Thirsty Crow American Pale Ale & Vanilla Milk Stout

OK, this is meant to be a blog about NZ beers but I have recently been lucky enough to visit friends in the comically named town of Wagga Wagga, in regional Australia. Whilst here my friend James suggested that we go for a beer and pizza at a local micro-brewery bar called the Thirsty Crow. I visisted and travelled through Australia back in 2006/7 and was generally very unimpressed with the beer on offer. Now I didn’t make any effort to go micro-breweries and really stuck to run-of-the-mill bars so it’s no surprise that I didn’t try anything great. Now, the Thirsty is the only micro brewery in Wagga Wagga and I went expecting OK beer. I first of all tried the on-site brewed American Pale, 5% abv. A very refreshing hoppy pale ale with a great balance. A strong enough taste of hops and no lingering aftertaste. I was very impressed.

My second pint was the Thirsty Crow Vanilla Milk Stout. I am a fan of dark beers and particularly like drinking it in Winter time. I’d recently had a cracking Milk Stout at my local in Christchurch so thought I’d give it a go. A dark and rich stout with a malty and vanilla flavour. The brewer uses lactose to keep the beer’s sweetness. Unfortunately I am not a fan of sweet beers and drinking a whole pint of it was a struggle to me. It was too sweet and sickly for me but looking at it from an objective point of view it had a decent and balanced full flavour with a lot going on. Rating: 5/10

Galbraith’s Bellringers Bitter

During one of my few visits to Galbraiths pub in March I decided to try the Galbraiths on-site brewed Bellringers Bitter and boy I was pleased that I did. Described as a “best bitter” it had a light and refreshing taste to it. Both malty and hoppy this beer had a very balanced flavour and left me with a smile on my face. A mid strength bitter at 4.5% abv. Rating: 7/10

Townshend Old House ESB

Being a big fan of ESB, in particular the English ESB made by Fullers, and more recently Cassel & Sons ESB, I was quite excited to try Townshend’s Old House ESB in Galbraiths pub in Auckland. I was recommended by my boss to go to Galbraiths about 18 months ago and it has since become one of my favourite pubs in New Zealand serving up a very good range of locally brewed beers. As I had tried some of the on-site brewed beers I thought I would try the Townshend ESB. At 5.3% abv the Extra Special Bitter had an initial strong taste as expected with an ESB but this didn’t last and became a little tangy – a taste that I associate with a lot of home-brewed beer. Overall not really impressed and thought I would stick to Galbraiths ESB, Bitter and Twisted in the future. Rating: 5/10. 

Hallertau Beastwars IPA

After sampling the Hallertau Statesman Pale Ale I could not resist but try the Hallertau Beastwars IPA. I later found out at Galbraiths pub in Auckland that the beer was a collaborative effort between Hallertau and Galbraiths. The Beastwars, 6% abv, was a strong, smooth and creamy IPA with strong floral hops. The initial taste was very nice and it went down very nicely. My criticism of this beer was the lingering strong hoppy flavour that lasted for quite a while after drinking and was not too pleasant. Saying that I would be more than happy to drink the beer again. Rating: 6.5/10

Hallertau Statesman Pale Ale

I was lucky enough to be able to spend a week in Auckland with the company I work for and get out and sample some of the local beers. I took a trip up to Woodhill Mountain bike Park and headed to a brew pub called Hallertau in River Cliffs, North of Auckland City. I have been here before and enjoyed the selection of beers available which include a dark beer, a red beer, a pale ale and a kolsch beer. As our food took a whole 50 minutes to arrive it gave us a good time sample the on-site brewed beer. As you may have noticed I’m a bit of a Pale Ale fan and therefore tried the Hallertau Statesman Pale Ale, 5.3% abv. Described as a hoppy. floral beer with hints of honey and citrus. It was a nice enough beer and quite refreshing after a good mountain bike ride. Not as hoppy as many other Pale Ales on the market and tasted more like a combination of a lager, wheat beer and pale ale. Not a bad drop but not the true pale ale I was hopping, I mean hoping for! Rating: 6/10

Dux De Lux Nor’Wester Pale Ale & Blue Duck Amber Ale

So me and a colleague decided that it was time to visit the Dux Live bar that has sprung up in Addington, Christchurch as we had both been to the Dux De Lux bar before when it was situated near the Arts Centre. I had fond memories of drinking the locally brewed beer sat outside with the heaters on before the bar had to relocate after the Earthquake. The new Dux isn’t really set up that well for drinking and is more of a live music venue. Me and a few colleagues rocked up at around 5pm Friday night and managed to score ourselves some outdoor seats. My first choice of drink was the Dux Nor’Wester Strong  Pale Ale. A strong ale at 6.5% a.b.v with a smooth English malt complexity and Pacific hops. Now, I don’t know if my taste buds have changed or New Zealand beer brewing has got better but quite frankly I was disappointed. Yes there was a strong malty flavour with a slight hint of hops but I found the beer to sweet and sickly and by half way through was itching to try something else. My second drink was a Dux Blue Duck Amber Ale, 4% a.b.v. Described as a malt amber draught this was only slightly better than the Nor’Wester. Not as strong, sweet and sickly but also had no real character and also left me wanting something else. I looked around at what my colleagues were drinking and it was bottled beer from other brewers – maybe this said it all. To summarise, with the number of good brewing competitors in NZ now the Dux beer just did not cut it. I’ll be back if there’s good music and go straight for a bottle of Three Boys or Epic.

Nor’Wester Strong Pale Ale ranking: 4/10
Blue Duck Amber Ale ranking: 4.25/10

Townshend Aotearoa Pale Ale

Last weekend I headed up to the New Zealand capital, Wellington. Before going I did a quick Google search for craft beer pubs in Wellington and one that stood out for me due to their very good range of tap beers was The Hop Garden in the city centre. I opted to try a sample of Townshend’s Aotearoa Pale Ale. I was pleased with the taste so decided to buy a pint. A very lively Pale Ale, comparable to an American Pale Ale, hoppy and what I would describe as a fruity and bright taste which was perfect on a warm sunny day. Something I would recommend to pilsner drinkers who want to try something more hoppy. Enjoyable enough that I went back for a second pint. Rating: 6.5/10

The Townshend brewery is located just outside of Nelson and the website can be found here.

Cassells & Sons ESB

As some of you will know there is a great little pub out in Woolston, Christchurch called The Brewery. I used to frequent the Twisted Hop brewery in Poplar Lane before the Christchurch Earthquakes but have since found myself at The Brewery a few times. I expect that I will be reviewing a number of beers from here. When you go to the bar you are met with a huge range of tap beers and also some hand pulled beers. There is a range of beers brewed on site as well as other beers from around NZ. In the middle of the bar there are normally three hand-pulled Cassels & Sons beers – the Milk Stout, Best Bitter and Golden Pale Ale. Now I ended up on the other side of the bar a couple of Saturdays ago and came across the Cassels & Sons ESB. Coming from England my favourite beer there is Fuller’s ESB and arguably one of the best beers I’ve ever tried. I tried the C&S ESB and was quite simply delighted. A nice smooth, full flavoured ESB that made me wanna go back for more. 6.0% alc/vol. Rating: 7.5/10

Wigram Brewing Company Mustang American Pale Ale

I tried some Wigram Brewing Company beer a couple of years back as it was on sale at Fresh Choice in Merivale. I was not particularly impressed. After a recent conversation with a colleague who persuaded me to try them again I tried an American Pale Ale and was suitably impressed. A bitter, hoppy beer with a strong taste particularly for a 5% alc/vol beer. I found that it was best served a little chilled and left to settle in a glass. Score:6.0/10.

Welcome to Beer in NZ

Hello and welcome to my Beer in NZ blog. It was suggested to me by a colleague called Sarah in Seattle USA that I start a beer blog so here goes. I love beer. I love going to micro breweries and trying new beers and I also love buying bottled craft beer from the supermarket and enjoying them at home. The idea of this blog is really to talk about New Zealand craft beers. I’m originally from England where the selection of good craft beers is huge. Many people’s first impressions of New Zealand beer are bad leading them to think that there are no good beers in NZ. This blog is out to disprove that notion.

Over the course of the next days, month and years I will drinking new as well as some of my favourite NZ beers and ranking them on this blog. My scores will based on my favourite NZ craft beer, the beer that if I was on death row, I would have as a last drink. This beer, some may agree, some may disagree is a Croucher Pale Ale. I will rank this beer with an 8.5 out 10 and base all of my rankings around this mark.

Another reason for this blog is simply to record the craft beers I’ve enjoyed.

Feel free to comment and suggest great New Zealand craft beers.