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!

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.

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.