All the best
Last week’s call for reader submissions on what should have been the 10th New Zealand entry in the World Atlas of Beer drew plenty of responses.
Two things I’d note from the dozens of suggestions are 1) Yeastie Boys and 8-Wired are the two breweries that got the most mentions and 2) you like smoked beers.
Invercargill Brewing’s Smokin Bishop , 8-Wired’s The Big Smoke and Stoke’s Smoky Ale all garnered votes from readers. All are strong contenders but for me the Smokin Bishop is in the fore and would make my shortlist for the 10th beer.
Apart from The Big Smoke, votes were also cast for 8-Wired’s Brown Ale, from Michael McNabb in Christchurch (I’ll come to him later), while Yeastie Boys’ Rex Attitude and Hud A Wa also got mentions.
Gabrielle noted, ‘‘A Garage Project beer seems to be left off that list, I really like Red Rocks Reserve!’’
And I have to agree with her wholeheartedly, there probably should be a Garage Project beer on the list but maybe when the Atlas writers were visiting, the Garage Project beers were not as widely available as they are now.
Helen put in a call for Raindogs Brewing’s Deadwood IPA and I have to confess that’s a beer I haven’t tried yet, but will remedy that over the holidays.
Paul George also like Yeastie Boys’ Hud A Wa and cast a vote for Three Boys Pils, which I note they’ve just started brewing on their new equipment.
Dennis Robertson of Christchurch made a play for Wigram’s Phoenix Golden Ale, admitting a mild bias as he was born and bred in Reefton and regularly travelled to the long defunct Phoenix Brewery there ‘‘long before I was allowed to taste the product’’. And yes Dennis, small breweries still send spent grain to farmers for pig and cattle feed.
A left-field call for Pink Elephant’s Mammoth from Stephen also struck a chord with me as I think Roger Pink is an under-valued but worthy contributor to New Zealand’s beer history.
But back to Michael McNabb, who has ‘‘just concluded my first year as Super65Gold Carder’’.
Last Friday he had his first Mussel Inn Captain Cooker ‘‘at the monthly gathering of Blokes in Garage, a special grouping of men who meet monthly in one another’s garage for fine tasting of beers and the sharing of wise conversation’’ which to me seems a great club to be a member of.
‘‘For my No 10 ranking I am going with the Mike’s Whisky Porter which I first encountered at the February 2012 Great Kiwi Beer Festival here in Christchurch. It was a fine sunny day with a great crowd, a wonder-filled range of NZ craft beers and wonderful NZ musicians.
‘‘Such a day enabled me with friends to reclaim and reunite with Christchurch as my preferred place to call home following the pain and chaos of the previous 18 months of earthquakes.’’
I can’t separate any of these suggestions, because each beer means different things to different people and I’m just rapt so many of you care so much about the wonderful array of craft beers at our disposal today.