IPA and the rise of over-hopped beers

To me, good beer is good beer. And while I have preferences of style and season, a good beer will always be, to me, a good beer. But beer has waves of popularity, and while it's enjoyable to be in the middle of a craft beer revolution currently that can be polarising. I'm not just talking about the hipster "I was drinking it before it was cool" attitude either.

There is a genuine case to be made for bandwagoning in the beer world. Commercial, Micro and Nano breweries can be guilty of it, but its an accurate observation that there seem to be a heck of a lot of Pale Ales out there at the moment.

Like every other type of beer, there is both good and bad Pale Ale, and that comes down to both preference and craft. The trend with Pale Ales in general, and IPA's in particular is to throw a ton of late addition hops into the mix, giving a sometimes floral, sometimes fruity, sometimes bitter flavour. Again, this isn't necessarily a bad thing, but again it's accurate to point out that it's happening a lot. It used to be that every brewery worth it's salt had a dark ale, then it was wheat beer, and now it's Pale Ale, what's next who knows (I'm hoping for Lambic, but I don't see that as being likely).

Regardless, it's easy to make the call that there are too many over hopped beers around (and the current "big hop Pilsner" isn't helping things) but as long and people are drinking and enjoying them then where's the harm? If a bunch of would be brewers are inspired to mix malt, wheat, hops and water to yeast because they happened to like some high-hop brew then I say "great" more beer is only going to be better for the craft and the industry.

So wacha want (to drink?)

Having just discovered a supply of Yeastie Boys beers I thought it best to give some of their most famous brews... and while I was there I grabbed another couple to sample. Yeastie Boys beers have so far proven to be excellent beers, so I was expecting good things from my selection.

First up, the famous Digital IPA. Containing a nearly ridiculous amount of hops I was expecting an overpowering bitterness. Thankfully the guys at Yeastie Boys are craftier than that and the hops mix and balance provide some pretty impressive aroma and flavour. Golden amber and about the clearest beer imaginable the first whiff reveals a wonderful floral and sweet aroma. The first sip. WOW. There really is an impressive harmony between the hops and malts that finished with telltale pacific jade bitterness. A well rounded fruity and floral beer and definitely one of the best beers I've ever had the pleasure of drinking.

Then it was Rex Attitude. The beer they said couldn't be made. Crystal clear amber again and with a sharp smoked twang sitting on top of the rich malt aroma. Theres a smokey over-the-top flavour but an incredible silky mouth feel with lovely carbonation. It's almost sickeningly sweet and smokey so I couldn't really describe this as my cup of tea, but an adventurous beer none the less.

The interestingly named Gunnamatta IPA. Slightly darker than the other two but still impressively clear, theres a heady tea flower aroma mixed in with the fruity and floral malt and hops. Very smooth and fine bubbles means this beer glides down my throat - its so smooth it almost drinks itself. And the flavour! Beautiful rich and complex it almost threatens to overwhelm but the balance between the bitterness of hops and the sweetness of malts is perfectly complimented by the late addition tea leaves creating a unique and impressive beer.

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!

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!

Do you need glasses?

Beer Glasses are a big thing for me, so I'm going to talk about why people use beer glasses, the types of beer glasses, the best beer glasses for different beer styles and a whole lot of other glassey goodness.

We all know the line when someone hands you a bottle beer of beer and asks if you want a glass: "it already comes in one". And to a large extent, with non-distinct lagers that's a fair statement to make. In fact one of the great joy's of beer is it's portability - going to the beach? Pack a couple of cool brews and you're set.

But there's a counter argument - a glass allows you to enjoy the beer more. You can experience it's colour, it's effervescence (I'm not exactly comfortable with that word in describing a beer), it's head and allows you to get a better handle on it's aroma. If you're taking export gold's to a party it hardly matters, but if you want to get the most out of your limited edition craft ale - or even your better than average lager the right glass can make a good beer even better. If a beer glass can make even a ho-hum lager halfway decent, imagine what it can do for that special IPA you've had tucked away for months!

In the great beer brewing parts of Europe, many beers have their own glass to enhance the flavour and aroma for us humble beer drinkers.

There are a boatload of sizes and regional types of glasses that I wont go into here, but broadly speaking these are the typical beer glasses as recommended by such beer alumni as Michael "Beer Hunter" Jackson.  

Pilsner/Lager Glass

Tall to reveal colour and carbonation, and with a taper to enhance head retention.Like the name on the box says, perfect for Pilsners and Lagers

Snifter/Goblet

For aromatic beers like IPA or "Big" beers for sipping like doppelbock. These are large, stemmed, bowl shaped. I throw beer flutes in this group mainly for simplicity.

Pint Glass/Mug

The classic, versatile beer glass, suits most styles, but atypically English.A clever wee feature is that these can actually enhance the carbonation of a beer.

Most importantly, a beer glass allows you to enjoy another fine aspect of a beer: the pour. 

Getting more out of your beer is an easy sell, and making a run of the mill Ale or Lager taste like something halfway decent can't be bad either. A glass that you can get your nose into, that you can see the beer and experience it's colour and fizz.

The IPA Debate

I've been thinking about Indian Pale Ales - so it's timely that the very nice people at Boundry Road Breweries are about to release an IPA and are asking for tasters. You can get in on this by answering a few simple IPA questions here.

But I digress...

IPA's were famously developed because regular ale wasn't lasting the long trip from Great Britain to India in the 1800's. Brewers made the brew stronger and added more hops to preserve the beer and hide any off flavours picked up in the long voyage fraught with poor cask storage conditions. When it arrived it was watered down for the enlisted men (though officers were still allowed the higher strength)... or so the story goes. Demand in the homeland grew shortly thereafter and the IPA legacy was born.

So if we take the style to be full strength, pale ale that's both bitter and aromatic with hops we come to Fullers IPA.

Definitely full and hoppy, this is my flagstone IPA. Lovely body, beautiful fruit aroma, bottle conditioned. The only thing that's missing is good head (pun only partway intended). This is fantastic drinking.

So what ISN'T and IPA? Well, Tui for one. Lacking any notable hops, sweet instead of bitter and brewed as a Lager, Tui has no place calling itself an IPA. Tui is in fact, a good example of a New Zealand Draught - and Draught is the topic of an future post (and thanks to Randolf von Stagg for the suggestion).

There are of course in this brave new world of craft breweries, many fine examples of great IPA's - both classic and modern. Dunedin crowd Emerson's 1812 is a good traditional IPA, Epic (who can do no wrong) make a pretty stunning Armageddon IPA. I've yet to taste the open source beer from Yeastie Boys - Digital IPA, but judging by the Hop's bill that's going to be a mighty, mighty interesting experience... if anyone knows a shop or pub in Auckland selling it I'd be one happy, hoppy beer drinker.