Lager Time

Despite the over-saturation of average Lagers in the beer market, and despite the increase in availability of excellent Ales, there is still a place for the humble commercial brew. Lets face it, on a hot day, pretty much nothing beats a cold, crisp Heineken (even if it is brewed under license). So it warms the cockles of my heard when a craft range brings out a Lager.

Despite being the most widely drunk beer in the world, Pale Lager still has the potential to surprise. Bottom fermented and cold stored, Lager is renowned for begin easy drinking and refreshing.

Boundary Road up the ante considerably with Ein Stein Munich Lager. First appearances are deceiving  it looks and smells like any other lager, but the first sip reveals incredibly well balanced roasted malts, incredibly almost impossibly crisp and just a hint of bitterness.

A Lager this most certainly is, but what a spectacular beer. Between this and a couple of other new releases from Boundary Road, this brewery is taking it's craft to the next level!

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!

A Tale of Pale Ale

Pale Ale is one of the most popular Beer styles, produced using predominantly light (or pale, if you will) malts and brewed with top-fermenting yeasts. It's one of the most traditionally innovative styles of Beer and Pale Ale and to this day brewers are making winning Pale Ale's in a variety of ways.

Typically a Pale Ale does indeed derive it's name from it's light hue - before Lagers, it was the lightest beer style. it came about because roasting malts is a tricky business, especially in the pre industrial days when brewers relied on fire kilns to do their roasting. As you can imagine, roasting little bits of barley over open flame produced more than a little darkening of the malts - and hence at the time (this is the late 1700's) Ales were usually of the darker variety.

Anyway, today a Pale Ale is considered to be golden amber through to copper in colour, leaving plenty of room for brewers to experiment with malts to obtain subtle sweetening and complexity of malt flavours. Pale Ale is a broadly encompassing style of beer, including English Bitter, American Pale Ale, Irish Red, Blond and many more, but today I'm going to look at two.

I'll talk about Boundary Road brewery later, but for now lets consider the merits of this beer. Because of the flexibility of the style there is no one Hops profile typical to Pale Ale, and being a man who enjoys a lot of Hops in my beer, The Flying Fortress Pale Ale does not disappoint. There's a certain distinctive tangy frutiness to the NZ varieties of Hops, and Flying Fortress is rich with hoppy goodness. A lush but not overwhelming mix of Pacific Jade and Motueka provide wonderful fruity aroma and just the right amount of bitterness. What most impresses me with Flying Fortress is the beautiful mouth feel - delicate carbonation that could almost pass for bottle conditioning and an impressive almost creamy texture. Boundry Road are quickly establishing themselves as winners in the rapidly growing craft beer market and Flying Fortress is the cornerstone that grounds their excellent range.

I'm not particularly familiar with the craft beer market over the ditch (something that I plan on rectifying as soon as possible) but a little Pale Ale from Victoria is making inroads here. Matilda Bay have made a great Pale Ale with a strange name: Fat Yak.

It's a great contrast to Flying Fortress - this is made in the American Pale Ale style, making it more golden than amber, but is liberally hopped with the American staple: Cascase, with a little Nelson Sauvin for added depth. It's good - delightfully fruity and crisp on the palette, this beer practically screams "Summer Afternoon".

These two Pale Ale's offer a fantastic exercise in hops comparison - both are boldly hopped in different ways. Both are excellent. Enjoy!