Trying to Cook in NZ

I decided to keep track of all the New Zealand Beer I have been trying. I started my list around January 11th, so it doesn’t have everything I have had so far, but I will probably go back to some of them. I am going to try a new system of updating this list. The new beers are now going to be put on the top of the list, so if you are interested in the chronology, it is going to be a little confusing. I am also going to give them a score from 1 to 5, these take into account both flavor and price. Enjoy.

New Zealand Beers

4/29/08

I am way behind on my updating of this and other blogs so I am going to give it a new look that is easier for me to write. I am up to 146 to date. The listing will no longer be in chronological order. I am going to go back a few weeks and write up the more resent ones (about 22) while they are still a little fresh. Then I will go back and do older ones (about 57 more) at a later date. I just hope I don’t kill those brain cells before I can do it. I am also going to add a list of breweries to the bottom of the list with their locations and some other details.

Pink Elephant, Imperious Rushin Stowt, 11%, 5
– Nina and I had some trouble finding this brewery. The address that is posted on the web and it turns out on the bottles doesn’t make any sense. We found this one at the New World (a nice grocery store that usually has a good beer section) in Blenheim. It was the last bottle of Pink Elephant they had. It was a 330mL bottle that cost around 9 dollars. The label said that it was brewed in 2007, was batch #1 and bottle #1112, the bottle number was hand written. The beer itself is very strong. 11% is approaching wine territory and you can tell by tasting it. It may have been aged in oak barrels as well since it has many flavor characteristics similar to red wine. It is very fruity, but has chocolate flavors as well. It is sharp in the mouth as well having a nice biting bitterness. As beers go, this is very well made and is worth every penny. A contender for best beer.

Wigram, James Cook Spruce, 5%, 4.5
– Nina spotted this one in Westport. It had a strange looking label, so I looked past it. Now I know better. This one is not like the spruce beers you usually see. It is based on the recipe the Captain Cook used when he landed in Dusky Bay on his first trip to NZ. He was the first person to brew beer here. He used rimu and manuka to flavor it and give it some vitamin C so his sailors wouldn’t get scurvy. It doesn’t really taste like beer, but it has its own thing going. It is very good for what it is though. I gave it a 4.5 since it is a good ‘spruce’ beer.

Montieth’s – Summer Ale, 5%, 3
– Here is a beer that may have been a good idea at the time, but fails as a refreshing summer brew. It has a ginger and nutmeg flavor balanced with a spicy citrus flavor from the ale yeast. There are also 4 malts used in it so it has a very complex flavor. The problem is that I don’t want to taste that flavor again. They sweetened it with rata honey that smoothes out the finish.

DB Bitter, 3.5%, 1
– This beer has nothing going for it. I got it in a can which was bad since it had no flavor of its own to counteract the flavor of the can itself. It is too low in alcohol, has no flavor and yet manages to be bitter. This beer actually gave me the bitter beer face, and I thought it was just a myth.

Three Boys, Porter, 5.2%, 5
– This is an excellent porter. It is another contender for greatest NZ beer. It is nice and dark with subtle fruity flavors that change and expand in your mouth as you drink it. The dark malt flavor was perfectly balanced with some nice hop flavors. I am going to have to find another bottle of this one.

Harrington’s, Finest Lager, 5%, 3.5
– A slightly sweet golden lager, this is one of Harrington’s cheaper offerings. It got a 3.5 due to that last fact. It isn’t an excellent beer that can stand next to other lagers, but its price point makes it very attractive.

Brew Moon, Amberly Pale Ale, 4%, 4
– Nina and I drove by this brewery/brewpub on our way to pick up Dad and Deena in Christchurch. It was touch and go for a few moments when I was deciding if we had to turn the car around and have a late morning beer or two for the records. I decided against it, so that means we are going to have to stop by on our way back north. Nina found this bottle in Blenheim and it turned out to be very good. It is unfiltered with a nice hop bitterness and a floral aroma. There is a slight citrus/spice aftertaste.

Three Boys, IPA, 5.2%, 4.5
– Another Blenheim find, this IPA has no floral aroma, but is also unfiltered with a very good bitter flavor. It is very smooth and round feeling in the mouth.

Dux de Lux, Alpine Ale, 4%, 4.5
– Dux de Lux has two brewery locations. The first is in Christchurch on the former campus of Canterbury University. The second is in Queenstown in the former location of Otago Brewpub in McNeils Cottage. When we went they had two beers made just there, the first is this Alpine Ale. It is golden in color and has a warm malty flavor which is very well balanced by some hops. I usually don’t rank golden ales this high, but this is a beer I would go buy if I lived in Queenstown on a regular basis. It was very good.

Dux de Lux, Wakatipu Wheat, 5.4%, 3.5
– Their other selection was a filtered wheat beer that didn’t really taste like a wheat beer. It was quite bitter and didn’t balance it very well or take on the good aspects of a good bitter beer. I am afraid that I wouldn’t walk across town to drink this one like the one above.

Montieth’s, NZ Lager, 5%, 4
– Recently released by Montieth’s, this beer is meant to compete with the new Steinlager Pure as a healthier, more ‘natural’ alternative to their other beers. It really isn’t that good. But it did get a 4. I would drink it before the Steinlager Pure. It is slightly sweet and tastes like most other green bottle beers.

Monteith’s, Dopplebock Winter Ale, 6%, 4
– I bought this in Arrowtown at a nice little liquor store on our way south from Wanaka. I believe it is their annual winter beer and is just being released for the season. However, the bottle I bought was best before April 08. Maybe it was left over from last year. It was good but not excellent. You could really taste the alcohol and the banana flavors from the yeast. It had a nice spice to it and would be a good warmer this winter.

Ranfurly, 4%, .5
– Disgusting. I have never had a beer that tasted like Oriental flavor Ramen noodles. I don’t know if it was the can, or the beer. It tasted cheap, but didn’t have a price to back it up. It is a standard macro beer, but if it was half the price it may still be too expensive for the taste.

Speight’s, Summer Wheat Apricot, 4%, 4
– Nina tried a taste of this one at the Speight’s bar in Invercargill. It was just as advertised, an apricot beer. It smelled like peach-o’s and tasted like dried apricots with a hint of beer flavor thrown in. I don’t like fruit beers, cherry and raspberry don’t really go with beer that well, but this one wasn’t so far fetched.

Speight’s, Pale Ale, 4.5%, 3.5
– Here is an example of a weak Pale Ale. It is very light in color and in flavor. The malt and hops are there, but are too weak to really mention. It seems like they were going for a refreshing beer, so they didn’t want to make it too strong, but ended up with a very weak tasting beer.

Double Brown, 4%, 2.5
– Another bad beer drank out of a can. It didn’t taste like tin however, it tasted like bad Budweiser. It is very light brown, not ‘double’ brown like the name would suggest. Of all the beers I have had, it reminded me of bud or Coors more than any other.

Invercargill, Stanley Green, 4.7%, 3.5
– I waited to get to Invercargill to get beer from this brewery even thought they had it in Wanaka. This was the first one of four that I tried. It is a strange beer, a pale ale, that tastes like it comes from a green bottle, but it is in a brown one. It has a bitter, fruity, hop flavor that lingers into a mandarin orange aftertaste. I have never tasted that in beer before.

Emerson’s, Falconer’s Rest, 5%, 4.5
– This is a Brewer’s Reserve beer, I don’t know what that means, but we found it in a cool little bar in Dunedin. It is a light amber colored IPA. It is nicely bitter with a good amount of hops rounded out by a caramel flavored malt. This beer was very refreshing after a long day walking around the botanic gardens and Otago Museum.

Invercargill, Biman, 5.2%, 4
– This Invercargill beer is a bit better than its predecessor. It is an all malt golden lager with tropical fruit flavors and a bit of smoke on top of that. It is very refreshing on the palate.

Invercargill, Wasp, 4.2%, 3
– You win some and you lose some. This beer wasn’t quite so good. It is pegged as a golden ale, but it is more like hard lemonade. It is unfiltered and all that ale yeast causes a very strong banana aroma and flavor to develop on top of the lemony/green apple bitterness. There was a lot going on in the beer, but it didn’t taste like beer at all. Just expensive Hooch.

Waikato Draught, 4%, 4
– This is a very cheap beer. I got it in an Imperial Quart bottle that is 745mL. These bottles are sold in wooden crate twelve packs. To see what they look like watch Once Were Warriors. This beer, while being quite cheap was also pretty good. It is mildly bitter which adds depth to an otherwise boring cheap mass produced beer.

Invercargill, Pitch Black, 4.5%, 4.5
– Finally, the best beer from Invercargill, a nice dark stout. While being dark and filling, it was also refreshing. The coffee aftertaste went very well with the dark berry fruits that lingered with the beer in the mouth.

2/19/08

Wigram (Micro), Christchurch, Dakota Dark, 5%, 3.5
– This one is an okay dark beer. It seems like it is threatening to be a cheap generic dark beer, but it is not quite there yet. It is very plain though.

Harrington’s (Micro), Christchurch, Canterbury Pale Ale, 4.8%, 3.5
– Another slightly boring beer, this one uses Nelson hops to make it slightly bitter. It doesn’t have the intense bitter flavor that a pale ale should have. It is slightly fruity with a very mild flavor. I don’t think this one is worth drinking twice.

Harrington’s (Micro), Christchurch, Classy Red, 5.2%, 4
– This Harrington offering is a little better. It is an American Pale Ale and uses seven hops. It is very tasty and smells like grapefruit and passionfruit. I really enjoyed this one. It would be a good one to drink before a meal, the hops made it very good appetite stimulator.

Emerson’s (Small Micro), Dunedin, London Porter, 5%, 3.5
– Sadly, here is another beer that I will not drink again. It has a fruity, bitter, dark flavor, but it is not very malty. I like a little more balance between bitterness and maltiness in a porter. This one lacked something that gave it a boring taste and mouth feel.

Nelson Bays (Small Micro), Nelson, Draught, 4.5
– The other day, Nina and I went to get some pizza for dinner. We decided to try Hot Rock Pizza down by the beach. We pulled up into a space right in front and were intending on checking out the menu. A man who must have been the owner rushed out and forced us inside and showed us the menu and then took up station just outside the front door, blocking our escape. We decided that we had to try a pizza and ordered the chicken special. He then asked what salads, appetizers, desserts and beer we wanted with it. It was a very forceful sale, we were able to resist though. But not entirely, I decided that we should try the Nelson Bays beers they had on tap while we waited. This one is a nice bitter beer with a nice apple flavor deep down. It has a nice gold color and looks very nice in the glass. This is a beer to seek out and enjoy on a hot day.

Nelson Bays (Small Micro), Nelson, Dark, 4
– The second beer we tried there was the dark. It wasn’t quite as good, but it was excellent as well. It was nice and dark with chocolate and coffee flavors with a great aftertaste. It was not bitter at all and went down very smoothly. While we were sitting there enjoying our beers and waiting for our pizza, we watched the man who hustled us in chasing down every person who walked by and managed to get over half of them into his restaurant. It was amazing.

Harrington’s (Micro), Christchurch, Razorback, 5%, 4.5
– This is a deliciously malty beer from Harrington. I haven’t been that impressed with them, but this one is great. It is a ‘premium bitter’ that has a great aroma. The beer was malty and bitter at the same time and was quite refreshing.

Mata (Small Micro), Kawerau, Manuka, 5%, 4
– Here is a solid 4, not quite 4.5 but no where near a 3.5. This beer is a very well made golden ale with a hint of manuka, a New Zealand plant that very expensive honey is made from. It is very well balanced and refreshing. It comes in 4 packs in a crazy box.

Monteith’s (Micro), Greymouth, Radler, 5%, 1.5
– I don’t know anything about Monteith’s. Nina and I had the dark back in December, before I stated the list, and we both liked it. This one, I tried at the House of Ales in Nelson. I looked at the menu and saw they had a Radler beer battered fish and chips, so when I got to the bar and had to decide on a beer, I saw Radler, and chose that one. I got some fries with a lime aioli as well. Neither were good. The beer smells like oranges and bubble gum. That right there should have told me enough, but the flavor was even stranger. It kind of tasted like medicine flavored like bubble gum for kids. The medicinal flavor competed with orange and the bubble gum. Meanwhile, the lime aioli was pretty bad too. I am not sure what the beer or the aioli would go well with. They both made me thirsty, but I didn’t really want to drink the beer. I gave it a 1.5 because, while I don’t ever want to see, smell or taste it again, it was interesting.

Wigram (Micro), Christchurch, Vienna Lager, 5%, 4.5
– I liked this beer. It has a very non hoppy aroma, but a nice bitter taste. That bitter is complimented nicely with a great malt flacor. It won a sliver medal at the NZ International Beer Awards and I think it was well deserved. Another nice beer from the diverse Wigram brewery.

Harrington’s (Micro), Christchurch, Kiwi Draught, 4%, 4
– This one doesn’t taste like a 4, but it is cheap. A 660mL bottle costs a little over $3NZ which makes it cheaper than some of the middle breweries. It is a solid beer none the less. It is very tasty and a good everyday beer.

Wigram (Micro), Christchurch, Bavarian Pilsner, 5%, 3.5
– This is a straight German pilsner made with German hops and malts. The hops are very bitter and the beer is not very good. I am sure some pilsners are bitter, but this one is over the top.

Green Man (Micro), Dunedin, Premium Pils, 5.4%, 4
– Now, here is a pilsner that is very good. It also uses German hops and malt, but it is not quite so bitter. This one is full bodied and very flavorful. I enjoyed it on my walk up the hill after work last night.

Moa (Small Micro), Blenheim, Five Hop Winter Ale, 5.5%, 5
– I am not really sure why this “Winter Ale” just showed up in the store seeing it is the middle of summer. This winter beer is also different since it is very hoppy. I am used to winter beers full of spices and fruit flavors, this one is not like that at all. The five hops make it very bitter, but that does not detract from the beer. The velvety flavor and mouth feel make this beer very good. It makes for a very easy drinking smooth beer.

2/12/08

Wigram (Micro), Christchurch, Hefeweizzen, 5%, 4
– A cloudy medium golden German style heffe. It is made with a wheat malt and noble hops. There is very good balance between the sweetness and bitter flavors here. The aroma is very floral and pronounced. This beer was refreshing, but as wheat beers go, there are better ones.

Emerson’s (Small Micro), Dunedin, 1812 IPA, 5%, 5
– Here is another beer that used isinglass, I still haven’t found out what it does and haven’t found out if it is used often. This beer was excellent though. It has an excellent bitter flavor in the English style. This is a beer that I would happily drink all the time. I have enjoyed English IPAs before, but this one was a little different. It was the best I have ever had.

Renaissance (Small Micro), Blenheim, Elemental, 6%, 4
– This is a very robust porter that is very malty and bitter. Nina and I enjoyed this one and the next on the shores of beautiful glacial lake Rotaroa in the Nelson Lakes National Park. It has some very sweet red fruits and blueberry with a nice balancing bitterness. It tasted like a fancy porter with a lot of flavors that all came out at different times. I gave it a four because it didn’t really do that much for me.

Green Man (Micro), Dunedin, Stout, 7%, 5
– Nina picked this one out for our trip to the lakes. It is a very strong stout at 7% but the flavors cover up all the alcohol flavors. It is a full bodied beer that is very smooth going down. It almost seems thick. It has no added sugar and no finishing hops, so it is not bitter at all. They say that it is “maybe the darkest in NZ.” This is a great dark beer.

Moa (Micro), Blenheim, Methode Moa, 5%, 4.5
– Nina talked me into changing my ranking system to one with more choices. Now I am going from 1 to 5 but with half points too. I am not going back to change previous ones, but I am pretty sure more would drop by .5 that would go up by .5. So here is my newest vote. I gave it a 4.5 not because of flavor, but because of price. The Moa brewery was founded in 2003 and they are making “fancy” beers. They bottle them in two different sizes, 375 mL splits and 750 mL bottles with champagne stoppers and wire cages. This beer has some sediment and is bottled in green glass, but the flavor is not very pronounced. It is a very good beer with a lot of flavor profiles.

Wigram (Micro), Christchurch, Munchner Dunkel, 5%, 5
– This is a great porter. I don’t know if it is really a porter, but it sure tastes like a good one. Everything is balanced just how it should be. I really enjoyed this one and others did as well, it won a gold medal at the NZ International Beer Awards.

Mac’s (Micro), Nelson/Stoke, Black, 5%, 3.5
– This was a good beer when Nina and I first tried it at our first hostel in Nelson. It was a nice dark beer with some very good dark flavors like some of the cheaper ones we had tried on our drive, but better. Now, however, it is very boring. I had it with some Thai food, and I didn’t like it much at all. It is too bad really.

Wigram (Micro), Christchurch, Bristol Best Bitter, 4.5%, 3.5
– This is an English Best Bitter that has some very malty characteristics. I thought this one also won a gold medal, but it was just a gold colored bronze, my mistake. It was pretty good though. It got 3.5 instead of 4 because it was a little expensive for its not very good flavor. It could have been a pretty good beer, but I am afraid that it just didn’t do it for me.

Moa (Small Micro), Blenheim, Harvest, 5.5%, 5
– Here is a very good beer. I didn’t know that it was cherry flavored when I bought it, I think it is a little weird to be celebrating the harvest with an early summer fruit, but whatever. The cherry flavor is very mild and the the rest of the beer is very well put together. I might think about drinking it again and would definitely recommend it.

2/5/08

Mac’s (Micro), Stoke, Great White, 5%, 4
– I had this beer in a the Victoria Rose, an English themed bar on Trafalgar that plays ESPN Australia on big televisions. I got to see an American sport for the first time since I left. It was a great UConn/Syracuse basketball game and some highlights from some NFL playoff games, it was nice. The beer was very good too. It is very light gold and unfiltered. There are good floral aromas and it is slightly bitter. A very refreshing beer that was nice after walking around town in the afternoon.

Wigram Brewing Co (Micro), Christchurch, Propeller Lager, 5% 4
– This is a nice lager made with New Zealand hops. It is crisp and refreshing as it should be. This brewery makes a couple of different lagers, so I can’t wait to compare some of them.

Founder’s Brewery (Small Micro), Nelson, Tall Blonde, 4.2%, 4
– Here is another wheat beer and another 4. This one was a little better than the Mac’s, but not quite as good as the Emerson’s. It is hoppy with a lot of grapefruit flavor. It has some good balance, but there may be too many finishing hops. The citrus flavor is very pronounced.

Matson’s (Micro), Christchurch, Black, 4% 4
– Nina and I bought this beer to take to our landlord’s for cocktails. He kept inviting us up for beers and our schedules finally synced up. The only problem was that when he said “beers,” he meant wine. That is his drink. Well, the beer is a very nice dark beer; it has a full body and a slightly sweet and toasty flavor. There are very little bitter hops in this one.

Green Man Brewery (Micro), Dunedin, Lager, 4.8%, 3
– This is a classic German lager made by following the Beer Purity Act of 1516. It has good flavor, but the bitterness is overpowering. It had to get a 3 because there was nothing that remarkable about it.

Export Gold (Macro), Auckland, 4%, 3
– A major beer in New Zealand, I don’t know why it is called “Export” Gold, since I have never seen it outside of New Zealand. On a side note, Uncle Steve asked if Bud tasted like Bud in America. Well, I can’t say since the only American beer I have seen is MGD and it costs $16NZ for a six pack. This beer, however tastes like Bud. It is a nice simple refreshing beer. It is a bit more expensive than other macro brews, but it is often on sale.

Moa (Small Micro), Blenheim, Noir, 5.5%, 4
– This brewery must think a lot of itself. It bottles its beer in 350mL bottles with a punt, or in 750mL bottles with champagne like cork and wire basket closures. It is a good beer, so I guess it is justified. This is a nice dark ale with a nice crispness to it. It has quite a bit of alcohol and you can taste it, but it doesn’t detract from all of the other nice flavors like chocolate and coffee.

Mac’s (Micro), Stoke, Gold, 4%, 3
– This is the beer I have at work after my shift sometimes. It is a fairly plain, smooth and easily drinkable beer. It is slightly sweet with caramel flavors. If it weren’t for the slightly higher price point than Export Gold, it would be a very good choice for a summer day lounging around in the sun beer.

1/29/2008

Harrington’s (Micro), Christchurch, Stout, 5%, 5
-This stout is very full strong, but also very smooth. It is very darkly flavored and a very fine beer. I was surprised after drinking a few other Harrington’s and had decided that it was a mediocre brewery that makes too many different beers, but this beer was very good.

Tasman Bitter (Macro), Auckland, 4%, 2
-This bitter bitter beer is the most boring so far. If it wasn’t for the $10NZ price tag for a 12 pack, it would have been a solid 1, but Nina talked me up to a 2. I will not buy this one again.

Emerson’s (Small Micro), Dunedin, WeissBier, 5%, 5
-This is what a wheat beer is supposed to taste like. It is cloudy and looks like good unfiltered apple cider in the glass. It has a wonderful aroma and a good floral flavor. This is a great beer and would be good with a slice of lemon. I will have to remember that for the next time.

1/22/2008

Lighthouse Brewery (small Micro), Nelson, Dick’s Dark, 4.5%, 1
– This beer made me decide to keep a list so I don’t make the same mistake twice. The price of this beer made me expect a good beer, but instead I was very disappointed. It tasted like a standard dark beer, but one that had been watered down heavily. There was nothing good about it. When I drank it, I didn’t feel like I was drinking beer.

Emerson’s (small Micro), Dunedin, American Pale Ale, 6%, 4
– This is a very nice beer in the American style of Pale Ales. It has a light malt flavor with a slight hoppiness without too much bitterness. It is made with American hops and uses isinglass in the treating of the hops. This is something I have never heard of before so I am going to have to look into it. Overall, a very drinkable beer.

Harrington’s (Micro), Christchurch, Best Bitter, 5%, 3
– This is a standard Best Bitter. I have never heard of Best Bitters before, but they are fairly plain light beers. They are good, refreshing and non filling beers that are good on a sunny day. This one has a good full flavor for what it is.

Harrington’s (Micro), Christchurch, Wheat Beer, 5%, 2
– German beers sold in green bottles (i.e. Heineken, Beck’s) are very popular; the green bottles impart a very distinctive taste to the beers. This wheat beer is sold in a green bottle, and the bottle flavor is very overpowering. It is a filtered wheat beer that kind of tastes like a wheat beer, but the bottle destroys that taste.

Harrington’s (Micro), Christchurch, Wobbly Boot, 5%, 3
– This one is a very mild porter. It has a good flavor and an excellent color. For a porter though, it is too mild. I like mine with a bit more flavor.

Harrington’s (Micro), Christchurch, Ngahere Gold, 7.2%, 3
– Nina bought this one because of its high alcohol content, knowing that I was looking for something with more of a kick than the standard 4%. It is a green bottle beer made with saaz hops that is quite good. However, the bottle taste overpowers everything else.

Tui (Macro), Auckland & Timaru, 4% 3
– Tui is one of the major macro breweries in New Zealand. It is also one of the oldest. It is a pretty good IPA, very refreshing and drinkable. It received a 3 not due to flavor, but it is one of the least expensive of the major breweries.

Renaissance Brewery (Small Micro), Blenheim, Discovery, 4.5%, 4
This is another American Pale Ale made by a brewer from California. It is made with Cascade and Willamette hops grown in the Nelson area and isinglass. It is a very nice crisp beer with very good hop flavors.

Founder’s Brewery (Small Micro), Nelson, Fair Maiden Ale, 5.3%, 5
– A New Zealand Pale Ale with a lot of flavor. It is very well made and bears no resemblance to most of the other NZ beers that taste a little watered down. The full flavor and very well balanced bitterness makes this a very good beer.

Founder’s Brewery (Small Micro), Nelson, Redhead Ale, 4.2%, 3
– This Vienna style lager has a mild flavor and light maltyness. Overall, it is a good beer.

Founder’s Brewery (Small Micro), Nelson, Generation Ale, 4.2%, 5
– Like all other of Founder’s beers I have had, this one is excellent. It is a dark nut brown ale with a very malty flavor. It is a delicious beer that I would enjoy drinking all the time.

Founder’s Brewery (Small Micro), Nelson, Generation Ale, 4.2%, 5
– Like all other of Founder’s beers I have had, this one is excellent. It is a dark nut brown ale with a very malty flavor. It is a delicious beer that I would enjoy drinking all the time.