Opening a beer with a chainsaw

Because sometimes, all you have is a chainsaw

Hopping Hare and the fine art of correct serving temperature.

I was first turned onto Badger Ales while living in London - available at most of the supermarkets and many pubs their extensive and reliable range quickly becoming a go to brand for great beer. Brewed in Dorset since the late 1700's Badger championed a back to basics approach that has since become popular with craft brewers worldwide. Combining the traditional Malt, Hops, Yeast and Water into delicious beer seems to come naturally to them and their approach earned the attention of Hugh "River cottage" Fearnley-Whittingstall who joined forces for a special brew.

Badger are probably most well known for Tanglefoot or Fursty Ferret, both good examples of English Ales, but this cool autumn evening it was Hopping Hare that caught my eye. Up at Speakers Corner in Browns Bay there is a good range of beers, including a couple of Fullers range on tap. The pub is decent, and probably only one of a few around New Zealand that capture the English pub feel properly (possibly because it's run by ex-pats!).

Anyway, having warmed up on a London Porter it seemed that the new Badger bottles were getting some attention and ever inquisitive I decided to check out the offering for myself.

The verdict? Pretty good, if slightly misleading. For a beer calling itself highly hopped I thought it was more balanced and malty, but perhaps I've had too many IPA's lately? This isn't to say it's an unpleasant beer, quite the opposite: there are some very nice notes of fruit and bitterness, even if they're more subtle in the mix but there is also a lovely bread aroma in there. The flavour is very nice, rewarding and full with a rather enjoyable effervescent hops fruitiness at the finish. Despite being an English pub, in typical New Zealand fashion the beer was served just a touch above freezing, and it was fellow beer-enjoyer Matt that noted it would be better at room temperature.

As luck would have it I was in a room, so it was only a matter of time before I was able to enjoy even more of those delicious rich malty flavours in the manner which their maker intended.

Yes, I know that Lager needs to be cold. But Ale isn't Lager, it's about letting the subtle flavours come out rather than refining them to a crisp perfection. When too cold Hopping Hare fell slightly short of expectations, but came to life when allowed to warm.

There's a lesson here, for optimum enjoyment (and that's what it's all about, right?) it's best to serve appropriately. You wouldn't have Fish and Chips cold? Yes, we've all heard (or experienced) Ale's poorly cellered: flat, warm, bad. But the right temperature can bring a beer to life!

Hop to it!

I love beer. It's no secret. That I sing the praises of Ales by no means indicates that I have no love for it's bottom fermenting cousin - the Lager. Yes, Ales tend to be more interesting, have more variety and therefore can be more rewarding, but the easy drinking Lager should not be forgotten. When a Lager goes above and beyond, pushes the boundaries and delivers something unique - well that's truly something to be celebrated... so Cheers! Here's to the best Lager I've had in a long while. 

But let's step back and look at what makes a good Lager. The Lager family is the most popular type of beer worldwide, from the crisp sharp flavour of the Pilsner to the deep sweet maltiness of the Bock there is plenty to enjoy and explore. It's all too easy to think of your generic commercial beers. From Fosters to Steinlager to Heineken to Budwiser the easy drinking pleasant crisp style of a commercial lager has it's place. The subtle balance of malts and hops serve their purpose perfectly - everyday drinking or "session" beers. Lager can go far beyond that.

When thinking about what goes into a beer, the craft of the brewer is balancing the Malt, Hops, Yeast and Water to create the desired flavours. When a beer blows me away it's often because they get the mix just right and achieve something unique. Thanks to some awesome friends sending the latest and greatest beers across the world for me to try, I have (well... I had) a bottle of Camden Hells Unfiltered Lager. Camden Town Brewery in London are the latest version of the Brewery and Alehouse combination that's the heart of the Beer tradition. I samples a couple of their brews but the Unfiltered Lager really stands out.

What you've got here is an extraordinary beer and you should beg, steal or borrow to get your hands on. Lovely light straw colour and just a little cloudy in a very pleasant, hazy sunny afternoon kind of way. All fruit and floral hops on the nose and my first thought is "this is a whole lot of aromatic hops for a Lager". The flavour isn't quite as hoppy as the aroma would indicate, but it's impressively crisp in a way that would make a Pilsner jealous and there is a distinct and rewarding bitterness on the finish. Malts are present and know their place without ever becoming dominant. It makes me wish more brewers skipped the filtering if this is what's happens!

There's more to this beer than just the cool label and if you're in that neck of the woods, relish in the knowledge that a really impressive beer is pouring freely at a pub near you!

It's a Porter not a Stout

I've had a look at Porters before, but I want to consider what makes a good Porter and what makes a great Porter. In my previous post I looked at the more well known Stout and compared that with Porter. I'll also take a sip or two of a fantastic Porter, one that reshaped my expectations of what a Porter can be.

The name "Stout" came to represent Porters that were stronger than usual but where did the Porter originate and what is the real difference to the modern beer drinker? According to the ever wise Beerhunter, Michael Jackson: Porter was the forst "National" beer style, becoming synonymous with UK and particularly London brewing. Rumour has it that as malt prices started rising in the 1700's brewers began kilning their Barley for longer and adding more hops to get more flavour into their beer. The name itself is supposed to come from it's popularity with workers carrying goods around the markets of East London around Shoreditch - yes it was popular with Porters, so became known as... Porter!

The Porter style has an interesting and very close relationship with a number of other beer styles. It was developed at around the same time as the pale Ale (though the pale Ale wasn't perfected until nearly 100 years later). Lower gravity Porters evolved into Mild Ale and fuller bodies, higher alcohol Porters became known as Stouts. Pale Ale evolved into Bitter and IPA and there you have the majority of today's English based beer styles.

So, the amazing Porter that reshaped my expectations?

Based in the heart of New Zealand's wine making region, Renaissance aim to make a beer as rewarding as it Marlborough grape based cousins.

At this tasting I tried the Scotch Ale and the Elemental Porter Ale, and these folks are doing an admirable job of meeting their aim. Both beers were surprisingly complex and now that I have them on my radar I will be spending time to get to know the rest of the range.

It's deep brown to black reminding me more of a Guiness than anything else but the lovely light coffee coloured head hints and surprises lurking within. It's aroma is potent with nuttiness and a burnt brown sugar or caramel with a bit of winter fruit. The first thank that strikes me about the taste is the rich warm rewarding caramel which dispoves to coffee bitterness. There are wonderful complex malts, and hints of brown sugar. It's a wide and delicious flavour profile and perfect for the autumn evening.

My interest has been truely sparked!