Clean sweep by NZ breweries
NEW Zealand breweries beat those from 20 other countries in last week’s Australian International Beer awards. Wellington’s Garage Project was declared champion large international brewery; Auckland’s Behemoth, champion medium and New Plymouth’s Three Sisters, champion small.
They each won four gold and several other medals and were among other New Zealand small breweries to gain medals.
The awards drew 2800 beers from 400 breweries (none of them from our region).
Local awards
chocolate.
(Both Unforgiven and Norty Porter gained silver medals in the Australian awards.)
I have yet to encounter a nonalcoholic beer that I like.
Asashi 0.0, the top zero brew in the Top 30, is no exception. It is a zero version of Asashi super dry (5.2%) rice beer and like most dry beers (so called because it has no residual sweetness) it has a slight metallic aftertaste.
(I am gradually getting through the rest of the Top 30 . . . )
Can do
How you pour a beer — by allowing the beer beneath the head to retain aroma, flavour and carbonation — adds to its enjoyment.
The best way is to tilt the glass 45 degrees and start pouring with the top of the bottle resting halfway down the side of the glass, then gradually bringing it upright to create a head from the last third.
Which means it is impossible to pour the perfect beer from a can. However, a Japanese design company has come up with the answer: a twin tab can which produces a better head. The first tab releases the CO2 pressure and the first half of the contents before the rest comes out of the second tab.
It is new, and a brewery is yet to prove the theory.
Not bad; not good
A study by a Spanish university of more than 33,000 adults who regularly consume no more than a pint (568mm) of beer a day shows a boost in gut bacteria, reduction in the risk of diabetes and heart disease and reduction of toxins in the brain that lead to dementia.
However, other recent studies link alcohol consumption with the risk of cancer.
All up, then, it seems, that while drinking is not bad for you, it is not good either.