Clean and Fill

A bit longer than the 10 days before getting my latest brew out of the barrel and into the bottle but you have to do it when you have time and standing out in the garage for a couple of hours at night in the cold doesn't really strike me as being that much fun. A recent trip to the Warehouse had me walking away with a big plastic container with wheels on the bottom. Perfect for soaking and delabelling my bottles and then washing the bottles. Much better for my wife than taking up the whole kitchen. After the usual scrubbing and sanitising I connected the bottle filler to the barrel and started to fill away. Big bottles only this time. It is nice to have choice. Most exciting is the opportunity to use the flip top bottles Ben and Gina had generously given me for Christmas. It felt like it took me ages to work out how to put the flip top on, but once I had it sorted I was filling them like a pro. Fortunately I still have a few beers left from my last brew so I won't be going thirsty until this one is done.

Mangrove Jack's Craft Series IPA

Even though most of what I write about is other people's beer I still get up to a bit of home brewing every now and then. The reality is I can't get through a full brew by myself in less than about six months. That doesn't stop the empty bottles building up though and they were starting to get out of control. The only solution was that I needed to fill them up with more beer.

A prior visit to Brew Zealand when I had been in Petone

meant I had all the gear I needed. This time I decided to spend a little more and invest in a Mangrove Jack's Craft Series IPA. The method was all the same. Clean, water, malt, brew enhance, yeast. I decided not to add any hops to this one. Might as well see what the standard tastes like before changing it. Once the airlock was bubbling away nicely it was just a matter of waiting for the time to pass; at least 10 days this time, rather than the usual seven.

Harrington's Rogue Hop Organic Pilsner

Another Harrington's from the local New World. IPAs are in vogue as a platform for pushing hops, but in fact you can pack plenty of hop flavour into a pilsner without it losing its identity. That is what Harrington's is going for with their Rogue Hop Organic Pilsner.

It has a nice refreshing taste to it. It is very easy to drink. It pushes itself as having a hoppy aftertaste, but, although the hops are definitely there, it probably isn't enough to satisfy the hop heads. Having said that it works well for me. A nice one to come back to in summer I think.

Boundary Road Chocolate Moose

Boundary Road...mass produced craft beers. There is definitely a place in the market for them and I know plenty of people who like what they have to offer. Even the beer I am talking about today, the Chocolate Moose. 

I like the witty name. It works well for a for a Chocolate Porter. I have drunk this beer before but thought
I would give it another chance. A chocolate porter doesn't actually taste like chocolate, rather it has dark, almost burnt rich flavours to it. The chocolate moose hasn't quite achieved that. In fact it tastes like someone has just mixed beer with chocolate milk. Not bitter dark chocolate but sweet dairy milk. It is weird and doesn't do it for me unfortunately. Still like the name though...

Harrrington's East Indies Lager

There seems to be a wide range of Harrington's beers down at the local New World. I felt like a bit of a change from all the IPAs I usually drink so went with the East Indies Lager. We were also having some unseasonably warm weather in the middle of winter so what better way to pretend it is summer than to down a good lager

Lagers are supposed to be refreshing so it was good to see that this had a nice clean fresh taste about it. Just what you expect from a lager. Nothing amazing but it delivered and still had some taste to it rather than some of the lager competitors out there which can sometimes be mistaken for water.

Tuatara Conehead

This is one I have had sitting around for a while. I bought two Coneheads when they first came out and have had one waiting until the time was right. Turns out the right time was when I noticed it in the cupboard.

With the Rastafarian coloured label and the name of Conehead I couldn't help but expect something smokey, but in fact that isn't what this beer is about. The cone is the green hops that Tuatara picked up from Motueka and used to brew it, instead of the usual dried hops that you find in most beers. The effect is a much fruitier taste up front followed by a very dry finish. There is a hoppy taste through the middle but the hops are sticky. Overall it is an interesting take on the APA. Not quite as good as the traditional IPA or APA but I would give green hops another go to see what other people can do with them.