Monthly Archives: March 2009

Actual Diary entries

Yeastie Boys ‘Kid Chocolate’

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Yeastie Boys 'Kid Chocolate'
Diary entry #84, Yeastie Boys 'Kid Chocolate'

After the Silage Debacle, this was an incredibly-welcome change. The third Yeastie Boys release was a charmingly un-fashionable mild — great big hop-fueled high-booze things were very much in fashion, so the Yeasties staked their claim to being Plural-Tricked Ponies very early on.

It is weird that we got to the point where mildness could be a vaguely revolutionary thing, but this stuff was too enjoyable and mellow and good for any sort of complaint about the state of craft brewing in general to bubble very far up the brainstem. That’s what these things do, when they’re done well; they shut you up. Or at least, they shut up anything overly-animated and just let you sit and quietly talk nonsense with your friends. Like you should do more often, whoever you are.

Verbatim: Yeastie Boys ‘Kid Chocolate’ Mild 25/3/09 staffie at Malty $8/pint 3.6% The third YB, and a mostly forgotten style. Sessionable brown ale. Lovely chestnut colour, almost no hop presennce, as per style. Nice smooth malt-driven quaffer. Slightest nudge of choc. Another oddly-named good thing.

Actual Diary entries

Kaiapoi Draught

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Kaipoi Draught
Diary entry #83, Kaipoi Draught

Oh, I’m so sad I entirely lost the photo for this… this, thing. It turns out I never even added it to my ‘Beer Nerd Diaries’ on Facebook, back when that the world’s window into my beerbrain. Perhaps I was just embarrassed.

(I’m only slightly sad that I apparently can’t spell Kaiapoi, even when the beer label was staring me in the phiz. I’ve long since comes to terms with that fact that, for a Trivia Nerd, my New Zealand Geography is relatively rubbish.)

A case of this arrived with the traditional Massive Swag of Stuff before the beer festival in August, and a good many of these were still in the fridge six months later. Perhaps owing to the laughably-homebrewish label that I so very much wish I could show you. It was a beer from another time, it seemed, one when ‘No Added Sugar’ was something worth bragging about rather than a minimum condition for the merest scrap of credibility.

Malthouse blackboard, my birthday
The Malthouse blackboard, on my birthday, indicating my apparently-preferred Draught

It smelt utterly awful, and tasting alarmingly… nothing. One really does wonder how they managed that. Or, indeed, why. Two local boys were over the moon to see that we stocked it, but had the dignity to have that classic hometown combination of embarrassment and pride as they insisted Peter and I try it. I’m glad we did, because I’m just that much of a masochist / empiricist, but honestly, I’d rather a Tui,1 if I ever found myself in the mood for something of the style.

Verbatim: Kaipoi Draught 25/3/09 nicked from Malty 330ml Been in the fridge since Beerfest in September. Two boys from Kaipoi insisted we try. Smells like arse, or silage. Doesn’t taste too bad, because not much at all. “No added sugar” and all that sad branding. And “draught”. Hrmph. What a word in need of retirement.

1: A few months later, some mischievous staff — on the occasion of my 30th birthday, and of DB winning an award in their class for it — amended my “Staff Pick” on the Big Blackboard to Tui. I decided just to own it, and insist that people actually give it a go, for its historical oddness.

Actual Diary entries

Theresianer Pale Ale

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Theresianer Pale Ale
Theresianer Pale Ale

Another Italian beer, and one I’d had before, with an altogether brilliant dinner at La Casa here in town, a while back. It’s an appealing bright orangey colour, and definitely has appropriately citrussy twangs in the nose and the taste. It’s a bit boozy, at 6.3%, and has a slightly metallic zing to it which just comes across as refreshing, not irritating.

Afterthoughts, February 2011: Metal is such a weird flavour to pick up, but it is pretty distinctive. Usually, it’s bad, bad news — my usual citation is Beck’s, which (when had on tap in Melbourne occasionally) just tasted, to me, like biting down hard on a wet stainless steel butterknife. But here’s me singling it out as a “not in a bad way” thing. Which does weird me out, in hindsight.

This beer in particular probably did get a lot of Circumstantial Points, given the awesomeness of the dinner it originally accompanied. But beer is like that, and there’s no reason it shouldn’t be.

Theresianer Pale Ale
Diary entry #82, Theresianer Pale Ale

Verbatim: Theresianer Pale Ale 24/3/09 @ home, Mt Vic. 330ml 6.5% Had another La Rossa the other day, so more Italian. I had this at La Casa with Kylee a while back, too. Nice amber, grunty, floral, slightly metallic, but refreshingly. Citrussy and fun. Good stuff.

Actual Diary entries

Moa ‘St. Joseph’

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Moa 'St. Joseph'
Moa 'St. Joseph'

Moa brewery in Blenheim is the work of Josh Scott, son of winemaker Allan Scott. And it really does have a significant “wanky side-project of spoilt rich kid” air about the whole thing. The beers are particularly expensive, nobbishly marketed — and unforgivably naff all too often. I suppose when you’re charging an arse and a head for your beer, you have to make sure it’s mild enough that people won’t hate it. Really, it’s a clever corner of the market to go for, too; wealthier people with pretensions of boutique beer-ery, but who are still Heineken drinkers at heart.

All that said, ‘Saint Jo.’ is pretty much the exception to the rule. It’s a nice little Tripel, and is very-definitely the pick of the bunch.

Afterthoughts, February 2011: Heh, there’s your ‘balance’. “Ranty-ranty-rant — but this is okay.” But it’s sincerely meant, still, even after Moa have expanded their range with a few more properly-worthy offerings like some genuinely-interesting barrel-aged beers. Aspects of the marketing are massively annoying; I’ve been considering using their stuff for a whole post of Please Don’t Do This points about beer branding. And the ‘First Three’ (the ‘Original’ lager, the ‘Blanc’ wheat, and the ‘Noir’) are terribly bland for their price — and what isn’t ‘bland’ about them is a worryingly-distinct Moa Funk that it takes their heavier beers to cover up / avoid / compensate-for.

Though there are some exceptions, the Moa Beers are — in general, and so far — a depressing triumph of brandwank over substance.

Actual Diary entries

Birra Moretti ‘La Rossa’, again

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Birra Moretti 'La Rossa'
Birra Moretti 'La Rossa'

We were out for a surprise birthday dinner for Robyn’s 30th, where I got to play beer nerd / consultant, and couldn’t resist another La Rossa — especially since they had the cute little glass.

Afterthoughts, February 2011: This was a great little night out, and one of the unexpected benefits was meeting Jessie and Simon, two friends who have since hooked me up with several good beer recommendations and joined me for some enjoyable Rambling Time. Jessie’s from California, within “crawling distance” (as she puts it) of the Sierra Nevada brewery. So I’m going to run a bit of a Local Stuff Beer Tasting for her family (including her apparently-formidably Beer Nerdy father) when they’re in town later this month.

The lesson is this: you do meet good people when you let yourself geek out. Be not afraid to let your nerdlight shine, fellow nerds.

Actual Diary entries

Emerson’s ‘Taieri George’

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Emerson's 'Taieri George'
Emerson's 'Taieri George'

One of Emersons’ seasonal releases, this one comes out each year in honour of Mister Emerson Senior’s birthday. He’d be the George in the name, it also being a punny nod to the fact he was involved with the Taieri Gorge railway. It’s a great big yummy dark ale, significantly spicy (they admit to nutmeg and cinnamon, but won’t be drawn on the secret third), and a good bit boozy (at 6.8%) — absolutely perfect for just when the days are turning colder.

Afterthoughts, February 2011: The usual tasting note for this stuff is that it’s ‘liquid hot cross buns’, and it certainly arrives with roughly Easterish timing. But I really despise hot cross buns — not just for, you know, theological reasons — and I love this to bits. So your mileage may vary. Certainly don’t let the comparison put you off, if it does.

Emerson's 'Taieri George'
Diary entry #81, Emerson's 'Taieri George'

I compared the delicious ‘Her Majesty’ by Yeastie Boys to this, and the pairing also shows you just what work yeast and malt can do if you cleverly pick your pairing and regularly crack the whip; the Yeastie Boys brew didn’t have any actual spices in it but still gets itself an awesomely-multi-faceted shape like this has.

I also had this beer with (and went to Watchmen with) my friend George. I have literally no idea how that coincidental alignment of beer names and people names went un-noted. I’m usually all over that stuff, to a relatively-pathological degree.

Verbatim: Emerson’s Taieri George 10/3/09 $12 @ work 6.8% 500ml Released a few days ago, and had before heading off to Watchmen. It’s got a cute story, and it’s always gorgeous. Big and dark with ruby highlights, super smooth and silky, spicy and warming. Loveliness.