{"id":1268,"date":"2010-12-31T00:04:50","date_gmt":"2010-12-30T11:04:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/?p=1268"},"modified":"2011-03-02T15:21:05","modified_gmt":"2011-03-02T02:21:05","slug":"hallertau-stuntman-iipa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2010\/12\/31\/hallertau-stuntman-iipa\/","title":{"rendered":"Hallertau ‘Stuntman’ IIPA"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Hallertau<\/a>
Hallertau 'Stuntman' IIPA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And then, shortly after midnight and thereby officially into the New Year1<\/sup> all previous concern about Plural Big Beers<\/a> was out the window, caught by a snappy breeze, completely buggered the hell off and was gone — as you can see by this<\/em> thing.2<\/sup><\/p>\n

Toby and I had been tempted to have one earlier in the day, but went for the Emerson’s ‘JP’<\/a> instead. So later, once my friends had made their way back to the pub, New Year’s well-wishes had been exchanged, and the ‘What next?’ question returned, there was only one real candidate.<\/p>\n

‘Stuntman’ is the loopiest — so far<\/em> — of Hallertau’s fleet of hoppy pale ales.3<\/sup> The brewer himself described it as a “stupid beer for brave people”, which I always liked; my note for the Beer Menu at work warns that “hop levels border on insanity, and the high strength propels wave after wave of flavour directly into the brain”. Not to belabour the point, but this is<\/em> a big<\/em> beer. It’s so perilously near to being overblown and unfunny that you get the exhilaratingly uncomfortable thrill of standing way too close<\/em> to a precipitous drop.<\/p>\n

The colour is an appealing gold, with a slightly-murky cast that is probably inevitable given the massive pile of ingredients that’d be necessary for a brew of this bigness. The aromas are invitingly citrussy, fruity, floral and foresty — orchardy<\/em>, in a word. The hoppy bitterness on the palate is significant, to say the least, but at this level of alcoholic strength you’ve got to have boatloads of malt in the mix, so there is a surprising amount of balance<\/em> to be had here too.<\/p>\n

Oh, and the label. That is the best damn beer label in the country, probably in the world. I’m open to being alerted to other worthy candidates, but this sets a high bar. I really must get the t-shirt; it turns out they have<\/em> made some.<\/p>\n

\"Hallertau<\/a>
Diary II entry #52, Hallertau 'Stuntman'<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Verbatim:<\/strong> Hallertau ‘Stuntman’ IIPA 31\/12\/10 750ml \u00f7 3 w\/ Toby & Wendy. 9.5% We’ve been ey[e]ing this up all day. Best beer label in NZ; must emai[l] Steve & ask him to make tshirts. Amelia picks up the sweatiness from the JP, but in a very<\/span> different way… Piney + citrussy, like some odd sort of a mixed orchard. But utterly awesome. So<\/span> close to being overblown.<\/p>\n

\n

1: Being basically nocturnal, and having worked for evers<\/em> in an industry where a ‘shift’ usually rolls past your<\/em> mere midnight, I’m of the habit of continuing to use the date of the day I woke up, until I actually go to sleep. Some clever math is required when I’m awake past two whole consecutive midnights, but such occasions are rarer, these days.<\/span>
\n2: And this wasn’t even the actually-next beer after the Rip Tide that it follows in the Diary; smack on midnight, I had myself an Epic \/ Thornbridge Stout. If memory serves. Which it may well not. (See? Take notes!) You can see from the scan that my handwriting certainly got rather wibbly, and a few ‘typos’ definitely crept in with letters going missing and such.<\/span>
\n3: The hierarchy goes: \u2018Minimus<\/a>\u2019 (sessionable at 3.8%), ‘Statesman’ (their every-day APA), ‘Maximus Humulus Lupulus’ (originally brewed for a mostly-friendly head-to-head against Epic’s ‘Armageddon’), and then this<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And then, shortly after midnight and thereby officially into the New Year1 all previous concern about Plural Big Beers was out the window, caught by a snappy breeze, completely buggered the hell off and was gone — as you can see by this thing.2 Toby and I had been tempted to have one earlier in … Continue reading Hallertau ‘Stuntman’ IIPA<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[6,14,12],"class_list":["post-1268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diary","tag-pages","tag-nz","tag-pale-ale"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3150,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2011\/06\/05\/iipa-workshop\/","url_meta":{"origin":1268,"position":0},"title":"I\/IPA Workshop","author":"Phil","date":"June 5, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"As the U.S. Hop Crisis -- 2nd Edition, after the 2007 price rice \/ demand spike \/ availability crunch -- starts to make itself felt, with stories of hop-fueled local beers being backburnered and put on hiatus for maybe-years, a tasting session like this seems absurdly decadent; the sort of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"I\/IPA Seminar lineup","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/IPA-Seminar-lineup-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1065,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2010\/11\/18\/hallertau-minimus\/","url_meta":{"origin":1268,"position":1},"title":"Hallertau ‘Minimus’","author":"Phil","date":"November 18, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"A common complaint of mine is that overstrong beers are too much in fashion (or habit), and that midstrength, sessionable numbers are sadly neglected by the local brewing scene. Granted, the stalwart exception to that trend is the utterly bloody marvellous Emerson's Bookbinder, but still; more options is more good.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Hallertau 'Minimus' tap badge","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Hallertau-Minimus-tap-badge-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":838,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2010\/09\/27\/twisted-hop-sauvin-pilsner-with-hallertau-hops\/","url_meta":{"origin":1268,"position":2},"title":"Twisted Hop ‘Sauvin’ Pilsner (with Hallertau hops)","author":"Phil","date":"September 27, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Well now. This was a rollercoaster ride. 1) Kegs of Twisted Hop Pils arrive at work, and the people rejoice -- I've said before that this stuff is a frontrunner candidate for All-Time All-Staff Favourite at work. 2) The Overboss announces his plan to run this through the Hopinator, overlooking\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Twisted Hop 'Sauvin' Pils on the Hopinator","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Diary-2016a-Twisted-Hop-Sauvin-Pils-on-the-Hopinator-150x150.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":17965,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2016\/03\/16\/will-it-shandy\/","url_meta":{"origin":1268,"position":3},"title":"Will It Shandy..?","author":"Phil","date":"March 16, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"At Golding's, where I work with Dylan of The Bottleneck blog, it's not uncommon to see us indulging in a little game we call 'Will It Shandy?' when we're trying out new arrivals to the taps. A shandy \u2014 that's a beer mixed with lemonade, on the remote chance the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Podcast episodes"","block_context":{"text":"Podcast episodes","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/podcast-episodes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Garage Project 'Beer' (My house, 6 September 2015)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Garage-Project-Beer-tall-226x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2786,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2011\/05\/12\/epic-hop-zombie-iipa\/","url_meta":{"origin":1268,"position":4},"title":"Epic ‘Hop Zombie’ IIPA","author":"Phil","date":"May 12, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"This must be the most-launched beer in recent memory. There was a first launch at Pomeroy's in Christchurch, and then another at the Malthouse in Wellington (occasionally referred to as the \"North Island launch\", in a weirdly straw-clutchy way). 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