October 6th, 2016

Welcome Miss Van Der Bier

Beer Baroness' latest release is a style we don't see much of these days: Belgian IPA.

Ava's interpretation of the style "Miss Van Der Bier" is full of US grown El Dorado, Chinook and Simcoe hops with a bit of kiwi Rakau.
The Belgian aspect comes in with Carabelge® and Special W® for that real raisiny/candy sweetness.
A clever combination of ESB and Saison yeasts were used to impart a Belgian yeast character, while still drying out the beer nicely.

We're tapping Miss Van der Bier at 5pm this Tuesday.

The Glamour of the BGONZAs

Last weekend the annual Brewers Guild Of New Zealand Awards (BGONZAs) were judged down in Christchurch.

The BGONZAs are the most respected commercial beer competition in NZ, and the results of last week's judging are due to be announced at a swanky awards dinner this Saturday.
Sadly for us Wellingtonian beer fans the BGONZAs are being held in Auckland again this year, but that doesn't mean we have to miss out on the fun, excitement and dressing up.

The Brewers Guild are kindly live streaming the BGoNZAs, so this Saturday we'll be showing them live with sound in the red room.

You'll be among the first to find out who get the golds, who gets the trophies, who is named NZ's best beer writer and who is crowned this year's champion brewer.

There's a 6pm start time on the Brewers Guild event, which means the awards will probably start around 7pm. But get in early to stake out a seat, last year the room was packed.

Don't forget, just like the real BGoNZA's; formal dress is encouraged!

8 Wired Sour & Wild

While you're watching the BGONZAs we'll also be serving up flights of 8 Wired's three new (mostly) sour beers - which are sure to feature in this year's awards.

8 Wired dropped three exciting new beers onto the market late last month, a hoppy barrel aged sour; Gypsy Funk, a barrel aged sour strong ale; Grand Cru 2015 and a bretted Belgian ale in the style of Orval; Rendition.

These three arrived in our fridges this week, so we thought we'd put on a tasting flight of all of them so you can get to know the new 8 Wired crew.
These beers go for $28-$40 over the bar, but this Saturday were doing a 100ml TeKu pour of each for $15 to help you decide which ones to add to your cellar.

Here's what the brewery has to say about them:

Gypsy Funk Dry Hopped Barrel Aged Pale Sour Ale
"This is an intensely sour brew. Aged in wine barrels for up to 2 years, then heavily dry hopped with the unique flavours of all NZ hops.
This is a very complex and super sour brew that was a massive hit for us at GABS Auckland. Many "wow's" and good amount of expletives were shared over its super sourness and heady, oily resin and heavy funk characteristics. A must try for the sour lover! "

Rendition Dry Hopped Belgian Style Ale
"This is our rendition of an age old monastery beer done the "8 Wired way". Brewed and dry hopped with NZ grown Styrian Golding hops, fermented with a Belgian yeast and refermented with brettanomyces. This brew will bottle condition and will develop aromas of hay with fruity and floral notes. Flavour will become full of funky fermentation characters, raisin and fig notes, and a bitter finish."

Grand Cru 2015 Pinot Noir Barrel Aged Sour Ale
"This heady brew is aged with currants and cascara coffee cherries with brettanomyces and pediococcus in pinot noir barrels. This brew was then added to a red wine foedre for further ageing. The effects are remarkable, leading to red wine heavy flavours of stone fruit, leather and our trademark sour hit. This brew will bottle condition with the flavours and aromas developing further over time."

We're serving flights from midday this Saturday, don't miss out on this great opportunity.

Back to the Main Event

As predicted, the vice presidential debate was a bit of a snooze fest.
However we're back to the main stage 2pm this Monday, with the second presidential debate.

This is the "town hall" debate, meaning the candidates will be asked questions  by citizens directly, the other half will be posed by the moderator based on topics of broad public interest as reflected in social media and other sources.

We're streaming the debate live from 2pm Monday, and to add another dimension to the debate we'll replace the small digital menu with politifact's live fact checking.

Weekly PBE Digest

Before we get into this week's PBE beer announcements, a quick heads up. The pie graph on the right shows ticket sales for the Saturday session of PBE. Pink is the 'sold' portion.
If you're wanting to come along on Saturday, book now or miss out. This session will likely sell out in the next day or two!

Now, on to the beers...

First up from Australia, La Sirène Brewing is bringing two of their finest to PBE16.
Number one is their 4.8% Limitée Petit Sour, a naturally soured Farmhouse Ale.
"Our Petit Sour is a wonderfully fresh Farmhouse Ale that has been soured naturally with our indigenous souring bacteria within the brewery’s walls. Built on a Pilsner base malt, the Petit Sour has fresh Australian hop aromatics coupled with the dry and tangy texture to come together in a refreshing way. Can you stop at 1.."

Number two from La Sirène is Harvest Ale:

"La Sirène Harvest Ale represents our most local of beers using locally sourced pale malts & fruity hops all brewed with funky Brettanomyces.
A truly hop-forward beer, our Harvest Ale is refreshingly pungent has strong resinous characters with mid palate farmhouse funk & is reminiscent of a blue cheese washed with lemon rind.... Yum!"

The Beast is a monster of a beer.
A collaboration between Kerry Gray (Choice Bros), Brayden Rawlinson (9 Barnyard Owls), Karl Hayes (Te Aro Brewing), Frans Filius (Grutte Pier Brouwerij, NL) and "Big Dan Churbro", who got together at Te Aro Brewing to put down a Belgian Quad called "Beast."
Beer Without Borders sent down a field team to observe the brew and found out a bit about it...It's a "Belgian Quad with a cocktail of Belgian yeast varieties and a large proportion of Belgian Candy and Gladfield Dark Crystal malt, more of a liqueur than a beer."


This year Tiamana is showcasing Blushing Bride.
A Raspberry Gose specially brewed for Pomeroy's Old Brewery Inns 50th Birthday and also friends of PBE Narelle & Hadyns wedding.
This gose is tart, dry, raspberrry, and sour.

Speakeasy Ales & Lagers's Blind Tiger IIPA described best by the guys who make it:
"Easily the hoppiest beer we've ever brewed, Blind Tiger Imperial IPA has a massively aromatic blend of hops that deliver resinous citrus fruit flavors, with the bitterness cranked well over 100 IBUs. With an absurd addition of over 10 pounds of hops per barrel—including Citra, Chinook, Simcoe, and Centennial—and clocking in at over 9% ABV, Blind Tiger explodes with flavors of freshly cut melon, citrus peel, and ripe passionfruit. We encourage you to grab this beer while its fresh."


Stone Brewing will be bringing their 6th Anniversary Porter to PBE16!
"An intensified version of Stone Smoked Porter. We cranked up the malts and hops a notch or three and conditioned it on French and American oak, which accentuated our porter’s distinctive smokiness and amplified its chocolate and roast coffee flavors while also adding subtle notes of toffee, cherries, dried berries and vanilla.
e’re proud to give those who missed out—as well as those who didn’t—a fresh shot at experiencing this smoky, dark-as-night wonder."


Phantasmagoria is the new experimental offering from Maiden Brewing Company a 7.5% Brettanomyces IPA
Gently bittered and smooth in body this beer has been brewed with dried tropical flowers from Asia and combined with German, New Zealand and US hops bringing this Phantasmagoria of flavours together and fermenting it entirely with Brettanomyces.
Dank. Wild. Fruity.

Follow the daily announcements over on the PBE page, or wait 'till next week's summary.
PBE is just two weeks away, so don't forget to get your tickets here before it's too late.

September 29th, 2016

Fortunate Islands Two Ways

Making fruit infused beer properly is a pain the arse. I can understand why the majority of 'fruited' IPAs use fruit essences, using real fruit is a hell of a lot harder to scale up.

While visiting New Zealand last year, Modern Times head brewer Matt Walsh told us about the ridiculous amount of time it took to zest thousands of grapefruit for the amazing Fortunate Islands with Grapefruit Zest.

He swore (I think it was the f-word) that they would never ever make that beer again.

Luckily for us Matt wasn't true to his word - with the latest US shipment Grapefruit Fortunate Islands has returned!

This Tuesday we're tapping 2016 Grapefruit Fortunate Islands at 5pm. We thought it would be fun to have the standard Fortunate Islands on next to it, so we'll tap a keg of that at 5 as well!

We'll serve both in 200ml TeKu, 300ml Fancy and 473ml US Pints so you can choose how

Aussie Rules, Aussie Beers & Mince Pies

This Saturday is the biggest event on the Aussie sporting calendar - the AFL Grand Final.

The Sydney Swans have yet again made the final, with Western Bulldogs also making it in - for the first time since 1961. The game kicks off at 4.30pm and will be accompanied by some amazing Aussie brewers on tap. We'll have:

- Stone & Wood Pacific Ale (4.4%, classic thirst quencher)
- N.O.M.A.D. Without a Paddle (5.8%, delicious Kriek from GABS)
- Akasha Iago's Revenge (9.8%, Imperial Black IPA from GABS)

For the authentic AFL experience we'll even serve up some classic stadium mince pies for a special price. Well, they'll be served like a stadium mince pie: in a bag with a squeezy tomato sauce. The filling will be a little classier, with angus beef mince cooked in 8 Wired Batch 2.18 Imperial Stout.

If you're not familiar with the rules of Aussie rules, there will be plenty of authentic Australians around to explain them to you. So come on down at 4, grab a pie and stake out a spot.

JB3 & Special Guests

This Saturday at 9pm JB3 bring the Boogaloo and New Orleans Funk to the HZ lounge.

JB3 are Jake Baxendale, Shaun Anderson & Daniel Hayles - but this weekend they've got friends in Welly for a different gig. And they'll be joining in as well.

So you get six for the price of three - and that price is free!

The VPs Duke it Out

Thanks to everyone who came down for Tuesday's very... interesting presidential debate. We had a packed house and thankfully the stream only dropped once just before things got underway.

RNZ even sent a reporter down and interviewed a couple of ex-pat attendees. We think John Campbell did a pretty good job of pronouncing our name.

The next debate may not be as entertaining, as it is between two politicians - Vice Presidential candidates Tim Kaine and Mike Pence.
It probably won't attract the same crowd, but we'll still be showing the VP debate Wednesday from 2pm for anyone interested.

Weekly PBE Digest

This week saw PBE beer announcements local and overseas, new and old. Here's what's been shared this week over on the PBE Facebook page in case you missed them.

Our first Vintage Keg Announcement: This Imperial Brown Ale has been aging nicely at Beer Without Borders coolstore since 2014 and will be released for PBE16!

From Austrailian brewery Nail Brewing, this batch of Hughe Dunn (named in honour of WA brewing guru Hugh Dunn) won a trophy and a medal at Australian's International Beer Awards and is described by the brewer as:

"a deeply brown beer with tonnes of creamy caramel, chocolate and nut aromas" coming in at 8%ABV.

We're excited to welcome Mount Brewing Co. from Mt. Maunganui to this year's PBE!

They will be debuting Crimson Tide, an American Amber Ale.

This red ale is brewed with a generous amount of Columbus, Amarillo, and Nelson Sauvin.

Another from Nomad Brewing Co. coming to PBE16 is Freshie Salt & Pepper Gose.

Here's their story on Freshie:

The brain child of Leo and Brooks while sitting staring out at the beautiful ocean off Freshwater Beach on Sydney's Northern Beaches. The ocean mist and its fantastic smell had to be somehow put into a beer, so why not add sea water directly to the beer. Hold up, don't they add salt to Goses in Germany??!!

Traditionally Goses are slightly tart, savory and spicy (coriander), and light in body and ABV. We tried to get as close as possible to tradition as far as malts, yeast, and salt dosage but obviously gave it our very own Nomad twist by adding the sea water and Tasmanian pepper."


Brewed for their 1st Birthday, The Laboratory is bringing a cask of their Double Dodo, Imperial Brown Ale to PBE16!
This cask conditioned real ale is both rich and nutty, a bit stronger and a bit more hoppy.


Llew from Wild and Woolly Brewing is bringing a little bit of Mexico to PBE16: introducing Chelonii Verde!

"Chelonii Verde is a chelada, a Mexican beer cocktail.
Tart, savoury and lightly spicy it's flavoured with lime juice, a hint of chili and a variety of umami-rich seasonings. Pleasantly refreshing, it's just the thing to cleanse the palate in between hefty festival beers or enjoy a glass of in the (hopefully) sunny outdoor seating areas."


Yeastie Boys are remixing one of their signature beers, Pot Kettle Black into Pale Kettle Black for PBE16.

Essentially it's "that lovable rogue PKB but without the chocolate or roasted malt."

The lovable rogue Stu McKinlay models what could be the new label art.

That's all of this week's announcements, keep an eye on the PBE page for more daily updates. But we'll chronicle them here next week if FB ain't your thing.

It's looking more like a sell-out PBE each week, keep an eye out for some eye-catching posters around town soon. Get your tickets here before it's too late.

September 22, 2016

The Democalypse Begins

The US presidential election has so far been... interesting to say the least.

Next Tuesday they kick into a higher gear, with the first of three presidential debates. Seeing the different debating styles of Clinton and Drumpf Trump go head to head will almost certainly be spectacular.

The timing for all of the debates works out fairly well for us, with all debates happening at 2pm New Zealand time.

So we'll be screening them live from 2pm - 3:30pm, starting on Tuesday. Take a long lunch and join us for some democracy.
Here's the full schedule:

Sept 27th, 2pm: Presidential Debate #1
October 5th, 2pm: Vice Presidential Debate
October 10th, 2pm: Presidential Debate #2 (town hall style)
October 20th, 2pm: Presidential Debate #3

We'll be showing all of them live - probably only time our TVs will be tuned to Fox News.

NRT Gets Real

Aidan from Baylands recently went to Christchurch, and collaborated with Jim Holly of Twisted Hop.
Together they created a cask conditioned American Brown Ale, for the Twisted Hop's recent 'Firkin Fest' (which sounded awesome - 15 beers on cask).

Their creation has been dubbed "Brown is the New Black" and features the increasingly rare US hops Citra and Amarillo.

We're getting out the mallet and tapping a 20L cask at 5pm this Tuesday and serving it through one of our handpumps.

Get in!

Te Aro Imperial Stout-Off

It's impressive that Te Aro Brewing have managed to fit a 1000L brewery in the limited space available out the back of Brewtopia. Even more impressive is the fact that they squeezed in a small but excellent barrel aging programme going on, and we've got their first bottled releases available now.

This Saturday we'll be pouring the two big hitters from the initial release side by side:

Pinot Noir Barrel Aged Chocolate Stout (12%) &
Uncle Tom's Bourbon Barrel Stout (10.5%)

Grab a 150ml pour of each for $12.5 this Saturday only.

Weekly PBE Digest

This year Choice Bros. are bringing "SUPER HELDEN":
"A super version of our standard Pilsner ‘Helden’ - Hoppy New World German Pilsner with secondary fermentation using a private bug blend from Portland, Oregon.
Something that would piss off the Germans."

And from Nomad, their award-winning Long Trip Saison:
"Combination of pale and wheat malts, with the addition into the mash of a special variety of coffee beans from a local specialist roaster.
European and American hops then get combined with some fantastic unique Australian ingredients, like wattle seeds added at the end of the boil.
Our aim is to create a dry, clean and very sessionable Saison, with hints of coffee, citrus and spice.."

North End Brewing are releasing a new Barrel-Aged beer from the Salt & Wood range at PBE16. Introducing: La Voile Noir
"La Voile Noir (or Dark Veil) is a blend of three different base beers aged and given secondary fermentation in our wood cellar. The result is a dark funky barrel aged beer loosely in the Saison tradition."
Our good friends Kereru from the Upper Hutt are brewing something new for PBE16: Guava Weisse
"A refreshing kettle soured Berliner Weisse with loads of guava puree"

Outlier Cartel will be debuting a new American-style Fruit IPA named Punica & Herb on handpump at PBE.
"Loosely based on an IPA, fermented to dryness by an english ale yeast with pomegranate molasses, NZ, and US hops and juicy goodness. Unfiltered but well conditioned"


This year Craftwork Brewery is offering their Anniversaire 2016, a Barrel-aged Saison, with Brett and Redcurrants!

"A red brett Saison, aged in a Pinot Noir barrel on Redcurrants, for 6 months. Sweet, tart and fruity. Keg conditioned"



You maybe forgiven for thinking that is a large coffee pot sitting in a brewery, but it is the kit that il gufo is brewed on.

il gufo (the owl) is a collab with Ninebarnyardowls and Nomad Brewing Co that was brewed in Sydney. It is "a 9% Belgian Style Sour Tripel finished in secondary with the addition of slurry taken from both NOMAD Wild Mongrel (Wild Fruit Ale) and NOMAD Without a Paddle (Kriek)."

This keg is very limited, and will only be offered in small pours.

Get your tickets soon - Saturday is getting close to selling out!

Hate, Love & Coffee

Haterade is back! Liberty and Hallertau got together again to recreate this Soured IIPA, last seen a couple years ago.
Haterade isn't a sour beer as such, but has had a sour mash and contains a large percentage of acidulated malt.
This clever brewing wizardry makes Haterade dry and super drinkable without making it thin.

Garage Project brewed Hatsukoi for their Tokyo Taphouse WOAP event, and have now released the leftover kegs.

"Meaning "First love", Hatsukoi is a Japanese inspired pilsner, brewed with light malted barley and rice using the traditional first press method. Clean, crisp with a delicate noble hop character."

8 Wired have been nailing the dark beers recently, and the latest batch of Flat White continues this trend.
The coffee flavour isn't over extracted, and just tastes like good coffee. The added lactose adds body and rounds out the coffee and roast malt bitterness perfectly.

September 15th, 2016

Jumped the Gun

Our next New Release Tuesday beer was a small batch from Mt Cook's Wild & Woolly brewing that you may have tried at their Beervana stand this year: Mother Superior Barrel Fermented Belgian Style Tripel.

Only a single barrel of of Mother Superior was made, and we're tapping the last keg at 5pm Tuesday.

This tripel received the glowing praise of Michael from Craftwork Brewery - a master of Belgian styles. With praise like that it's only fair we make Mother Superior available for people like me who missed out on going to Beervana

We asked Wild & Woolly head brewer Llew Bardecki what Mother Superior is all aboot. We learned that Mother Superior spawned another beer, named Bitter Novice.

"The two beers were brewed as a partigyle, meaning that they both came from the same mash on the same brewday. Mother Superior was made from the first, sweetest wort out of the mash tun. Once this was drained off a bit of crystal malt was added to the mash and the lower gravity runnings made the wort for Bitter Novice.

"Mother Superior is a huge barrel-fermented Belgian-style Tripel (indeed, at 11.5% it's too strong to be a tripel by most style guidelines.)   Expect big yeast-derived aromas of bubblegum, white wine, pepper, and pineapple topped off with a bit of alcohol warmth."

"Bitter Novice begins with a huge noseful of hops, smelling of orange blossoms and sweet grasses. US Centennial and NZ Pacifica are at the heart of the flavour as well. The palate is dry and balanced towards the bitter: there's no mistaking this beer's IPA lineage but at 4.2% it's an easy drinking variety."

"Yeasty vs Hoppy, Wood Fermented vs Stainless Steel, Powerfully Boozy vs Easily Sessionable. Two sisters separated at birth that took very different directions thereafter."

With a story like that, we pretty much have to put these two sister beers on tap side by side. We'll make sure they're re-united on our taps at 5pm this Tuesday.

Seeing as she's a strong one, we'll make Mother Superior available in 200ml TeKu pours as well as 300ml fancies.

P(re)BE - Ramen & Hoppy Sours

Our Next US shipment contains a lot of exciting kegs, both new and returning. But when I saw what was coming over from Almanac, I got extra excited.

Kegs of eight different Almanac hoppy sours are coming in this next shipment.
With that many kegs of beers from a single hop series, I knew we had to do something special with them.

Single hop series like these are supposed to highlight the difference that each hop makes in a certain style of beer - in this case barrel aged sour ale.
So to feed these out over a few weeks of NRT's seemed like a waste, as you wouldn't be able to compare them very well.

So I thought "stuff it, let's chuck 'em all on at once!" But after a little bit more thought, having all eight of our taps as hoppy sours is probably unfair on people who aren't fans of sour beers...

So instead, on Saturday October 15th we're having something of a mini X-Ale and are bringing in extra taps to the bar and tapping six Almanac hoppy sours!

We'll be serving up El Dorado, Mosaic, Mandarina, Wakatu, Citra and Simcoe hoppy sours. You'll be able to grab a 150ml TeKu pour of each for just $35.

This all kicks off at midday on Oct 15th, so we got our buddies from The Ramen Shop to pop up in our kitchen for lunch!
You can chow down on amazing ramen while you decide what hop you like the best in your sour flight.

This is still a few weeks away, but make sure you get it in your calendar now.

Live in the Lounge: Tawhiri Funk

Tawhiri Funk are back, from 9pm this Saturday come on down and enjoy their super-heavy, super-tight, super-hype live funk, jazz and hip hop. There'll be original compositions, funky reworkings and free improvised future funk.

Tawhiri funk are: Thomas Friggins - Drums & Samples, Lorenzo Pradel - Alto Sax-Raps, Rainbow Warrior - Tenor Sax, Uncle Silverback (of Rhino-Boogie fame) - Bass Trombone/Turntablism & Ayrton Foote - Organ Fonk.

And of course Tawhiri funk come to you free of charge.

AFL Grand Final @ HZ

Another quick heads up about an upcoming event in two weeks: The AFL Grand Final on October 1st. Every year we show it, and this year the AFL Grand Final will be accompanied by some of the best Aussie brewers - on tap. We'll have:

- Stone & Wood Pacific Ale (4.4%, classic thirst quencher)
- N.O.M.A.D. Without a Paddle (5.8%, delicious Kriek from GABS)
- Akasha Iago's Revenge (9.8%, Imperial Black IPA from GABS)

For the authentic AFL experience we'll even serve up some classic stadium mince pies.

The game kicks off at 4.30pm on Saturday October 1st so get in before-hand to stake out a spot in front of a TV with pie in hand.

A Beer Or Three You Might Enjoy

It's Yakima Monster! It's been a while since we've had the monster on, too long. Jo Wood is still making amazing beer up in Auckland, make sure you get in on it.

Coming after Yakima Monster: C!tra IIPA....

Beer Baroness' collaboration Rye IPA with Modern Times is back.
Such a huge rye base for the hops to build on makes this stand out from your standard IPAs.

It's 11%, it's made with vanilla and jaggery sugar, it's aged in oak, it's 8 Wired Batch 2.18 and it's on tap now.

PBE 2016 Announcements

Daily PBE 2016 announcements have begun today, with Salt and Wood from Waikanae announced as this year's caterer:

"Almost as important as what you're going to drink this year is what you're going to eat...So we are super super stoked to announce that the Salt and Wood Collective are bringing their superstar BBQ skills down to the capital!!That's right, Waikanae's (not so) best kept secret is bringing the smoke to the The Pacific Beer Expo 2016!
and Vegetarians and don't worry, you will not be treated like 2nd class citizens! There will be BBQ delights for Carnivores, Herbivores & All those in-between."

Beer announcements should be starting over on the Facebook page tomorrow, but if you're not into FB I'll be sending out each week's announcements weekly right here.

September 8th, 2016

Another Draak On Tap

Aren't rules great?

It's not often that rules mean you get to drink MORE beer, but that's the case with this Tuesday's NRT.

North End always have some pretty amazing beers aging away in barrels. Thier 'Salt and Wood' series of Barrel aged beers has been impressive so far, and only seems to be getting more adventurous.
So naturally they'd want to enter them into the Brewers Guild of New Zealand Awards (BGONZAs) this November to get some recognition.

However, it is a rule of the BGONZAs that all beer entered has to have been 'commercially available'. 
Which is fair enough, and is probably meant to discourage the likes of WilliamsWarn using the BGONZAs as a promotion for their equipment.
So to make sure it's all above board, North End are giving us a sneak preview keg of their next Salt & Wood release - Oude Draak Barrel Aged Sour Brown.

That's right, following this week's NRT of BA Gulden Draak we've got another 'Draak' beer. However the story behind Oude Draak's name is no relation to the Belgian beer.

Apparntly the name "Oude Draak" refers to a bi-annual phenomenon where the setting sun makes Kapiti Island look like a dragon breathing fire.

I couldn't imagine it with any pictures I found, but after putting my professional MSPaint skills of an artist to work, I think I see what they're getting at:



Oude Draak is the barrel aged incarnation of North End's Oud Bruin, which was released at the SOBA Winter Ale Fest back in July. It's been hanging out in an oak barrel since then, developing its wild yeast and bacteria character. We should have a very different beer on our hands by now.

We've got just 25L of Oude Draak to share with you, and as usual we're tapping it this Tuesday at 5pm. 

Apple + Beer + Barrel

At PBE 2015 Townshend released an amazing barrel aged beer/cider/something called 'Wynnes Fall'. It was a Yeastie Boys Collab, named after Yeastie Boys brewer Stu's mother.

It's a confusing one to explain, because it doesn't taste like beer and it doesn't taste like cider. 'Apple Beer' is probably the best term for it.
Wynnes Fall is a 8.7% ABV 50/50 blend of beer and cider apple juice, that has been aged for 6 months in oak.
After its launch at PBE bottles quickly sold out, and I thought we'd seen the last of it. But Martin Townshend recently found some more cases, and we acquired a couple.

With the hype around this apple beer we thought it'd be gone in a few weeks, but it seems to have flown under the radar.

So to bring back the apple beer hype we're featuring Wynnes fall in this Saturday's bottle pour deal, alongside another amazing appley barrely beverage - Peckham's Knotted Kernel.

Knotted Kernel is the single apple variety used in this cider. Apparently it is rarely grown due to its "unreliable crop and small fruit."
But Peckhams got enough juice out of theirs to fill a barrel they previously used for their apple brandy. 
The result is a super-serious cider, dry with plenty of tannins to provide body.
The barrel aging adds complexity, making this cider probably the furthest you can get from standard sweet NZ "cider". And check out that awesome colour!

Oregon Heavy Hitters - On Tap NOW

We have an inordinate amount of excellent Oregon beers on tap at the moment. It's getting really hard to decide on a staffie...
However I find it hard to go past Crux Freakcake Barrel-Aged Oud Bruin - an American take on the Belgian sour brown style. Being American, this one is bigger (10.5%!) and has more pronounced barrel and mixed-ferment characters.
It's definitely one of the best beers I've had this year, possibly ever. Don't miss out.

Crux also do tamer Belgian styles - like their Farmhouse Saison.
This one sits at a (relatively) sessionable 6.6%ABV, and demonstrates what saison yeast character is in a big way.

The yeast is the centre of attention with this beer, with everything else balanced around it.

Base Camp also followed the trend of adding fruit to IPA with their Nomadic Blood Orange Double IPA - although they've added a dash of Brettanomyces to the mix.
Nomadic weighs in at 8.5%ABV but keeps the malt profile fairly pale, leaving plenty of space for the blood orange to shine through with a hint of bretty funk.

Because we've got so many big beers on tap at the moment, we've tapped a couple of lower ABV kegs to balance the line up out.
Deep Creek continues to impress with their Redwood APA, featuring a big hop aroma in a superbly balanced pale ale.
And of course 8 Wired Semi-Conductor needs no introduction. It's tasting great.