History of Homebrew

Well this is quite neat - Huffington Post are reporting on the discovery of what appears to be a 3500 year old microbrewery - they had a kiln capable of roasting various grains indicating that they may have had various styles of beer. The Bronze age wasn't all bad!

There's even a recipe for Bronze Age beer for the avid brewers out there!

Homebrew Review: Highetbrau

Good beer comes in many shapes and sizes, and just like a lot of things making your own can be even more rewarding and enjoyable than the commercial stuff. Highetbrau have been in the beer making game for a couple of years now - starting like so many homebrewers with pre-hopped malt and adding sugar. But good beer doesn't just mix itself up like cordial and brewer Jason Highet quickly moved on to crafting his own ales. And what wonderful ales they are!

It today's world of mass produced lagers and commercial craft beers it's easy to forget that the technical process of brewing beer is relatively simple. Boil malt, add hops, pitch yeast and wait. The real trick is in the detail. Highetbrau follow that simple ethos and it's the attention to detail where Highetbrau beer shines. Every brewer knows that cleanliness is next to beeriness and Jason is logical and methodical when it comes to preparing both his beer and his equipment.

You can find out more about Jason's philosophy over at booze bros, but for now I'll just straight into the good stuff. Today I tried 3 beers, Amberbier, Feijoabier and Darkbier.

First the Amberbier. Well it lives up to it's name and it's certainly Amber, as well as being impressively clear for a homebrew. Being an Amber Ale there is tremendous breadth in what the beer might be like, but there's really only one way to find out... There are lovely nutty and caramel aroma's with hints of citrus. The taste is full of caramel and grains with the distinctive bitter sticklebract hops finish lingering. Delicious and very easy drinking!

Then it was time for the Feijoabier. Very pale and tantalisingly cloudy. Clearly it's aroma is of feijoa but what's impressive here is that it smells like it was picked yesterday, fresh and sweet smelling. On the taste, the first thing you notice is light smooth texture with wonderful sparkling effervescence, then comes the feijoa taste which reveals a nice and light malty finish. Incredibly refreshing and this makes me hunger for warm sunny summer afternoons.

Then we meet the Darkbier. The aroma is classic porter - chocolate malt and coffee. In the mouth it definitely has the lighter body of a porter but quite surprisingly the rich depth of flavour that you might usually associate with a bigger stout. Subtle and effective hints of the chocolate malts and a lovely dry finish. 

All up, these beers are fantastic. They all have unique characteristics both reassuring of style and showing the spirit of experimentation that many craft brewers strive for.  

Coopers Sparkling Ale - A real Southern Hemisphere Ale?

First international beer off the ranks - I specifically hunted this out because 1. It was on special at the supermarket and 2. I'm planning on brewing a batch of this in the near future.

Anyway, I have a small issue... a pet peeve if you want to call it that. Although we have many, many wonderful beers here in Aotearoa, we have a tendency to make beer that's not true to style. This isn't to say that we don't have some wonderful examples of craft beers that are true to form or an exciting evolution of an accepted style. It's a reflection of the market - we like Lagers and Hoppy Pilsners; therefore that's what the brewers make.

Australia too has a slightly unfortunate habit of doing the same - the "mainstream" breweries in both markets rightfully cater to the tastes of the public. And dammit the public want lager!

Forgiving the local pallet and forgiving the flavour of the ingredients... but some beers (I'm looking at you Tui and Speights) even claim to be Ale's when they are in fact Lagers. But beer is beer and beer is good.

So it was with a pleasant surprise that I popped open my Coopers Sparkling Ale and smelt the delicious aroma of top fermentation and bittering hops.

A real ale! Probably a little light in bitterness for the English and maybe lacking the complexity of a Belgian... but an ale none the less. In fact it's delicate flavour and effervescent sparkle make this a great companion to the southern summer. Coopers Sparkling Ale is a breath of fresh Ale in a Lager world - and from a mainstream brewer none-the-less!

As a note to beermaker's in our corner of the world - it's ok to make a traditional Ale, Bitter, Bock, Helles or Weizen. With the current increase in craft brewing I hope to see a lot more of these and more, but for now it's nice to know that there is a delicious alternative to lager at hand.