26) at our original venue of the Boatshed, but with one key difference. We'll also have the use of the adjoining Wellington Rowers Function Centre, giving us significantly more capacity than we've had before, but in not one, but two, character venues.

2013 Santa Session

Now also seems the ideal time to announce the 2013 Santa Session. This is our now annual exercise in clearing a little stock and celebrating the looming year's end with some of our favourite customers, organised in collaboration with (and with a discount for members of) SOBA.

It may or may not be common knowledge, but our wholesale business has grown around 300% in the last year, which means that there's a lot more beer passing through our warehouse with increasing potential for some really good products to get overlooked by our wholesale or bar customers.

There must be plenty of Santa Session veterans by now, so you know the drill... tickets are available at the Cult Beer Store, or we'll take your booking over the bar. Anyone taking advantage of the substantial discount to SOBA members will be expected to show a SOBA membership card on the night.

Music on Saturday

We host something of a Wellington Jazz supergroup on Saturday evening, with Leigh Jackson and Nick Granville playing as the Leigh Jackson & Nick Granville Quartet with the four made up by Nick Tipping (bass) and Reuben Bradley (drums). From 10pm in the lounge, at no charge.

New Release Tuesday

Our favourite Tauranga nano-brewery is now generating a little more variety and has invested in a stock of the same 10 litre kegs that Mike's brewery use. And because we aren't contractually bound to pour Mike's beer through the Mike's machine, we can take advantage of this new diversity we're getting from Fitzpatrick's. And next week we'll make Fitzpatrick's ESB our new release. On tap from 5pm on Tuesday.

Ramen

Tomorrow is a Ramen Friday. Delicious porky broth and freshly made noodles go on sale from around 11:30am tomorrow. Thanks to the Ramen Shop.

Finally

Tonight is the Night of Pretending To Be Out, so tomorrow must be the Day Of The Dead. Which presumably explains the unheralded arrival of these:

They look like anything but a vessel containing beer, and we don't know if there are more where they came from. But they and a couple of kegs that appeared at the same time came with some message about an embargo that will run out some time tomorrow.