{"id":773,"date":"2010-09-16T00:02:21","date_gmt":"2010-09-15T12:02:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/?p=773"},"modified":"2011-03-15T22:10:33","modified_gmt":"2011-03-15T09:10:33","slug":"racecourse-phoenix-golden-ale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2010\/09\/16\/racecourse-phoenix-golden-ale\/","title":{"rendered":"Racecourse ‘Phoenix’ Golden Ale"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Racecourse<\/a>
Racecourse 'Phoenix' Golden Ale<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Re-creating old recipes is a neat idea, I think. There are some wickedly wonderful bookish types<\/a> and homebrewers who archive old brewery notes and get themselves the chance to resurrect and sample long-dead brews. There are also outfits like Dogfish Head who tee up with archeology boffins and go distinctly older-school than that<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Then there are relatively half-assed approaches which are mostly exercises in marketing; in getting your ‘brand story’ off the shelf, as it were. This<\/em>, sadly, is one of the latter — and I say that even though l liked it<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The rep. said it was made using “wild yeast” collected from behind the original racecourse itself. Scotty was fairly sure — and both of us hoped to hell<\/em> — that he meant wild hops<\/em>. But that’s just the thing. They’ve traded brandwank for substance; there is a damn good<\/em> reason that hops are farmed. They, like all crops, would rather not work so hard. Left to themselves, they don’t crank out the mad levels of flavour or bigness or both that people would like. (The World isn’t here for us<\/em>, after all.) So when you use wild hops, you don’t get much out of them. And it shows, here; the beer is well-made enough, but it’s very mild. That said, it’s preferable to basically every bog-standard lager-thing out there. It just doesn’t have the fun, lush loveliness that you can get from a nice golden ale<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Racecourse<\/a>
Diary II entry #7, Racecourse 'Phoenix' Golden Ale<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Verbatim:<\/strong> Racecourse ‘Phoenix’ Golden Ale 16\/9\/10 Sample from a truly-clueless rep. a few weeks ago (who couldn’t tell his yeast from his hops). 330ml\u00a0\u00f7 2 w\/ Scotty 5%. Brewed at Wigram, but apparently a recreation of an old classic, a la last year’s Waitemata Sparkling Ale. Or WAITEMATA SPARKLING, I should say, in new-Book terms. And it’s similarly perfectly bland. Not an insult. Faultless, but unremarkable. I’d take it over any macro lager, I mean. Apparently made using wild hops (or yeast, the rep. worryingly erred), which would account for some absences of zing; these things are farmed for good reasons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Re-creating old recipes is a neat idea, I think. There are some wickedly wonderful bookish types and homebrewers who archive old brewery notes and get themselves the chance to resurrect and sample long-dead brews. There are also outfits like Dogfish Head who tee up with archeology boffins and go distinctly older-school than that. Then there … Continue reading Racecourse ‘Phoenix’ Golden Ale<\/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":[36,6,14,28],"class_list":["post-773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diary","tag-brandwank","tag-pages","tag-nz","tag-golden-ale"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":600,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2008\/11\/25\/three-boys-golden-ale\/","url_meta":{"origin":773,"position":0},"title":"Three Boys Golden Ale","author":"Phil","date":"November 25, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Pure summer gorgeousness. A very pale straw, and slightly hazy here since the small amount of sediment was a wee bit agitated-in. As Scott (the Bar Manager) puts it \"it's fruity, it's flirty, it's fantastic\". Absurdly refreshing, and apparently a \"single malt\" beer (which is fairly cute), it's got an\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 Golden Ale","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Three-Boys-Golden-Ale-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":897,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2010\/10\/05\/three-boys-golden-ale-on-handpull\/","url_meta":{"origin":773,"position":1},"title":"Three Boys Golden Ale (on handpull)","author":"Phil","date":"October 5, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Three Boys Golden is an absolute favourite of mine. So after the heartbreak that was the Hopinated version of\u00a0 Twisted Hop's 'Sauvin' Pils -- another beer whose deliciousness is closely-tied to its simplicity -- I was a little nervous to try this. Especially after Martin had some and found it\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 Golden Ale, handpulled","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Diary-2021-Three-Boys-Golden-Ale-handpulled-300x166.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":654,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2009\/01\/10\/invercargill-wasp-golden-ale-incarnation\/","url_meta":{"origin":773,"position":2},"title":"Invercargill ‘Wasp’ (Golden Ale incarnation)","author":"Phil","date":"January 10, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm increasingly certain that my nomination for Under-rated Beer Style is golden ale. I've got a few more sitting on my bookcase ready to try soon, but I'd also never gotten around to trying this one that we've had at work for ages. And it's pretty bloody lovely, really. Compared\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Invercargill 'Wasp'","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Invercargill-Wasp-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":227,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2005\/05\/04\/badger-golden-champion\/","url_meta":{"origin":773,"position":3},"title":"Badger ‘Golden Champion’","author":"Phil","date":"May 4, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Verbatim: Badger Golden Champion. 500ml, $5, 5%, 4\/5\/05, with sausages + Firefly. I'm visiting these guys and shaking the hand of the man what makes their beer. Gold, indeed. Really tasty. Warm fruitiness. Peaches, quite a bit. It's really good. [Brewed w\/ elderflower!] Afterthoughts, October 2010: A nice early example\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Badger 'Golden Champion'","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Diary-1025-Badger-Golden-Champion-300x174.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1346,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2009\/02\/09\/three-boys-golden-ale-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":773,"position":4},"title":"Three Boys Golden Ale, again","author":"Phil","date":"February 9, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"This made for a nice finish to a civilised and therapeutic afternoon \/ evening of good beers and good books, and is still my front-runner for Beer of the Summer '08\/'09. Afterthoughts, February 2011: I really do love this beer to bits. It's in the Diaries a few times, and\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 Golden Ale","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Three-Boys-Golden-again-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":442,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2008\/10\/02\/little-creatures-bright-ale\/","url_meta":{"origin":773,"position":5},"title":"Little Creatures ‘Bright Ale’","author":"Phil","date":"October 2, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The golden ale little brother to the very-much-loved Creatures Pale, 'Bright' isn't as socks-off-knocking as the classic Critter, but is bloody lovely. Reminiscent of fellow Australian legend Cooper's 'Sparkling', it's lively, fruity, and (like I said; there's no better word for it) lovely. Really, I'm only surprised that it (apparently)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Little Creatures 'Bright Ale'","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Little-Creatures-Bright-Ale-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773","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=773"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1948,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773\/revisions\/1948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}