Boundary Road Brewery Red Baron

Another large brewery craft beer today. I have had mixed experiences with Boundary Road Brewery before. Some of their beers are a bit single minded in the tastes. If it tells you it has flavour then that is what you get (chocolate milk anyone?) Nonetheless that isn't a reason to not try their beers. With that in mind I had myself a glass of the Boundary Road Red Baron. It markets itself as an amber ale with a smooth malt taste has a wee story on it about WWI fighter planes.

It came out nice and dark brown
as you would expect from a good amber ale. The taste is definitely malty with that being the overwhelming flavour. You get some hops but not too strong. it also has a slightly burnt taste which I enjoy. I believe those with fancier pallets call that toffee and caramel. I call it burnt. Tasty beer. Would gladly have it again.

Yeastie Boys Golden Perch Summer Ale

Well, they tried to deliver my heat pad but I wasn't home so all they left was a car. I went to their website and scheduled for it to be delivered again Today. Unfortunately I get home and no sign of the heating pad. How disappointing Post Haste...

Guess I best be talking about someone else's beer again. Another one from Yeastie Boys today. Even though we are now well into a cool and wet autumn I thought I would throw it back a couple of months and try the Yeastie Boys Golden Perch Summer Ale, although it is actually an English Pale Ale.

The beer had a nice yellowy cloudy colour. There was a smooth smokey taste. There was some hops but not too strong. Pretty similar to the homebrew summer ale I had last month. Actually works quite well in autumn. Not what I would expect from a pale ale but I still enjoyed it.

Yeastie Boys Gunnamatta IPA

Well. no sign of the heating pad but that's fine because it means I can continue to drink and talk about other people's beers. Today's candidate is the Yeastie Boys Gunnamatta IPA. This beer is the winner of a few awards. People's choice at the Great Australasian Beer SpecTAPular 2012 (for which it was specifically created) and Hashigo Zake's Beer of 2012. The twist on this one is that as a part of the brewing process they imbue it with Earl Grey Tea. I have tried beer imbued with tea before so I was interested to see how this one tasted.

The colour was a nice middle brown. It looked nice and smooth. Even though it is an IPA the taste was actually maltier than hoppy. It tasted good, but when you are drinking ale you want a bit more hoppyness. The tea taste was also much subtler than I expected it to be. That was shame as it could have enhanced the hoppy bitterness. It was a smooth drink and I did enjoy it but maybe it was a bit of a lesson in leaving your expectations at the door.

Blame it on the rain

Woo hoo! Water restrictions are all over so I can use the water to make some more beer.

Boo hoo...with the rain has come the cold so I don't think I will be able to get the brew temperature up to where it needs to be.

Oooh hooo? Bought myself a Copper Tun Heat Pad online so when it arrives we will see how that works. Might mean I can brew in the garage instead of the laundry too. That will keep my wife happy.

Monteiths Brewers' Series IPA

So these water restrictions are continuing. Even though it has been raining quite a bit they tell us we still have to conserve water. Hopefully shouldn't be too much longer. That means no brewing though. Doesn't stop me drinking beer though, so thought I might share my thoughts on some other people's beers. 

For many years Monteiths led the way in terms of making interesting beer in New Zealand that you could still buy. Appreciate they are no longer an independent brewery, being owned by DB, but that doesn't mean they can't make good beer. They now have their Brewers Series to tap into that craft market, so I thought I would go for a good standard against which to measure, their Indian Pale Ale. They market it as being very malty and having a high hop content.

There was certainly a strong malty taste. But you could only really get a very slight taste of the hops. rather than being bitter it actually had more of a citrus taste. It had a nice honey colour. Overall it was a nice easy drink although not anything that amazed me. I would drink it again but it wouldn't be my first choice.

Carl's Brew

As it turns out I'm not the only brewer in my family. In fact my brother Carl has been brewing for several months longer than I have. He even brought some out to our parents for everyone to try. This one was a Pilsner which he had brewed in glass bottles, instead of plastic. The trip had shaken up the sediment a bit but I was happy to help him drink it down. The beer itself was quite yellow in colour, but had a decent head on it. It turned out Carl had used table sugar to feed his yeast instead of the brewers mix that you can buy. That meant that the beer was quite sweet and had a stronger aroma to it then a store bought pilsner, almost wine like. You could definitely taste the malt, although it wasn't overpowering. Not much of a sign of hops though, which could have balanced the sweetness quite nicely. 

Now if these water restrictions can just come to an end I can put on another brew myself. Had some rain over the weekend and more forecast for this week. Trouble is I know that once the rain comes that will be it for summer again. Sun or beer? What a choice...

The Drys

Unfortunately there hasn't been much to blog about lately. With the worst drought in Wellington in over 70 years and the risk of domestic water running out, all the water needed to prepare to put a brew on is a luxury we just can't afford. On the plus side the brewing barrel makes an excellent storage container for a backup supply of water when indoor water restrictions kick in. Lucky I still have plenty of that Munich Lager left to quench my thirst.