Blog

It has been a wee while between drinks as they say, so we've got a super special lineup coming your way this weekend.

As a professional beer writer, I have visited a lot of breweries around the world (New Zealand, Australia, China, United Kingdom, and the Czech Republic) but few, if any, made a greater impression than Lagunitas Brewery in California, USA. I was there for literally two hours literally ten years ago, but I loved the place then and I still love their beers now.

Malthouse is celebrating 25 years in business with a yearlong series of monthly beer launches and tap takeovers from some of New Zealand’s finest breweries. This mammoth saga has been dubbed “Project Silver” after the metal traditionally associated with said anniversary. It has been described variously as “awesome”, “incredible” and “a little bit nuts, to be honest”.

Just as it has every single year since the invention of the Gregorian Calendar (1582 – Patent Still Pending), April is upon us again. This month has already brought people millions of chocolate eggs and/or chocolate bunnies, erratic coverage of the Commonwealth Games and footage of Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull caught live on camera butchering the famous but over rated Ozzie glam rock anthem “The Voice”.

I only follow cricket occasionally – but that occasion happens to be “pretty much whenever it is on.” Like millions around the globe I have been reading more and more details about “sandpaper-gate”, and the subsequent bans for two world-class cricketers, and Colin Bancroft.

The title of this blog is an iconic quote from one of my role models – Homer Jay Simpson. He has been (among his at least 188 jobs according to the creator) an astronaut, food critic and, in one memorable episode, the Beer Baron of Springfield.

On Saturday 17 February 2018 I boarded a train and went to the Trentham station in Upper Hutt without it being a hostage situation. In fact, I did the journey entirely of my own volition and even paid some of my hard earned dollars for the privilege. [1]

While a surprising number of New Zealanders took at least a passing interest in the Winter Olympics in Peon... Peony... Chang... the Winter Olympics in South Korea, it did not make much of an impact in my household.

I suspect there are many gentle readers of the Malthouse blog who secretly and not so secretly enjoy or even revel in reading me having to write about sour beers – particularly for two weeks in a row. It happens once a year for Sourfest, a celebration of piquant, pungent and frankly sour brews at Malty.

Punishment takes many forms. For me, it includes watching John Campbell conduct an interview, witnessing a Canterbury sports team beat a Wellington sports team in a final (again), and pretty much everything on TV with Dai Henwood in it.

The traditional metal associated with 25 year anniversaries is silver. Not that many couples or business reach that figure these days. Malthouse has. 2018 marks the 25th year of Malthouse. To celebrate, Colin the Handsome yet Softly Spoken Scottish Proprietor has unveiled a truly ambitious schedule of beer launches. There will be one every month and it will feature the country’s best brewers.

As noted in last week’s blog, Malthouse is celebrating the great Scottish bard by hosting the second annual Robbie Burns Day festival which is sensitively titled “Lift Yer Kilt” on Thursday 25 January 2018 (tomorrow). It will feature close to a dozen beers from the Tempest Brewery in Scotland, and a Scottish food option of Lorne Sausage sandwiches.