Good Beer, Bad Name

Wow, I feel like I'm a couple of rounds behind! A bit of disruption has kept me from blogging lately, but not from trying delicious beers so I have a bit of catching up to do. Great beer waits for no man, so I'll do a brief roundup of whats been sipping lately:

Just around the corner from my work is a little beer Mecca, unbeknownst to me until a couple of weeks ago. I would be remiss for not sharing this little secret for those other beer lovers out there. Liquorland on Forrest Hill Road has a pretty impressive collection of craft beers and their chiller and I are now well acquainted.

The plucky go-getters at Boundry Road Brewery have sneakily put no less than 5 rather splendid beers on the market in recent months. I was well aware that they had an IPA in the making, they'd made a rather lot of noise about that, but blow me down if they didn't drop a Porter, and Amber Ale, a lager and a Pilsner too! The former is available in 6 packs, while the latter I've only seen in half litre singles, clearly aimed at the growing beer enthusiast market to compete in the space that Moa, Emersons and countless internationals play in.

I'll focus on the Porter for now, since it's still winter and I'm still loving the Dark Ales (although I've had a couple of very respectable Pilsners and Pale Ales's recently that I'll get to in another post). Named Chocolate Moose (presumably the makers had sampled a couple come naming time!) because of the generous helping of chocolate malts in the making this beer isn't for everything, but it is completely captivating.

Ideal for a cold night with a roaring fire (as pictured) we've got a satisfying thick finish, lovely rich and nearly sweet malt aromas and an intriguing deep chocolate brown. So far Chocolate Moose is living up to it's name. I'm prepared for a unique experience, but the taste... beautifully rewarding, thick body and yes, a whole lot of chocolate. It might not convert a true chocoholic, but as a character beer this little beauty is sure to warm your cockles on a cool night. Like I said, it might not be for everyone, it lacks some characteristics of a good porter, but it makes up for it in other ways. If you're into trying something new, definitely get in there!

Slam Dunkel

Water, Barley, Hops, Yeast. The ingredients list for beer is short but the variety that comes from those four things is vast and inspired. We are told that to make great beer we need the freshest ingredients, the best ingredients. The best beers much like the best meals, are made with attention to these details.

In order to preserve the purity of their beers the Reinheitsgebot was established in one of the birthplaces of beer, Bravaria in 1516. Reinheitsgebot, or "German Beer Purity Law" for short, initially excluded yeast, because it wasn't until after Louis Pasteur revealed the role of micro-organisms in fermentation in the 1800's that yeast was revealed to be an essential part of beer.

German Beer Purity Law, or at least the tradition of it has inspired beer makers ever since and particularly German/Bravarian beermakers which brings us to today's beer: Flensburger Brauerei Dunkel.

Right here we have a classic German Dunkel, which is just any mid strength beer made with darker roasted malts. Made in the classic pop-top bottle giving it a real european feel the beer is a warm reddish brown and much warmer in colour than many northern European Dark Ales. Wonderfully deep aroma with cereal and dough. The taste is rich warm and nutty with a nice light carbonation, a very pronounced cereal with a lingering bitterness.


More balanced than many of it's English counterparts for sure, and the colour is just so inviting on a cool winter's evening. 


It's sparked some interest on the role of yeast in certain beers which I'll look at another time.

STOP! Porter time.

Stout is a beer with quite an interesting history. Before the early 1700's the huge majority of Beers were dark, largely because the art or lightly roasting malt hadn't yet been developed. Stout's are made with dark malt, obviously, and traditional stouts were simply the stronger Dark Ales. Stouts today are thicker and creamier than Porters but both tend to be 4-5% in strength, and with lasting head. I'll look at some of the most popular Stouts and one of the best Porters.

Without a doubt the most recognisable Stout in the world is Guinness Extra Stout or Draught from the tap - interestingly Guinness was originally called Guinness Extra Superior Porter which should tell us something about the intertwined nature of these beers.

At it's best Guinness is rich, creamy, slightly chocolate and coffee with roasted malt and only the merest hint of bitterness. I say "at it's best" because a lot of the magic about a Guinness depends on the pour and the condition of the Beer. Too often Guinness is less than amazing because of bad carbonation lines - either not clean, or not mixed correctly. Although developed in London, large amounts of Stout were shipped to Ireland where it quickly became the tipple of choice, and it wasn't long before the Irish started brewing it themselves and what a great job they've done ever since!

There really isn't anything quite like nestling down in front of a roaring fire at the local pub on a cold winters night and enjoying a Guinness!

Guinness is classified as Irish Dry Stout, as are the other mainstays of Stout: Murphys and Beamish. Aside from dry Stout there are a few other varieties of this delicious wholesome beer. Imperial Stout would probably be the next most popular, so names because of it's origins in Russia. Imperial Stout tends to be stronger, ranging up to 11%abv and was designed to help Russians stay warm in the long cold winter months. There are also Milk Stout and Oatmeal Stout the former being sweeter (Lactose sugar is non fermentable to brewers yeast) and the latter being creamier. Porter can have all of the flavour characteristics as Stout but without so much of the variety, and as I said, less thickness.

Stout and Porter are also popular with micro brewers and craft brewers, and many beer makers include a Stout/Porter in their range. I'm going to skip straight to a microbrewery just outside of Naiper: Hawkes Bay Independent Brewery.

Black Duck Porter lives up to all of the promise of a great Porter. It's rich, has perfect creaminess and lovely mouth feel, being thick but not quite as heavy as a proper Stout. Flavour wise Black Duck is outstanding, with all the goodies in there in well balanced measure, from hints of dark chocolate through to a lovely coffee bitterness, HBIB have done very well with this. If I was to fault this beer, particularly in comparison to Guinness it would be that it's head didn't last all the way down. Normally I don't make a huge deal about head retention but this beer was absolutely outstanding so I thought I needed to find some fault.

With winter on the way I'm going to look forward to more Stouts and Porters... and getting the fireplace cranking!