{"id":3947,"date":"2012-07-04T00:58:15","date_gmt":"2012-07-03T12:58:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/?p=3947"},"modified":"2012-07-04T00:58:15","modified_gmt":"2012-07-03T12:58:15","slug":"the-fourth-of-july-last-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2012\/07\/04\/the-fourth-of-july-last-year\/","title":{"rendered":"The Fourth of July (Last Year)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Anchor<\/a>
Anchor Porter, on or after the 4th (depending on your point of view)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the genuinely-many delightful things about celebrating “occasion beers” keyed to non-local occasions is that the magic of timezones can grant you quite a bit more time \u2014 in case you’d like to keep the party going, or<\/em>\u00a0just if you’re the forgetful and distractable sort.<\/p>\n

So I didn’t get around that absurdly sexy Anchor Porter right there until the local<\/em>\u00a0day-after the Fourth, which was probably still the actual<\/em>\u00a0Fourth, since ours is a large-ish and sedately-spinning planet, around which it takes a while for daylight to circuit. No harm, no foul, right? But gawd<\/em>\u00a0is Anchor Porter sexy, in a bookish and interesting<\/em>\u00a0way that a hack Hollywood director would be obliged to convey by having it take its glasses off and let its hair down.1<\/sup> Which is me anthropomorphising to a worrying extent, I realise, but I run of out words to describe the reliable-but-perpetually-exciting loveliness<\/em>\u00a0that the beer’s always granted me. I was, therefore, almost glad<\/em>\u00a0to’ve run out of time on the local Fourth<\/em>; it deserves your full attention.<\/p>\n

So there we were, last year,2<\/sup> celebrating the Fourth while we worked,\u00a0in the company of a handful of lovely people, most of whom could credibly claim some degree of other of Americanness<\/em>\u00a0and with a fittingly-fantastic array of four U.S. beers with gloriously-ostentatious tap handles<\/a>\u00a0happily assembled.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Victory<\/a>
Victory 'Hop Wallop' IPA, a classic case of 'ugly label, gorgeous beer'<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"Brewaucracy<\/a>
Brewaucracy 'Punkin Image, Ltd.', with my first-ever pumpkin pie<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"Yeastie<\/a>
Yeastie Boys 'Her Majesty 2011', after everyone else had finished theirs<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

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My first beer of the night \u2014 the rumours are true; one of the few unalloyed joys of bartending is that you occasionally \/ frequently drink while you work (although the hours and the pay sometimes drive you to it, on balance) \u2014 was a ‘Hop Wallop’ IPA from Victory in Pennsylvania, generously shouted-by and shared-with our friend Kimmy (who, if memory serves, hails from nearby). Apparently originally a hop-harvest seasonal, it has all that lovely, intensely-aromatic high-velocity fruit salad kind of zip<\/em>. It was heady doses of lushness and gorgeousness at the front, quickly replaced by a surprise bitter punch in the neck before it ran off and hid long enough for you to be lulled back by the nose. (Then wham<\/em>-rinse-repeat happily all the way down the glass.)<\/p>\n

We were also lucky enough to all split a rigger \/ growler \/ flagon3<\/sup> of Brewaucracy’s<\/a> then-new \u2018Punkin Image, Ltd.\u2019, a pumpkin beer and, as such, something very<\/em>\u00a0American while being not at all<\/em>\u00a0Fourth-ish. They’re traditionally Thanksgiving-related things, but when you’re displaced on a spherical planet, the seasons get all ass-backwards. So another of ‘our’ Americans, Annika, made proper pumpkin pie, and an unmistakable home-comfort happiness dawned on very many faces. Except mine<\/em>. Mine was a face full of skepticism and doubt, since I’ve long held to the maxim that Pumpkins are Pig Food and Pigs are People Food; for peoples to eat pumpkins would be to inadvisably leapfrog the food chain. But I’d previously tried Dogfish Head’s pumpkin beer, and was astounded to find myself enjoying it, so I gave them both a chance \u2014 and can happily report that I am, weirdly, very fond indeed of both pumpkin beer<\/em>\u00a0and pumpkin pie<\/em>\u00a0as much as I still detest pumpkin pumpkin<\/em>. Maybe it’s a texture problem, with the actual thing<\/em>, or just the fact that \u2014 in both the pies and the beers \u2014 any flavour they might’ve had before they went in is completely<\/em>\u00a0swamped by deliciously soothing and satisfying winter spices.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Yeastie<\/a>
Yeastie Boys 'Her Majesty 2011', with delightfully-mad womens<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"Yeastie<\/a>
Yeastie Boys 'Her Majesty 2011', blurb #1: on style and origins<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"Yeastie<\/a>
Yeastie Boys 'Her Majesty 2011', blurb #2: on sexism and beer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

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And finally, I had (in my personal stash, secreted in a corner of the fridge) a great-big bottle of the then-new vintage of Yeastie Boys ‘Her Majesty’. Sharing it with a bunch of my favourite beer-geeky women made enough sense just leveraging off the name, but the label on this vintage went out of its way to deliver a beautiful fuck you<\/em>\u00a0to the sadly-prevalent sexism in this business, and that firmly cemented the idea. A rather-radical departure from the previous year’s edition<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 with which I began my second Beer Diary<\/em>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0other than in the Belgian-yeast department, I have vague memories of it causing some consternation at the Matariki Winter Beers Festival, but I definitely recall enjoying its dry, peachy funk. But it couldn’t really fail, when served according to the directions: “Enjoy responsibilty with friends, laughter and music”. Done<\/em>.<\/p>\n

This<\/em> year, I’ll be helping out at Hashigo which \u2014 owing to the formidable stock of West Coast U.S. beers they import and the statistically-significant fraction of expats in the local craft beer community \u2014 is traditionally a busy one. They’ve rather spectacularly one-upped my “Four of July” from Malthouse last year, with eight visiting Americans in a row all along their main bank of taps<\/a>. Should be a great lark.<\/p>\n

\"Diary<\/a>
Diary II entry #121, The Fourth of July<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Original Diary entry:<\/strong>\u00a0The Fourth of July 4\/7\/11 working @ Malthouse with Petey & Halena. 1)<\/strong> Victory ‘Hop Wallop’ IPA\u00a0\u00f7 2 with Kim, who shouted for the occasion. 8.5% 355ml nicely pale + hazy. Big nose, blunter fruit salad cf. Hop Wired etc., nice big bitter sting, but not lingeringly so. So kind [of] like Punk, in that see-saw 2)<\/strong> Brewaucracy \u2018Punkin Image Ltd.\u2019 with Annika’s pumpkin pie! Which is hardly-usual for the Fourth, but this is the other hemisphere. Both were delicious + smooth. So my Pumpkins are Pig Food stance doesn’t apply to pie or<\/span> beer, it seems. 3)<\/strong>\u00a0Yeastie Boys \u2018Her Majesty 2011\u2019 with Haitch, Amy, Shannon, Annika + Kim \u2014 some of my favourite beer-geeky women! Total colour \/ weight inversion from 2010, but still Belgian & Odd. Light, dry, fruity \u2014 peachy, I thought. But what do I know? 4)<\/strong>\u00a0Anchor Porter. Well, that was the plan. I forgot it until the next night. Such a fucking marvellous thing. Rich + fabulous.<\/p>\n

\n

1:<\/strong> Much to the consternation of geeks and just-plain-decent-thinking people alike; we<\/em> know\u00a0you can be perfectly sexy with your still hair up and your glasses still on.<\/span>
\n2:<\/strong> I’ve been enjoying the increased topicality<\/em>\u00a0of posting closer to the day I actually drink<\/em>\u00a0a beer<\/a>, but I’m resolved not to let those beers that I had to vault right over languish unpublished forever. I’ll try and make one calendar year<\/em>\u00a0the high-point of my slothful delay, switching back-and-forth between historical and current posts as I go \u2014 but leaving that mind-breaking back-dating scheme I formerly used entirely to its retirement.<\/span>
\n3:<\/strong> Depending on your linguistic heritage, knowledge of Antipodean slang terms, and\/or the state of local trademark law.<\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the genuinely-many delightful things about celebrating “occasion beers” keyed to non-local occasions is that the magic of timezones can grant you quite a bit more time \u2014 in case you’d like to keep the party going, or\u00a0just if you’re the forgetful and distractable sort. So I didn’t get around that absurdly sexy Anchor … Continue reading The Fourth of July (Last Year)<\/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":[26,6,14,20,13,12,8,30,44],"class_list":["post-3947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diary","tag-belgian","tag-pages","tag-nz","tag-united-states","tag-fruit-beer","tag-pale-ale","tag-photogenic","tag-porter","tag-2011-07"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1239,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2010\/12\/29\/tuatara-porter-doubly-modified-croucher-mrs-claus\/","url_meta":{"origin":3947,"position":0},"title":"Tuatara Porter (doubly modified) & Croucher ‘Mrs. Claus’","author":"Phil","date":"December 29, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"There some beers that you want to like, but you just can't. Both of these were near-misses, for me, so I lessened their Diary-polluting effect by consolidating them into one entry. Pinot and porter are usually a great match -- Hallertau do a wonderfully-mad 'Porter Noir' with barrels home to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Tuatara Porter (with pinot and cherries) and Croucher 'Mrs Claus'","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Tuatara-Porter-with-pinot-and-cherries-and-Croucher-Mrs-Claus-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1028,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2010\/11\/10\/emersons-brewers-reserve-grace-jones-porter\/","url_meta":{"origin":3947,"position":1},"title":"Emerson’s Brewers’ Reserve: ‘Grace Jones’ Porter","author":"Phil","date":"November 10, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The Emerson's brewers are here doing their own version of the Barry White joke I made in reference to their Oatmeal Stout. Not that I'm claiming credit, of course. But it's nice to have a \"thinking alike\" moment now and then. Much like the recent Southern Clam Stout, 'Grace' does\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Emerson's 'Grace Jones'","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Diary-2034-Emersons-Grace-Jones-300x243.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":906,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2010\/10\/10\/beer-101-tasting-session\/","url_meta":{"origin":3947,"position":2},"title":"Beer 101 Tasting Session","author":"Phil","date":"October 10, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"George (the gifter of the original Diary) organised a little tasting session at his house for a few friends of ours, with me playing the Informative Nerd. I'll be the first to admit that I made them all run a bit of a marathon, but we hit most of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Beer 101 tasting session empties","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Beer-101-1-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":303,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2007\/12\/10\/orkney-dark-island\/","url_meta":{"origin":3947,"position":3},"title":"Orkney ‘Dark Island’","author":"Phil","date":"December 10, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Verbatim: Orkney Brewery Dark Island. 10\/12\/07, $6ish, 4.6%, 500ml. Watching House. Very black, but the bubbles don't hang around. Smells of the usual dark ale stuff, but quite light. Feels almost foamy, aerated. All this isn't negative, it's just less full-on than expected. Good dark ale, with zestiness and not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Orkney Dark Island","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Diary-1043-Orkney-Dark-Island-300x220.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":555,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2008\/11\/05\/tuatara-porter\/","url_meta":{"origin":3947,"position":4},"title":"Tuatara Porter","author":"Phil","date":"November 5, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Verbatim: Tuatara Porter. A quiet little achiever, this one. On hand pump at das Malthaus, and so lovely and smooth and, well, flat. A nice way to ease yourself (and others) into drinking dark beer, it's subtly coffee-ish and toast-ish and slightly chocolatey. A surprisingly good pre-lunch pint, too. Afterthoughts,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Tuatara Porter","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Tuatara-Porter-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":385,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2008\/05\/16\/three-boys-porter\/","url_meta":{"origin":3947,"position":5},"title":"Three Boys Porter","author":"Phil","date":"May 16, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Verbatim: Three Boys Porter. One of very-few good things about Christchurch, these guys make a lovely few brews, and the porter is an especially good way to end your evening. Afterthoughts, October 2010: Firstly, I can't believe I actually drank something else after the Skull Splitter. No wonder I didn't\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Three Boys Porter","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Three-Boys-Porter-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3947"}],"version-history":[{"count":44,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4581,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3947\/revisions\/4581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}