Styles converge
Over the summer I watched a lot of Danish television – Forbrydelsen, the series, inspired the American version, The Killing, and The Bridge.
The stars of both are quirky, unusual, strong-willed and intriguing female detectives. In both, complicated plots unravel like Russian dolls on a rollercoaster. I couldn’t help thinking of these TV shows as I tried the latest beer from 8-Wired Brewing, a Farmhouse Pale Ale. Brewer Soren Eriksen, originally from Denmark, has been a real star in the craft brewing world since he eschewed a potential career as a poker player to make beer.
Tall Poppy, Hopwired, Big Smoke, iStout . . . this column has raved about his beer in the past. This time, it’s a more pensive reflection than a rave because the Farmhouse Pale Ale is one of the most thoughtprovoking and complex beers I’ve had in quite a while.
The initial taste is tart, dry and earthy, but lingering in the background is a hop aroma of citrus and pine which becomes more prominent towards the end of the glass as the beer warms.
I found myself twirling the glass, sniffing the beer, tasting it, swirling it around, pausing to ponder what I was drinking. It was at once both bold and subtle. Drinking it was like having a conversation . . . the topic evolving as the glass went down.
Eriksen, who recently moved to Warkworth, north of Auckland, but still brews mainly at Renaissance in Blenheim, says this beer was inspired by a trip to Oxbow, a small farmhouse brewery in Maine, USA. He fell in love with their ‘‘powdery, hoppy, farmhouse ale’’ and came back determined to make his own hoppy Belgian-style pale ale.
While he wanted to use a ‘‘sour’’ yeast in the beer, he couldn’t do that because of the risk of contaminating the brewery he contracts to make his beer, so there’s a bit of acid malt (containing lactic acid) which gives the upfront tartness. There’s also spelt, wheat and oats, American hops and Belgian yeast. At 5 per cent alcohol, it’s quaffable, refreshing and decidedly different.
Right now it’s available only on tap. Eriksen wants to put it in fourpacks to sit alongside his Semiconductor but before it goes into bottles he wants to see how punters react. Eriksen loves the beer but he’s wise enough to question ‘‘whether the public is ready’’ for such a complex beer.
After all, Eriksen has just received his first hate-mail, with one consumer telling him his well-loved Superconductor was so bad he had to ‘‘flush out the taste with Heineken’’.
‘‘I have had people tell me that craft beer has too much flavour but that’s fine, as long they try it that’s all you can ask. But there’s a lot of people who don’t even want to try it.’’
I know what he means – I once had a great night of craft beer tasting with friends and relatives but one bloke steadfastly refused to try any of the dozen or more amazing beers we’d bought and stuck resolutely and dourly to Budweiser.
Even among the craft beer converts I reckon there will be plenty who will find 8-Wired’s Farmhouse Pale Ale a challenge. But I love this kind of style confluence where Belgium meets America, made by a Danish brewer in New Zealand.