November 19th, 2015

The Ballast Point Situation

The news broke on Tuesday that one of our most beloved US breweries has followed the likes of Lagunitas, and sold to a large multi-national corporation.
Ballast Point was sold for one billion dollars. Yes, that's billion with a B.

The buyer this time round is not one of the expected mega-brewers, but beverage brand conglomerate Constellation Brands. This was unexpected, and made it difficult for us when the inevitable questions came about whether we'd still be stocking Ballast Point.

If one of the global mega-brewers bought BP, the answer would be easy: no more Ballast Point.
We don't stock the products of Lion, DB and their parent companies because their anti-competitive behavior is to blame for the wasteland that was New Zealand's beer market until recent years.
These mega-brewers anti-competitive practices continue to make life hard for smaller producers, so we continue to avoid their products.

However, Constellation Brands is a company we know very little about. They seem to own many, many brands of wine, a few spirits brands and a few popular brands of Mexican lager - notably Corona.
So as a company we don't really know how they will act in the beer industry, and can't really predict what will happen to Ballast Point under their ownership.

Luckily we have a few months to ponder and observe before stock brewed under Constellation arrives in the country, so in the short term you'll definitely still be able to have your pints of Grapefruit Sculpin at HZ. In fact we have 80L of super fresh Grapefruit Sculpin lined up to come on tap tonight...

What we can say is that Beer Without Borders has no plans to drop Ballast Point from their distribution, so even if we decide to move away from Ballast Point you'll still be able to get your Grapefruit flavoured IPA fix.

For a more eloquent and detailed explanation, Dominic has published a summary over on The Ladder.

Tuesday: Find Your Lost Horizon

We've had heaps of hoppy treats from Modern Times, but not an IIPA. That's going to change on Tuesday the 24th, when we tap a fresh keg of Lost Horizon IIPA.
Lost Horizon is a little different to MT's usual hoppy beers, as founder Jacob McKean says on his blog:

"Lost Horizon, our new double IPA featuring Centennial, Chinook, Simcoe, and Calypso hops. It’s definitely on the piney/citrusy/resinous end of the spectrum, quite different from our other hoppy offerings.

And there’s a reason for that. Although I am huge fan of hops that tend towards the fruity end of the spectrum (Citra, Mosaic, Nelson, and Amarillo being my personal faves), not everyone who works at Modern Times has the same preferences.

There were calls for us to make a beer at the other end of the hop spectrum, emphasizing the above-mentioned ‘traditionally’ hoppy characteristics. Being the endlessly empathetic, magnanimous, and deeply humble boss that I am, I allowed it, and Lost Horizon is the happy result. I believe it is very, very good and an exceedingly well-made example of the style."

We tap our first keg of Lost Horizon IIPA at 5pm this Tuesday, at 8.5% we'll only be doing fancies of this one, but it'll still go quick - don't miss out.

Carlos is Back

Our favourite funky Mexican musical maestro Carlos Navae returns to our lounge this Saturday.

Carlso and co will be playing Afro-Cuban Jazz, Soul, Funk and Caribbean beats such as Reggae and Reggaeton.

Carlos and co always get the crowd moving, join in from 9.30pm this Saturday night. And that's with no door charge, of course.

The Summer of Sour

Christmas will come early this year, with multiple keg-shipments arriving at the start of December, including heaps of sour beers!
There’s so many kegs of sour & funky beers coming that we’re going to dedicate a tap to sours for the entire month of December (and maybe longer).

Here are just a few of the treats we’ll have on tap during December:

• Rodenbach Grand Cru & Classic
•  Frank Boon Kriek
• Modern Times Fruitlands Gose
• Lindemans Geuze
• Duchesse de Bourgogne
• 8 Wired Cucumber Hippy Berliner, Sour Side of the Moon
• Almanac Dogpatch Cherry Sour, Citra Sour, Simcoe Sour
• To Ol Nelson Survin, LikeWeisse Berliner Weisse, Sur Amarillo

All will be available in 200ml TeKu glass pours in addition to our regular pours.

Additionally, every New Release Tuesday in December will feature a sour/funky new release, with some weeks featuring tasting flights of multiple beers.
To keep track of what's on and see all of the special events for Summer of Sour check out its FB event. Click that 'going' button, because we'll be updating the event with every new sour beer that comes on!

Tasting Time

Seems I told a lie last week when I predicted that next Wednesday's Old Beer Tasting would sell out - there are still two spots left. So if you've left it to the last minute it's not too late.

And if you're planning on going to Santa Session on December 1st, grab your spot soon. There are just 8 places remaining for our annual 'opening of the cellar'.