Seasonal offerings delightful
DUNEDIN brewer Emerson’s does not often make a lager: over the years there has been the occasional one to take away in plastic from the brewery. It has now bottled its first one, Lager Lager (4.6%).
The brewery’s founder, Richard Emerson, was born deaf, so people at work say, ‘‘you find yourself repeating things’’. Hence, the lager’s name.
It is effervescent, clean, crisp and with hop bitterness like the bite from a lime skin.
It will be around until the start of winter (about $10/500ml bottle), but would have been most welcome a few months ago to quench that hot summer thirst.
Right on time, though, is Emerson’s liquid hot cross buns; the annual Taieri George, a strong malty brew spiced with nutmeg, cinnamon and honey which is always released on March 6, the birthday of the late George Emerson, father of Richard, who helped found the Taieri Gorge railway.
With Easter so early this year we did not have to wait long to celebrate the long weekend. It will be on shelves for a few months (about $11/500ml bottle), but if you forget to drink it, the malt and alcohol will preserve it until next Easter and beyond.
Rich harvest
The hay and lucerne is cut and baled and the grapes down here are all but harvested. In olden days when beer was safer to drink than water (because it is boiled after fermentation), European farmers made a beer to quench their workers’ thirst at harvest time. It was called ‘‘saison’’ (French for season) and was usually relatively low in alcohol, for obvious reasons.
Macs is celebrating our harvest time with Hay Day Farmhouse Ale which, at 5.5%, is a bit stronger than the labourers were used to. It is rich and tasty, relying on a Belgian yeast for much of its peppery, spicy, citrusy flavour.
It will be around for about four months (about $15/fourpack).
Passionate
Living up north, believe it or not, does have some advantages. One is that passionfruit grows up there. And they keep it for themselves: when did you last see those purple round things in the fruit and vege department down here? My neighbour, Derek, who has lived his entire life in the bottom half of the South Island, cannot remember ever eating one.
As a youngster up north, I would gorge myself on passionfruit in summer. I quickly became an expert in cracking them open.
Imagine my delight, then, when I opened a bottle of Harrington’s Hooligan New England IPA (6.6%) to be assaulted by the aroma of passionfruit.
Not that it has got passionfruit in it. The aroma comes from chinook hops, one of five American varieties in the brew. Four of the five are used mainly for their aroma rather than bitterness, with passionfruit dominating a potpourri of grapefruit, citrus and floral aromas.
Oh, I almost forgot, the beer is pretty good, too.
It is in 500ml bottles (about $10) and is, unfortunately for me, a limited release.
Also just out is Harrington’s das pils ja (‘‘the pils, yes’’ in German) Hooligan Bohemian pilsner (4.8%), which has nice malt flavour and late, light bitterness. It is in 500ml bottles (about $8).