Taste of Mexico

ALEXANDRA brewery Ferris Road has produced a special lager for a newly opened Mexican cafe in town.

The operation manager of Amigos, who wanted mainly local beer and wine on the list, called the brewery,wanting to stock some of the local product, but its beer is only on tap, apart from some which goes into the supermarket in plastic. So, brewer Sam Forsyth came up with the new lager, which he now bottles specially for the cafe.

It is called Una Mas Amigo (loosely translated from Spanish as ‘‘one more mate’’) and mirrors some of the characteristics of Latin American brews: there is a handful of corn in it (traditional Mexican Indian beer, called tesquino, is fermented from corn) with a touch of lime (which Corona is typically downed with).

The lager, therefore, has a hint of corn chips and lime . . . and is a nice enough drink even without the Mexican tucker.

Back about 2004 Invercargill Brewery did much the same thing: the manager of an Indian restaurant in town asked for a beer that would complement curries and spicy dishes. So, it made a pilsner called Biman (the name of the then manager’s father), which delivered citrus and passionfruit flavours.

Several years later, as a result of constant mispronunciation, the name was changed to B.man. Up until then it was called ‘‘buyman’’, ‘‘beeman’’, even ‘bimmin’’.

(The misinterpretation even extended to ‘‘biman’’, prompting its adoption as the official beer at a gay ski week.)

Quite a few craft breweries’ beers started life with a special purpose which, like B.man, joined their yearround range.

Emerson’s Bookbinder, for example, was first produced more than 20 years ago just for a fete in Oamaru. So, too, Shark Bell, for a surf championship. Both are readily available today.

Beer fest

The annual Dunedin Craft Beer and Food Festival has become so popular that tickets to Saturday’s event at the Forsyth Barr Stadium quickly sold out.

About 40 breweries will be there this year.

Taxes

Socalled health experts constantly argue for high taxes on alcohol to reduce consumption and, therefore, harm from drinking.

It will be interesting to see whether their rationale means the recent rise in petrol prices will reduce consumption and harm from driving . . .

The tax on beer and petrol are about the same (25% on beer; 28% on petrol at a pump price of $2.41) but, unlike beer, higher octane petrol does not attract more tax.

Warnings

All alcoholic beverage labels will from some time next year have to carry a warning against drinking while pregnant — something the big producers have been doing voluntarily for some time.

But watch this space: the health police are never happy and will predictably campaign to extend the range of warnings (including offputting photographs, no doubt) just like they have over the years for tobacco packets.