Local drop wins with tasting test
Nelson’s the perfect place to seek a quality beer, writes Elizabeth Bean.
Nelson craft beers are available in bars, restaurants, cafes and supermarkets. With so much choice, how do you know which drop to sip? My near-neighbour Kevin has been begging me to write about beer and local breweries and believes that he is my ideal research assistant. Once I had accepted his offer to sample beer from all 11 boutique breweries in Nelson, Kevin then said that he wanted to hang out with my husband for this research and report the findings to me once investigations were complete.
However, because I wanted to be certain they used a robust research methodology, I insisted on participating in the tastings.
We settled on the Beta beerrating index. This index comprises Bottle aesthetics, Emotional response, Taste and Alcohol content.
We did most of our tastings at home with beer bought from liquor stores. A disadvantage of home tasting is that a lot of products come in plastic riggers, which we reckon don’t keep beer fresh for as long as glass bottles or as beer served on tap. But the convenience factor outweighed this and the boys insisted on drinking beer for a short period of time so lack of bubbles wasn’t problematic.
We ventured out to pubs and/or breweries when we received a good recommendation.
For example, the Craftsman Chocolate Stout from the Free House and Fat Kelpie Ale from the Monkey Wizard Brewery were worth an excursion.
I go for the most attractive bottle label when deciding which beer to drink. The picture of a maiden on the bowsprit of a sailing boat on the Founders Fair Maiden Ale appeals to me and I also like the organic certification.
My husband liked the Cheeky Little Lager, produced by Lighthouse Brewery. I think he was heavily influenced by the picture of a shapely female derriere on the label.
Many Nelson beers have an interesting history. Take the Captain Cooker Manuka Beer from the Mussel Inn Brewery. The story tells of Captain Cook searching for land and a cure for scurvy. He thought the cure was contained in manuka and rimu, along with herbs, and that the most effective way to get these into his crew was through beer. Manuka Beer tastes great and there have been no signs of scurvy in the family, so maybe Captain Cook was right.
I have a positive emotional response to the Dead Good Beers produced by the Free House. The owners aim to ‘‘set the beers free’’ and they contract different breweries to do the hard work. The label on the porter said that we should kick back and enjoy a taste sensation with a chocolate and coffee afterglow. Yum.
For assessing taste, I deferred to the boys. For each beer, the boys slowly and carefully poured it from the bottle, letting it gently run down the side of the glass. They talked about the head and colour and used words like dense, rocky, pop, brown, cloudy, clear.
Then they stopped talking and spent a long time smelling the beer. Finally, they took a sip.
For the Sprig and Fern’s pilsner, the boys talked about a ‘‘golden hue, moderate fruity hop aroma, balanced malt sweetness, softer hop aftertaste and a smooth finish’’. Again, in my words it was ‘‘yum’’.
The beers
that we sampled ranged in alcohol content. At the high end, the Free House’s Marlborough Pale Ale with 8.5 per cent alcohol content is guaranteed to put colour in your cheeks. Also high was the Sprig and Fern Brewery’s Doppelbock, a full bodied German-style dark lager, with 8 per cent.
Low-alcohol beer performed well in our tasting. Modern brewing techniques mean that a nicely balanced hop and malt flavour and good ‘‘mouthfeel’’ is retained. We were particularly impressed with Mccashin’s latest offering, a lowalcohol (2 per cent) called 2-Stoke. About now, the boys decided they were hungry and suggested that I rustle up prawns and snapper, a food match suggested by Mccashin’s.
Whether you are going out for the evening or hanging around the BBQ, there will be a local beer to suit. Nelson’s breweries create local jobs, and profits mostly stay in the region. So next time you want a cold one, consider Nelson’s local drops.
If you want to try a whole lot of drops at once, go to Marchfest, a celebration of local beer combined with music and Nelson’s food and wines. This year’s festival is on March 24.
Take advantage of the warm weather and call into a brewery near you. Or, if you don’t want to drink and drive go to the Free House which has a dozen local beers on tap. If you have to get home to cook, go to Fresh Choice for meat and put a bottle of Founders Fair Maiden Ale and Mccashin’s Stoke Bomber into your trolley.