Hop Over to Nelson

Wellington may currently be the beer capital of New Zealand, but the city of Nelson in the South Island, with its sunshine, beaches and Abel Tasman National Park on its doorstep has certainly taken to the brown nectar too. It may well be because many of NZ's hops are grown just down the road in Motueka. I had the good fortune to visit Nelson not that long ago. I was there with my wife so it wasn't specifically a beer trip, but it was still nice to take in some of the local beeriness.

I cracked my first beer in Nelson at Deville, a very nice restaurant with a great garden where you can sit outside, enjoy the food and sample some beverages. They had a decent range of beer and cider on tap. I settled for a nice pint of Mussel Inn Golden Goose Lager. Golden Bay is a bit further away than Nelson but at least I was in the right region. Refreshing with a touch of hops. Perfect for afternoon in the sun.

The next place I checked out had been recommended to me by my friend Bex (a staunch Nelson advocate). I always go in for something quirky and the Free House Pub has that in spades. In the UK a Free House is a pub that is not affiliated with any particular brewery so is free to sell whatever brews it likes. The owners of the Free House in Nelson used this same philosophy. They bought a little church, put a bar in it, put a big Mongolian Ger on the front lawn for events and then encouraged people to plant themselves at a mismatched table or on a bean bag outside and take their time enjoying pints (or half pints) of random beer. The place was the closest we had found to a proper English pub in New Zealand, while at the same time feeling distinctly New Zealand. There is something a little naughty about drinking in a church, but that aside I highly recommend it as a place to spend some time.

With the growth of craft brewing, places like the Sprig and Fern have opened taverns all around Nelson (and Wellington and Auckland too). It is a smart way to get your own brews to the market and Sprig and Fern have a wide variety of them. We decided to stop for a quick Sunday afternoon pint at the Sprig and Fern in Hardy Street, Nelson. The bar itself was nice enough, but could be one of many other similar ones around the place. It was nice to enjoy a pint of their American Amber Ale. Love those red beers. It was also interesting to see the range of people popping for a quick beer, from young people still recovering from the night before to old ladies just after a half of Stout.

A weekend isn't a long time, and given the chance I would go back to Nelson to check out more of the beer brewing activities that go on there. Brewery Tour anyone?

Hmmmm...this ain't Jamaica mon...

As is always the way, time has to pass between the drink going in the bottle and the time you can actually drink it. Fortunately that is only a couple of weeks so it isn't too long to wait. A couple of weeks have passed since I bottled my ginger beer so it was time to try the handiwork. There hadn't been any bottles explode so that was a good start. I decided to start with ginger beer from one of the glass bottles. It poured out nice and golden, but it wasn't as cloudy as I had come to expect from ginger beer. That's OK though as it is really about the taste. Unfortunately, the taste was not great. There was certainly a taste of ginger there, but it just didn't have the bite from the ginger, or even the fizz that gets up your nose. None of that I am afraid. Not sure if it was the cold temperature or the lack of sugar in an attempt to make it non-alcoholic but this one sure hasn't lived up to expectations. My wife agrees. I now have thirty odd bottles of mediocre ginger beer to drink. Perhaps I will learn to like it with time...

Share that 1/2 Gallon

Avid readers of this blog (yes I appreciate their are none...) will recall that when I visited the Tuatara brewery I picked up a 1/2 gallon flagon of Aotearoa Pale Ale. The instructions on the side of the bottle were pretty strict about making sure you drink the whole thing within 24 hours of opening it. I am getting old so no longer see this as a challenge to be taken by myself. Instead it is an opportunity to share a tasty brew with friends. Much more civilised. The hosting of a game night was a perfect opportunity. Ian and Nick were more than willing helpers in the game of emptying the flagon. In fact, the flagon wasn't enough so I also got the opportunity to share some of my English Pale Ale with them too. And they came back for more. That's the beauty about homebrew though. There always seems to be an endless supply of beer to drink.

Back to the PET

So I did manage to get away a bit early from work and got straight into washing and sanitising the bottles. Back to the plastic PET bottles again. I have heard that ginger beer can be prone to exploding so hopefully the plastic will be a bit stretchier than glass. As it turns out I was short a couple of bottles so had to quickly grab a couple of empty glass ones. No sanitiser left so hopefully a good wash will suffice. Been a bit of a long brew this one but it is good to have them in the bottles. Now to see how they taste.

A good read

Yet another two days have passed. Time for yet another reading. Fortunately this time my reading is the same as it was last time. That means I can bottle this baby up. Not today though. Too late and cold to get started. Better try and get away from work early tomorrow.

Am I Reading this right?

So apparently after two days the readings should be same. That means the brewing has stopped and it is time to bottle. So I was expecting that I should be in a position to get the ginger beer out of the barrel today. Unfortunately the readings were changed from last time. The cold weather strikes again...time to wait another two days...