Madness this way comes: 23 new beers for Beervana

For some of the more hardcore brewers and beer fans that means there will be just six hours of sleep until the event begins. Bars around town are already reporting a slowly growing horde of drinkers taking pictures of every beer, scribbling in notebooks, wearing t-shirts proclaiming their favourite tipple, tweeting their tasting notes and asking extremely complicated questions to the staff. There have even been some confirmed sightings of anoraks. [1]

In other words, it is Beervana week. To celebrate, this blog will actually talk about beer. In recent months, Colin the Handsome Yet Softly Spoken Scottish Proprietor has been frugally building up stocks of kegs in anticipation of this very day. His cunning plan is to progressively unleash 23 new beers on the Malthouse crowd. I’ve seen a partial list and there are some mouth-watering drops there. In the first of several posts on this topic, I’m going to highlight six brews with a particular bias towards hoppy strong pale ales. [2]

First up however is an imperial stout, 8Wired iStout (10%). My spellchecker on Word wants me to correct iStout to “is tout” while my iPhone is trying to dob me into the Apple Corporation. This huge brew from the current Champion Brewery of New Zealand has coffee and chocolate notes followed by a fair whack of hops. I will be using iStout on Friday at one of the Beervana food and beer sessions. While I cannot reveal the chefs secret recipe, I will say the dish involves blue cheese and popcorn…

Now that the dark beers have been fully covered, it is time to head over to Hoptopia. 8Wired Super Conductor (8%) is a bouncing double IPA with lashings of fruity, resinous hops. There has been a bit of chatter recently about 8Wired potentially having to find a new home with Renaissance Brewing approaching full capacity on their own beers.

If 8Wired does end brewing up at Steam Brewing in Auckland as some have speculated, they will be moving in with the Epic Brewing Company. However, for their Impish Brewer Luke Nicholas, home is where he hangs his air guitar. Malthouse has several kegs of Hop Zombie IIPA (8.5%), the second batch of 2012. [3]

Luke has got cheekier than usual in the official Beervana beer guide describing the colour of the Zombie as “School Bus Yellow”. His other colour descriptors include “Batman Black” and “Not Purple”. In his tasting notes, I look forward to Hop Zombie’s trademark notes of mango, tropical fruit and hop oil, plus the bitterness rating of 5 out of 5. I am not keen on the alleged nose of “fresh sweat”. Expect the glow in the dark Hop Zombie t-shirts to be out in force over the weekend.

From the American Import Desk, I’m hugely looking to the welcome return of Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA (7.2%). I’ve described this beer as “wholly hoptastic” and “one of the finds of 2011.” Colin the Handsome Yet Softly Spoken Scottish Proprietor said he was astonished at how fast it sold out last time. I suspect there was a causal relationship between those two statements.

The pioneers at Sierra Nevada Brewing have, over many years, developed a “shiny stainless steel piece of hardware” which delivers exceptional dry hopping. This sleek device gives Torpedo both its handle and its character. In the glass, Torpedo is big, bold and bitter – right in your face and straight up your nose.

Sam Caligione, founder of Dogfish Head brewery and poster boy of the craft beer revolution, was a hugely popular visitor to New Zealand a few years ago. He presented at Beervana and shot an episode of his Brew Masters series for the Discovery Channel. If you look very closely, my shoulder appears briefly in the show. It is one of my better televisions performances with no mistakes at all. [4]

Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA (9%) is a continuously hopped and dry hopped monster. It has a huge malt backbone supporting a massive amount of bitterness. Floral, sweet, cakey and bitter – it should be enjoyed slowly as it is both strong and complex. The brewers even recommend drinking it out of a brandy snifter.

Finally, there is an exceptionally quirky beer from a quirky American brewery. The Magic Hat Brewery was founded in Vermont, that hotbed of liberalism, back in 1994. Beer writing great Michael Jackson explained the name thusly: “One of the founders said ‘The idea of opening a brewery? We pulled it out of a hat.’” It has certainly one of the most eccentric beer websites I have ever perused. However, apparently the site’s bright purple colour scheme and extensive use of glowing symbols is accurately reflected in the actual brewery design. [5]

Magic Hat #9 (5.1%) describes itself as a “Not Quite Pale Ale” – dry, crisp with a gentle fruitiness and moderate bitterness (20 IBU). The founders also kind of explain the #9 moniker: “The significance of #9 is that it is far better than numbers 1 through 8. #2 was a Bamboo Wit, #5 a Grape Dubbel, #8 a Rainforest Nut Lager. They did not sell well. Why? It’s a mystery to us! [6] No one really knows the significance of the mysterious #9. Not even its creator.”

Next time, we drink an Olympic Gold Medal.

[1] These however may not be beer related given the appalling weather today.

[2] The remaining posts will probably also be biased towards hoppy strong pale ales.

[3] A fine accomplishment given the beer was not expected back until 2013/2014. (Source: The Impish Brewer)

[4] Apart from getting into shot in the first place.

[5] This observation may need to be verified by a non-colour blind person.

[6] Possibly because the people of Vermont have an understandable aversion to bamboo, grapes and nuts in their beers.

Cheers

Beer Writer

Beer and Brewer Magazine

Links

8Wired Brewing – www.8wired.co.nz/