They also had the opportunity to attend presentations on beer and food, beer and cheese, beer and chocolate, beer and women, malt and sensory evaluation.  Day two was even bigger.

The Malthouse stand served up fifteen different beers at their Award Winning extra-long bar.  For those that weren’t paying attention to the previous two posts, the full beer list on offer at the Malthouse stall was:

Dogfish Head Raison D’Etre (USA)
Dogfish Head Punkin Ale (USA)
White Rabbit Dark (AUS)
Bridge Road Biere de Garde (AUS)
Bridge Road Beechworth Pale (AUS)
Bridge Road Chestnut Lager (AUS)
Hallertau 1 – Luxe Kolsch – (NZ)
Hallertau 2 – Statesman Pale Ale – (NZ)
Stone and Wood Draught (AUS)
Thornbridge Jaipur (UK)
Thornbridge Halcyon (UK)
Thornbridge Saint Petersburg (UK)
Malthouse Stingo (NZ)
Coopers Sparkling Ale (AUS)
Coopers Vintage Ale 2009 (AUS)

Some of these beers have returned to Malthouse bar, others sold out really quickly.

Two of the beers at the Malthouse stand were used in the popular beer and food matching sessions I ran with Chef Martin Bosley.

The Thornbridge Saint Petersburg Russian Imperial Stout was matched with an unpasteurised French cheese I can’t spell * served on roasted beetroot compote with micro greens.  This sharp dry cheese is a beautiful contrast with the rounded, smooth beer.  The beetroot brings out some earthiness while the red wine and shallot vinaigrette really accentuate the chocolate notes in the beer.

In the later session, Cooper’s Vintage Ale 2009 was paired with duck liver creme caramel and shredded roast duck.  This is a rich unctuous dish which needs a beer with a lively citrus finish to clean it up.  The beer itself has a boiled sweet, dried tangerine note and that works well the sweet/savoury nature of the dish which, to be honest, on the plate looks like a dessert.  Both matches proved popular with the audiences. 

From a beer aficionado perspective, actually having Coopers Vintage Ale fresh on tap is a legitimate beer “WTF moment”.  This iconic beer is usually only seen in bottles in New Zealand, if it is seen at all.

The actual Malthouse bar also proved exceptionally popular as a pre-Beervana, post-Beervana or even instead of-Beervana tasting venue.  Excitingly, they have a brand new toy to play with – a bright shiny device called the Modus Hopperandus. ** This clever little unit pours pints through a chamber filled with real hops (or indeed other flavourings like cherries or truffles). ***  Currently, the Modus is loaded to the gunwales with hops and pouring a tasty pale ale from the famous Coopers Brewery in Adelaide.

Beervana rocked like pop rocks.

* Martin helpfully informs me that it is from a region in France which has snow.
** LQTM – Laughing Quietly To Myself.  It’s usually more accurate than LOL and much more accurate than ROTFLMAO.
*** I personally hope it never contains anything apart from hops, except maybe more hops.

Cheers


Beer Writer
Real Beer New Zealand
Beer and Brewer Magazine

Links

Beervana – http://brewersguild.org.nz/beervana2010/
Dogfish Head – http://www.dogfish.com
White Rabbit Brewery – http://www.whiterabbitbeer.com.au/
Bridge Road Brewery – http://www.bridgeroadbrewers.com.au/
Hallertau Brewpub – http://www.hallertau.co.nz/
Stone and Wood – http://www.stoneandwood.com.au
Thornbridge – http://www.thornbridgebrewery.co.uk/
Stingo – http://www.themalthouse.co.nz/index.php/blog/144-a-cup-of-old-stingo
Coopers – http://www.coopers.com.au/
Martin Bosley’s – http://www.martin-bosley.com
Malthouse on Twitter – http://twitter.com/malthouse
Malthouse Facebook Group – http://www.facebook.com/pages/Wellington/Malthouse/7084276173
Source of the post title – http://twitter.com/annikakes
Pop Rocks – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop_Rocks
Real Beer – http://www.realbeer.co.nz 
Beer and Brewer Magazine – http://www.beerandbrewer.com/