Not Much Beer Here....Recent Reviews

I've noticed that we haven't really mentioned beer quite yet here, since its meant to beer + theology let me discuss one of God's good gifts and pleasures he has given humanity through his providential care and gracious provision of beer and suitable ingredients. 've recently tried a few new beers, some which were exceptional, some were good, and one which was horrible in every kind of way.

Starting with the good:

On friday night i tried a lovely beer called Rodenbach Grand Cru. Grand Cru is a Flemish Lambic Beer, that is one brewed with natural yeast from the air. You might have tried a fruit beer like Bellvue Kriek or Timmermans, which is a similar sort of thing but it has fruit added. Basically Lambic beers are sour, tart ales with quite intresting and suprising flavours for a beer! Their sourness tends to be why they are sometimes brewed with fruit.

The Grand Cru was incredibly drinkable, nice and tart and sour with an interesting malty, fruit flavour underneath. Complex and tricky to describe, but very tasty. An excellent pre dinnder beer, that i think both staunch beer drinkers and beer skeptics should be able to enjoy. I'm fairly sure its available at regional wines in wellington and at gailbraiths in auckland.

I recently also managed to try some of the new Croucher craft, courtesy of Stephen Bier who had visited the brewery while back in Rotorua. The north of new zealand is a little starved for decent craft beer compared to further south, so its nice to have another brewery around. The range was pretty good overall, and did a very good job of producing beers faithfull to their description and type.

First, the hoppy Pale Ale. This beer is a particularly hoppy and powerfull pale ale that seems more like an American/IPA crossover beer than a purist pale ale. It has a particularly strong and pleasant hop aroma, although perhaps not as distinctive or fruity as some other exponents of this style like Epic or Emerson's IPA, or Little Creatures from Perth. The flavour is obviously particularly hop driven and is particularly fruity, although not nearly as subtle or distinctive as some other i've tried like the those brewed by Emersons. The description claims it has notes of passionfruit, lychees and a "stonefruit overtones" but i found it tasted simply like a very well hopped, good pale ale. Occasionaly it seems like the hop content overshadows the malt and it could be better balanced. Overall, a good beer with decent flavour and one i would happily drink again

The next beer i tried was the Hef. This is a German style weizenbeer and it would probably be my pick of the range. Its basically a very faithfull version of the style with plenty of nice yeasty, wheaty flavours and the classic spicy clove and vanilla flavours. Actually quite similar to the Tuatara Hefe. Very refreshing and much nicer than many of the more expensive imported beers like Hoffbrau. Johannes from beer and bible study gave it a big thumbs up and so do i, although again its not quite as brilliant as the almost untouchable Emersons weizenbeer. Would be an excellent beer for brunch or breakfast (as they do in Bavaria) or hot summer day.

The last beer of the croucher range we tried was the Pilsner. I wasn't as impressed with this beer as the other two, but it was still a particularly solid and faithfull interpretation of the style. New Zealand pilsners and largers have begun to develop a particularly distinctive and interesting take on the pilsner style, with the incredibly fruity and very kiwi beers like Emersons (probably still my top kiwi beer) , the Three Boys Pilsner and Macs Wicked Blonde, Reserve and Hop Rocker. These beers tend to diverge from the traditional, dry bohemian pilsner style with much more fruit flavours and very different hop characters. It's here where the Croucher is a bit different and seems to me to taste far more continental, despite using kiwi hops and slightly different varieties. For a start, its a very malty pilsner...nice and slightly sweet, and its hop characer and bitterness reminds me more of czech beers than kiwi ones. The hop character is more simple and less complex than many other similar kiwi beers. Not as brilliant as a beer like Pilsner Urquell, but a good, dry and bitter tasting pilsner that has some decent malt character. Reminds a bit of Gailbraiths very czech tasting Bohemian Pilsner.

The last beer i will review is particularly sad. It is made by a top Belgian brewer that makes the weird almost rose tasting Delerium. However, in attempting to be more popular perhaps the brewed the horridly titled "SEXY LAGER". One of our beer and bible atendees Jamie decided to purchase a bottle perhaps for a laugh, i will never know quite why...the horror!

As you can see, the manufacturers have decided to try and sell this dreadfull product by having a range of different pinup girls on the front! As decidedly crass as that is it gets worse; they have scratch of bikinis like you get on instant kiwi tokens....and if you're really feeling dirty and depraved you can collect the whole set....Not even Lion Red or VB markets beer that badly and distastefully! And it comes from belgium...the place that supposedly brews some of the best

The beer itself tastes what imagine export gold would be like if you added a couple of teaspoons of sugar. It also had something floating in it that looked like orange pith or what you might see in lemon juice. It would probably appeal to the same sort of people who consume things like Mash Energy Lager and bad RTD's. Absolutely foul in every kind of way! It isn't sexy at all, nor will it make you feel sexy! Avoid at all costs!