Verbatim: Hofbräu Münchner Weisse. 500ml, 5.1%, 20/8/07. Reward for fixing the German flatmate’s ‘puter. Nice cloudy straw wheat. Not overfly fruity or flowery. Clean and smooth.
Afterthoughts, October 2010: Oh yeah, in addition to being a Beer Nerd, I’m something of a Regular Nerd too. Sometimes, the two “talents” come together nicely.
The Schneider Aventinus will crop up much later in its (gloriously mad) ‘Eisbock’ form, but that’s my first confirmed Malthouse Diary entry. For rather-obvious reasons, it’s destined to be the site of a ludicrous chunk of the book from here out.
And there’s Renaissance ‘Stonecutter’. Also set to turn up later with a lovely photo. So, so tasty. Just go get one, now, if you’ve never had it.
Verbatim: James Cook Spruce Beer. 500ml, $5, 5%, 18/5/07. Made by the increasingly-appreciated Wigram. Good solid beer, flavoured with spruce and manuka. Tried on suspicion that it’s what ‘Te Kawa’ should be. And it is. This is very nice, unique, and interesting. Still accessible.
Afterthoughts, on the occasion of taking that photo, September 2009: Lion Breweries put up a statue to Captain Cook outside their Megaplant in Auckland. Because, as you may not know, he brewed New Zealand’s first beer. That does give me a bit of Shared Last Name-y Glow, so I snapped a photo while I was up in town for a bit of an after-birthday roadtrip.
If you’re curious, Wigram Brewery make a ‘James Cook Spruce Beer’ which is a rough approximation. New to the country, Cook mistook Rimu for Spruce, and Manuka for Tea Tree, and had a crack at an old (pre-hops) method of English brewing.
The result is, well, woody. It’s like licking an absolutely stunning piece of antique furniture. If you’re going to be licking cabinetry, then this is the way to do it, the best possible of that particular set of peculiar circumstances — but however good it might be, you’re still licking cabinetry.
Still, it’s definitely one to have for Uniqueness Points.
Diary entry #36, James Cook Spruce Beer
Afterthoughts, October 2010: Odd that I didn’t find this, well, more odd. Because it really rather is. Still, I do like unhopped beers. Certainly much more than most Beer Nerds do. The other beer — actually spelled “TaaKawa” — is another unhopped beer made with native plants instead, in that case Kawakawa, but I just found it too… normal. Not special and different enough, maybe out of commercial caution, but still. Oh, and the mention of it — in the absence of an actual entry — also suggests that I was still pretty lousy at remembering to take notes.
Verbatim: Wigram Hefe-Weizen. 500ml, $5, 5%, 19/1/07. Increasingly liking this brewery. This one is nice and cloudy, with sediment. Good that they don’t hid it. A damn solid, straight-up wheat beer. No peculiarities, but no flaws, either. Bananas ahoy.
Afterthoughts, October 2010: And blam, we’re in January 2007. What the hell happened to the rest of 2006? I honestly have no idea. May seems to be an oddly-lucky month, for the early Diary; I’ll have a slack patch, then a (relatively) frenetic May, then… nothing. I really should make some graphs.
Verbatim: Young’s Special London Ale. 500ml, $5, 6.4%, 14/5/06. Bottle conditioned, and it shows; gorgeous bubbles. Dark amber color, big round taste, malty + with hops for, well, England. All-around wonderfully beery. Brilliant, but definately not for everyone.
Afterthoughts, October 2010: Everybody ready? We’re about to fall off another cliff of Ridiculous Slackness…
Verbatim: Founder’s Organic Long Black. $5, 4.2%, 11/5/06, 500ml. Schwartzbier; black lager. Nice dark, with lingering bubbles. You can taste the coffee / choc of the malt. But it’s none too bitter, so accessible. I’d prefer more punch, of course. But very tasty.
Afterthoughts, October 2010: Huzzah, I’ve definitively broken free of the gold = lager / non-gold = non-lager nonsense of my earlier days. Black lagers are bloody marvelous things, great for bending peoples’ boundaries and for their easy refreshingness during colder weather. But what’s this “of course” about the preference for punchier flavours? I almost seem like I’m being blokey. Which is horrifying. Let me be quite plain; I do love a good mild beer, these days. Everything in its right place.
Verbatim: Emerson’s Weissbier. $5, 5%, 7/5/06, 500ml. Not too shabby a wheat at all. As you’d expect. Nicely cloudy, a little bit of fruitiness, but none too strong. So: everyone’s wheat beer, really.
Afterthoughts, October 2010: See what I mean by patchiness? A six-week gap, then a new entry the very next day. Weird that I seem so nonplussed and half-hearted in my praise, though; I was fairly sure I loved this stuff. Must have another…
Verbatim: Matson’s Strong Ale. $16/6, 7.5%, 6/5/2006. It’s a bock, and I’m at Fatty’s. Lots of people, lots of Jamie’s Italian Food. All good. Anyway, beer is very good. From Chch, very beery. Can’t quite taste the extra punch. Tanglefooty.
Afterthoughts, October 2010: Six months without a note? This thing is seriously patchy, in its early days. And things are about to get worse… (Meanwhile, the pen from this page is being seriously out-done by the pen from the page before, isn’t it?)
Matson’s have gone through quite a few reshuffles of their range and their branding (landing, currently, on a logo alarmingly reminiscent of that for the Malthouse…), but I do see they’re also fond of that line-blurring nonsense that DB are so fond of — calling a doppelbock a “strong ale”, and all.
Verbatim: Monty Python’s Holy Grail. 500ml, $5, 4.9%, 21/10/05. Reading random astronomy-stuff. From the Black Sheep Brewery, and allegedly official — also “tempered over burning witches”. Big English ale, really. Little bit fruity, not overly bitter or blunt. Good stuff.
Afterthoughts, October 2010: Definitely official, it turns out. Commissioned for the Pythons’ 30th anniversary. ‘Gimmick’ beers are always tricky, but this was enjoyable enough. And that’s eight entries / six months where all the Diary entries are British (all English, bar one). Odd, but it does make up for the initial flood of Continental stuff.
Verbatim: Fuller’s 1845 Strong Ale. 500ml, $5, 6.4%, 1/9/05. I’m old, and using a fake pen from Wallace. Watching Scrubs. It’s good n’ big. Ruby-brown. Light aroma, but quite nice and full. Very British. Methinks most people would like it. But it’s a bit like the Tangle Foot; sneaks right the hell up on you.
Verbatim Afterthoughts, November 2008: Just noticed this. Didn’t realise I’d had it before. — Got it in Sept? 08 at Malthouse. Loved the huge maltiness, when all around me was going for hoppiness.
Afterthoughts, October 2010: See? Afterthoughts are a great idea. There’s some actual handwritten ones! And I really should always carry my damn Diary.
Verbatim: Badger Original Ale. 500ml, $5, 4.6%, 12/8/05. Watching pirate West Wing. I really need to visit these boys. This is great stuff, too. It’s just a big, solid ale.
Afterthoughts, October 2010: The relative terseness of this note seems to suggest I was suffering from a sort of (enjoyable) Badger Goodness Overload, even three months after the most-recent Diary mentions. Perhaps I was still regularly quaffing their beers in the interim. Seems likely. That, or my note-taking was simply sidelined when I was distracted by good TV.
