When the Mussel Inn bar first threw open its doors in 1995, it served Mac’s Gold, Mac’s Black, Pink Elephant Mammoth and around 25 other New Zealand craft beers. 

During beer tastings, I like to throw in a few pieces of trivia to test the audience’s knowledge.  When asked which three countries drink the most beer per capita, the usual suggestions include Germany (correct), Belgium (wrong), Ireland (correct), Australia (wrong - just) and the Czech Republic (correct).  People tend to guess the answers to that question pretty quickly.

It has been a tremendous couple of months for New Zealand beer with the success of Beervana and the 2010 BrewNZ Beer Awards, then official confirmation from the Brewer’s Guild that sales of craft beer are continuing to grow, even while the economy remains troubled and beer sales overall continue to slide.

Something is different at the Malthouse. This is probably because of Colin, or, more accurately, the lack of Colin. The Handsome yet Softly Spoken Proprietor is currently travelling around the ancestral homelands with his family. As a result, paisley shirt wearing at Malthouse is down 95%, though the preponderance of plaid and/or check shirts * remain tragically consistent.

This is the fourth instalment of the widely popular People’s Blog segment on this site.  It allows two Malthouse customers to share their thoughts about favourite beers and beer drinking philosophies.  Some share a little, some share a lot.  It’s always interesting.