Five of the best Auckland craft beer venues

The staggering growth of craft beer in New Zealand means it’s almost impossible to keep track of every new brewer and the bars serving their products.

Demand from discerning drinkers means more places than ever are popping up where you can indulge in an IPA or polish off a few pilsners.

And while the boom in boutique brewing has traditionally been driven by Wellington, which stakes its claim as the ‘craft beer capital’, or Nelson the ‘brewing capital’, Auckland is growing quickly with a rising reputation for quality beer.

So whether you’re a beer beginner or a craft connoisseur looking for somewhere different, here are our picks of Auckland’s best established and up-and-coming venues.

(Full Article)

Auckland’s 10 Best Craft Bars

After reading the blog post Auckland’s 6 Best Craft Bars from the new blog “HOPCORN” it got me thinking about the short comings of ranking based on a single personal experience as well as trying to compare many bars which all have a point of difference. I found this list of the 6 Best Craft Bars to be some what not that useful, as it didn’t address/highlight the unique things for each bars offer, that will attract different people.

Everyone is different, every craft bar offers something different, and every time you go back to the same place you are likely to have a slightly different experience, especially with so many taps with changing beers. (judging a craft bar with multiple changing taps on a single visit and they don’t have your favourite beer on tap is a bit weak).

So I thought I would not rank each craft bar in Auckland, but list what is best about each one. So maybe the title should be something like “The Best Of 10 Auckland Craft Bars“?

Listed by reverse alpha-numeric just to be different, like each of these bars are.

Vultures Lane – the slow transition from a tied Irish bar to one of the great craft bars in Auckland was frustrating initially (for me), but it has paid off in the end. An ever changing choice of beers, many evenings you can get multiple new beers going on tap. The food menu has changed several times, but currently offers some pretty amazing value for the food you get. On any typical day of the week you are likely to see a local Auckland brewer.

Sky Sports Grill – 60 taps, 40 different beers, 30+ are craft. It is like the forgotten craft bar in Auckland, as most people think of it as a sports bar, as it has so many TV screens, and every possible channel of sport playing. If you just look at it for craft beer on tap, it potentially has the best selection of craft beer on tap on any particular day in Auckland. Plus crazy pricing for happy hour on craft beer.

Lumsden Freehouse – it has possibly the best outdoor area in Auckland for a craft beer bar. This was previously a tied bar, but it made the jump overnight, huge commitment, which has paid off big. Biggest selection of Bourbons, possibly in New Zealand. Free popcorn. Great Nachos, Ribs, actually all the food I’ve ever tried has been great. It also has a secret build your own salad menu. Oh yeah and a pretty great selection of beers, that are always changing.

Hallertau Brew Bar – if this was closer to the city they would be overwhelmed by people, then again they already are and they are based in Riverhead. You basically sit in the brewery when you are at the bar. All beer brewed on site (wrong, there is a guest tap or two there). Super fresh beer. Cool food, the platters are awesome for sharing. Bit of a drive from the city but well worth the effort.

Galbraith’s Alehouse – this brewpub was so far ahead of its time, that the current generation of craft beer drinkers will have no idea of how tough it once was in this city. Brewpub. Real ale from a cask. Guest taps of some of the best breweries from around NZ. Maybe the best food at any craft bar in NZ (possibly even better than Pomeroy’s), on par with some of the best craft food I’ve eaten in the world.

Brothers Beer – this place exploded on the Auckland craft scene, with just about weekly tap takeovers. It now has its own brewery on site, own beers on tap, as well as a changing selection of craft brewers from around the country. Huge selection of bottled beers.

Brew on Quay – since becoming a free house in 2014 this bar has become what it should have been on day one. A solid selection of beers, some permanent and some rotating taps. 102+ beers in the fridge, always the best of what they can get their hands on. The chef here is amazing at what he can produce for a beer and food matched dinner. Wish I could hold and attend more of these just to taste his dishes.

blanc – this is an oasis in the dry west side of the city. huge craft bottled beer fridge, always something amazing on the FYO taps. and if you haven’t been to one of their Brew Fest’s then you should. They are currently the best mini beer fests in Auckland. Casual and you can chat with your favourite brewers for as long as you like.

Andrew Andrew – a cool name, for an interesting bar. doesn’t open till 4pm, but by that time of the day the sun is streaming into the semi-outdoor area. (it is kind of outside so smokers can kind of smoke). Craft beers on tap are all locally Auckland brewed. It’s always interesting looking at their Facebook page with photos of their customers, and to try to find one with a glass of craft beer. Any way they seem to have it right as they sell plenty of craft beer.

16 Tun – these are the new guys on the block. They have started solid with several taps dedicated to some of the best breweries, so you always knew you would have a goto beer if the rotating taps didn’t work out for you. Parking was cheap and easy to get (unlike many other inner city craft bars). Recently things have been kicked up a notch with the doubling of the number of taps. Food is pretty impressive. Chicken wings are SPICY good. Excited to see how this place goes.

Other Mentions:

There are other bars and restaurants around the city slowly adding craft beer on tap, and many more adding bottles to their fridges and menus. These other mentions are for bars that have only a handful of bars, but worth a visit to support their passion and commitment to craft beer.

Corner Bar – tiny bar with four craft beers on tap. The taps change very infrequently but it keeps the locals happy that stop in for a drink after work. Seems to be most busy after work.

My Bar – another tiny bar, four craft beers on tap and a good selection of bottles, and one of the better selections of spirits of a craft bar.

The Garden Shed – Mt Eden, next to the Belgian Beer Cafe. Only been once, beer selection great, and food was very good too.

I know there are several others, but need to finish this post up. I’ll get to you soon. No. 1 Queen, Conch, The Block, Malt, Golden Dawn, The Thirsty Dog, Grand Central….

Fallen behind the times mention:

Shakespeare Tavern – unfortunately this place has fallen from grace since the death of brewer Barry Newman, and the sale by Ron Urlich. Even though these two had a love/hate relationship, the range of 12 different beers made on site made it a must visit craft bar by tourists, craft beer drinkers and NZ Herald staff. If you visit and things have changed for the better please let me know.

(This post still needs some work done on it.)

Rate My Craft Beer Bar

After some reflection of last weeks heavy hitting articles, I have done some thinking and come up with a new idea. Firstly you should read the following articles to get the background on why and how things have changed.

Wasted by Andy Crouch

How the craft-beer movement abandoned Jim Koch (and his beloved Sam Adams).

“Staring at the beer menu, Koch began to criticize the selection. More than half of it, he said, wasn’t worthy of being served—inadvertently insulting the establishment’s owner, who unbeknownst to Koch was sitting next to him. Then Koch interrogated the beer manager about the offerings. Unsatisfied with the answers, Koch complained about the beers so intensely that an employee at the bar teared up. Koch rose from his seat and walked into the keg room, where he started checking freshness dates on his competitors’ kegs.”

Sam Adams and Why We Need To Stop Listening to Hipsters

“Stop giving power to these trolls. They know nothing, they do nothing, and pretty soon they won’t be able to buy your shit anymore when the trust fund runs out. The best part of Jamie’s quote from above is “Right now, it’s about what is shiny and new.” Right now. That’s the key insight here: all of this is temporary. That doesn’t make it any less annoying or infuriating when I’m stuck sitting next to five dude-bros at a bar who ordered a flight and can’t figure out which is the IPA and which is the stout but are still totally beer geeks, bro. It doesn’t make it any less annoying to see an eyeroll when I send a beer back for having an off-flavor that fuck you, yes I can detect, because I’m not so fuckhead 21-year-old from Emerson having his first brown ale.”

What’s the difference between craft beer snobs and Kopparberg drinkers?

“Craft beer, whatever you want to call it, has gone mainstream. Now, it’s growing up and maturing, and it already has several generations of brewers. Without the pioneers, the rest wouldn’t be here today. And while today’s newbies push the envelope ever further – which is what they should be doing – the bigger, older breweries are getting better at what they do, building bigger names, and providing a bridge between the mainstream and the cutting edge. If you simply reject their achievements and their vital contemporary role in favour of what’s new this week, whatever that is, you’re not interested in authenticity and story at all. You’re just following the latest fad among your peer group. And that makes you no more discerning, no cooler, no edgier, than the guy pouring his strawberry and lime flavoured ‘cider’ over ice.“

Pete Brown and Luke Nicholas — Pete Brown & Luke Nicholas, drinking a UK brewed Epic Pale Ale on tap at JD Wetherspoons in 2009

There are many interesting points in the above articles, as well as their comments (worth reading the comments). The Jim Koch piece could come across as a little “boohoo, poor me no one wants to stocks my beer, yet I’m a billionaire”. Then again there is a good point about the quality of beer on tap. Sometimes quality comes behind, what’s new these days.

What’s great this week, is going to be old next week, and no one wants to drink it. It has become a treadmill of endless new beers. This is a fractal as we travel down the long tail. As the market becomes more and more segmented. As more and more new brands enter the market they will get a smaller and smaller percentage of market share. Occasionally the odd new beer will raise above the rest, but mostly the new beers will not get more market share than the beers before them.

Sorry that is a bit deep, but it is just what I am thinking right now.

Maybe there is a way to put this new beer craze into perspective. How about a rating on craft beer bars, based on the beers they have on tap. (This is a work in progress and there needs to be given some thought for anomalies that may come up such as brand new beers with no ratings to work with).

If there is a score for each craft beer bar in a city, and people make their decision on which bar to go to based on their score, then does this force bars into stocking more of the better beers rather than the whats new beers?

Here are some examples from Auckland. The list of beers on tap were taken from TapHunter on the afternoon of Tuesday 13th January.

My Bar – SCORE = 3.53

Garage Project Orange Sunshine – 3.47
Mikes Organic Taranaki -3.86
Tuatara Helles – 3.34
Zeffer Cider – 3.45
14.12/4

The Lumsden Freehouse – SCORE = 3.59

	Untapped
BrewDog Dead Pony Club	3.625
Epic – Imp	3.945
Golden Eagle Citradel	3.525
Good George Doris Plum	3.686
Guinness Draught	3.825
Hawkes Bay Ginger Fusion	3.848
Hawkes Bay Pilsner	3.071
Kereru Karengose	3.392
Lakeman Lahar	3.603
Liberty Citra Junior	3.875
Mikes Organic Thc	3.455
Moa Checkpoint Charlie	3.382
Newmarket Nude	0
North End Fieldway APA	3.47
Sawmill 12 Gauge	3.587
	50.289
14	3.59

Vultures Lane – SCORE = 3.72

8 Wired C4 Double Coffee Brown Ale	3.873
Behemoth Hop & Hay	3.548
Funk Estate Sophisticuffs	3.657
Golden Eagle Coalface Stout	3.816
Good George Any Time Pale Ale	3.93
Good George Kiwi Sour	3.825
Good George Nitro Stout	3.752
Guinness Draught Nitro	3.825
Hop Federation Brown Ale	3.554
Lakeman Hairy Hop	3.474
Lakeman Taupo Pale Ale	3.857
Liberty Citra Junior	3.875
North End Amber	3.551
Ranga Alcoholic Ginger Beer	0
Sawmill Sticky Bandits	3.938
Townshend Old House ESB	3.758
Yeastie Boys Man At The Back	3.361
	59.594
16	3.72

So the above has potential as an idea for a phone app. If the taps were kept up to date using a service like Taphunter, and then information was pulled in from one or all the beer rating sites (Untappd, RateBeer, BeerAdvocate), and an algorithm applied then you could get a live list of the best beer bar in the city based on the beers they have on tap.

This potentially changes the way that bars stock beers. It moves things from whats new to what is the best range of beers on a particular day.

Food for thought.

Discuss below or join the discussion on Facebook

Day 18 – Beers of Auckland – Citra Jnr

Beers of Auckland Advent Calendar 2014
DAY 18 – Citra Jnr by Liberty Brewing Company

TAP: Citra Jnr
BREWED: The Beer Fountain
ABV: 4.5%

This was my opportunity to try a beer at Vultures Lane, as I was having a lunch meeting there. Again it was a little hard choosing an Auckland brewed beer. I’m still to decide what the issue is. Is it because of availability? quality? consistency? popularity?

So I had a Citra Jnr. It has good balance. Soft and juicy malt. Great drinkability. Nice bitterness in the finish. I did find the hops where on the herbal side, and not the big citrusy notes one might expect from Citra / Citra hops. Overall a satisfying glass of beer that disappeared all too fast.

It’s been a few months since I’ve had lunch at Vultures Lane. There is a new menu, so I decided on the Chicken burger with bacon, cause who doesn’t love bacon. (Epic Loves Bacon).

The burger was tender and delicious, and a very welcome spiciness that was a happy surprise. Not hot spicy, but more of a zippy, sparkle on your tongue. There was possibly a little too much rocket on the burger as it did dominate the other flavours. (I love how the food I have tried in the last few pubs has been above expectations. I use to love the Pulled Pork Sourdough sandwich. A-Mazing.)

The cool thing was, with the food the beer came to life and that citrusy note I was looking for came forward. That always fascinates me how different things like food can change how you experience the beer you are drinking. Even more confusing to me is how can the same beer taste different out of different glasses. I’m calling black magic.

Joseph, once again you have made a very enjoyable beer.

buzz and hum – Epic IMP review

I just read this positive review about the new Epic IMP on the blog “buzz and hum”. You should not only check out the other posts on this blog, but follow it to, as the reviews are thoughtful and a good read.

I still need to finish writing something official for the release of this beer. This last week has been consumed by Taste of Auckland (which hasn’t gone so well due to the weather).

Quickly, the beer is a Session IPA, 4.7% alc/vol, 35 IBU. Dry hopping is greater than Armageddon IPA. It was officially released on Friday night at Vultures Lane to a jam-packed bar. It was announced that the first keg was the fastest selling keg they have ever had. (I’m sure they tell all the brewers that right? 😉

Hops used – Comet, Centennial, Columbus and Simcoe.

What does IMP stand for?

So make sure you head to the blog “buzz and hum” and read some of the other cool posts.

Epic ‘Imp’

Posted on November 15, 2014

Session beers have certainly become ‘a thing’. Indeed, in the year since professional wrestling connoisseur, incorrigible Tory and future Beer Writer of the Year Neil Miller predicted that “balance and sessionability could well be the new black” the supermarket shelves and craft beer taps of Wellington have seen appearances from an increasing number of sub-5% abv flavoursome beers.

The first push came last summer with a number of hoppy golden ales making their mark, and since then lower-alcohol yet fragrantly hopped session IPAs and pale ales have surged onto the market – often in four or six packs, making them great accompaniments for the upcoming summer of barbecues.

And, into that fray surges Luke Nicholas of Epic Brewing Company. Being the brewer who broke open New Zealand taste buds with his highly-hopped, high-alcohol ‘Armageddon IPA’, ‘Mayhem’, and the infamous ‘Hop Zombie’, one wouldn’t necessarily have expected he’d feel the need to play in the session IPA field that’s been populated by the likes of Liberty’s ‘Oh Brother’ or Panhead’s ‘Quickchange’.

Yet into the field he’s charged, with the ‘Imp’ session IPA. As the tagline on the bottle says, “careful what you wish for”. And, with the Imp, Luke Nicholas has, to use the vernacular, “nailed it.”

The Imp pours a gorgeous burnished bronze colour; clear and sparkling, catching the light adorably. From the top of the glass lifts a invigorating aroma of grapefruit and creamy peach, underlined with a sweet toffee scent.

With the first sip I’m struck by how “soft” it feels; gentle and full, before the carbonation releases wonderfully in the mouth leaving a fizzy, full and creamy sensation.

Imp is a very fruity flavoured beer; the hops playing superbly off the gentle malt to provide a rounded, balanced, sweet and easy-drinking mouthful. Flavours of sweet lemon curd and mature stone fruit predominate at first, but a warm, bitter sensation floods the mouth as I swallow, leaving a lingering, lip-smacking grapefruit flavour.

Very fruity, very tasty.

And all that beautifully balanced fruity sweetness, lingering bitterness and easy-drinking joy comes it at a very sessionable 4.7%! “Small and Mischievous”, as it says on the label, “causing trouble, but in a playful way”. Now, that could be about the beer or about Luke ‘The Beer Imp’ Nicholas himself. But, either way, it’s an apt description. Fun to drink, fun to be around, won’t necessarily get you in trouble. Maybe.

Imp’s not quite a perfect as a session beer, however. While the flavours and sensations of the beer itself are excellent, at the moment I’ve only found this beer (with its eye-catching peacock-blue label) in 500ml bottles, and at a moderately high price point. This is a beer I’d love to see in four- or six-packs of 330ml bottles (like Epic’s Lager or Pale Ale); that’d really put this beer into place as one of my go-to sessionable beers for a summer afternoon.

But, in the meantime, it’s good to see Epic giving the lower alcohol, highly-flavoured IPA a go. Even better to see the end result being so delicious. More, please!

**(If we get good feedback and sales from this first batch then we will make more and seriously consider putting this beer in 330ml bottles)

Craft Beer Auckland

Some weeks get really busy and I have trouble keeping up with everything beyond my little world of beer.

The following are tabs I have open in my browser (which need to be closed) so I am storing them here, to refer to and maybe comment on later.

AUCKLAND CRAFT BEER TONIGHT

Epic Hot Zombie & Hop Zombie Launch 5pm-7pm Brew on Quay

Yeastie Boys Spoonbenders Launch – Galbraith’s Alehouse

8 Wired Flat White Launch – Vultures Lane

This seems to be more common now. two or three venues having cool craft beer events on a Friday in Auckland. #CraftBeerAuckland

New Beervana Trade Show

Westpac Stadium from 2pm to 4pm, on Thursday 21 August…. the afternoon before Beervana opens to the public, is for the brewing industry, retailers, restaurants, bars, caterers, media and others wanting to develop their business with the brewing industry, with the aim of increasing trade for New Zealand brewers both here and in Australia.

These are dark days, indeed

“I don’t like dark beers”.

Starting this Friday The Malthouse will host its annual two-day Darkest Days event.

A celebration of dark beers, some of the highlights include Epic’s biennial stout, this year named Imperium, the always-amazing Three Boys Oyster Stout and another San Diego offering – Stone 2013 Espresso Russian Imperial Stout.

No, you won’t like them all but if you’re a dark beer virgin this is the place to start.

Help shape Auckland’s alcohol policy

Submissions open Monday 16 June and close at 4pm, Wednesday 16 July 2014.

ShapeAuckland.co.nz

Craft beer is a culture, not a craze

But for all of the excitement our love affair with craft beer is still in its awkward adolescent stage, with much fumbling at clasps, enthusiastic – and sometimes clumsy – experimentation and occasional disappointment and regret. In our teenage years of beer discovery, we often find ourselves drawn to the enigmatic bad boys who will break our heart, or the hottie whose short skirt distracts us from her inability to carry a conversation, or at least their beer world equivalents.

Brewing up a storm at new beer festival

Eckhard says the event aims to showcase home brewing and 10 home brewers from the Nelson Tasman region will have their beer at the celebration – (wow, slow news day Nelson?)

JED.IPA Beer Launch

Sweet name for a beer.

Gorgeous Gale’s lost for want of a gyle

In the last few years Speight’s eight remaining kauri gyles have once again fallen into disuse, but Lion continue to maintain them and has expressed a desire to keep them in working condition on the off-chance they may be once again brought out of retirement – perhaps for special one-off or limited release brews.

Society of Beer Advocates City of Ales Festival 12 July

When: Saturday 12 July 2013; Two sessions 1) 12pm- 3pm 2) 4pm-7pm
Where: The Floating Pavillion, Gate 1, Hobson West Marina, 220 Quay St, Auckland
How much: $35 per person
What: 2 complimentary sample glasses of beer and a plate of food, with the option to purchase more beer

QUICKIE – Black IPA, Tap Takeover, CHC, BeerNZ, Pomeroy’s

With so much happening its hard to make the time to even get a blog post out.

I hope to write more about the last couple of days. Black IPA is looking Black. Vultures Mini Midweek Tap Takeover went surprisingly well for Hump Day. Flew to CHC, visited BeerNZ’s new warehouse and awesome new chiller, tried new craft beer bar Regatta on Avon, caught up with Zak at Cassels CBD bar, Pomeroy’s to meet Ava and her chef to discuss the beers and food matches for the June beer dinner. Dinner at Pomeroy’s last night delivered what I am tentatively putting out there as the best food in a craft beer outlet in New Zealand. More on that later…

BUSY – Brewing, Tap Takeover, Beer Fest, Brewing

Where to even start. There is so much going on in the next few days. Brewing a Black IPA, a Midweek Tap Takeover, Beer Festival in Christchurch, and a Fresh Hop beer.

HOP HARVEST – FRESH HOPS
Tues 25th – Fresh Hops – today the hops for the Auckland brewers were harvested in Wakefield, just outside Nelson. These fresh Waimea hops are being cooled down over night tonight. Tomorrow (Wed 26th) they will be packed up and put in a refrigerated truck and shipped overnight to Auckland. They are due for delivery at Steam Brewing Company on Friday 28th. #freshhopnz14 (brewing the beer on Monday 31st)

BREWING
Wed 26th – Black IPA – tomorrow I’m in the brewery, brewing a Black IPA – Apocalypse. It has been 4 years (I think, pretty sure) since I first brewed this. I wasn’t totally happy with it at the time, but since then have drunk many Black IPA’s from around the world (mostly US brewed), and feel I have a better idea now of what I want to achieve. So lets see how this new recipe goes.

Last year I brewed a special one-off batch of a trial recipe for this at the Fork & Brewer which we called Repocalypse. It was only available for a very limited time in Wellington.

Radio NZ Interview – 10:45-12pm
I’m due to do a radio interview about the Great Kiwi Beer Festival, from the brewery which can be a bit noisy.

MINI MIDWEEK TAP TAKEOVER
Wed 26th – Tap Takeover at Vultures Lane
Since we did the official launch on Friday, we thought we would kick it up a level for the first keg of Epic Mosaic we are putting on tap at Vultures. A list of the beers and if you want you can RSVP here too. After a beer or two we will have some chillis available to try, be cool if I can get some more #hotchillidance video.

TASTING THURSDAY
Thurs 27th – Christchurch
Heading to Christchurch to visit a few craft beer bars that stock Epic beers. Still to decide which one would be good to do a review at lunchtime. Hoping Craig from BeerNZ can give some good advice on this, since it has been a while since I’ve been in CHCH. Pomeroy’s meeting about the Beer and Food matchings for the Epic Beer Dinner in June. Therefore most likely at Poms at the end of the day if you want to catch up for a beer.

PRE-BEER FESTIVAL
Fri 28th – Hagley Park
Setup for the Great Kiwi Beer Festival. Making sure the beer has turned up and is in the chiller. Getting the banners and beer systems setup on our Epic/Stone stand. Maybe a beer later in the day. @StoneGreg may make an appearance at beer o’clock, but not promising anything. (sshhh keep an eye on the tweeters)

GREAT KIWI BEER FESTIVAL
Sat 29th – Hagley Park
Fingers cross we are ready, have enough staff, enough beer and enough ice to serve a crowd of 14,000 beer festival patrons. Both myself and Greg Koch from Stone Brewing Co. will be on the stand most of the day. We will be making an appearance in the VIP area at some point in the day too. Beer on our stand is listed in this post. Definitely some great beers available. Stop by and say hi. Also a chance to try the Culley’s Carolina Reaper hot sauce with some Epic Carolina Amber Ale. #hotchillidance

TRAVEL DAY
Sun 30th – Home
Travel back to Auckland. Maybe having a beer with a certain person from San Diego.

BREWING FRESH HOP BEER

Mon 31st – Fresh Hop Beer – Excited and nervous about brewing a Fresh Beer for the Beervana Mini Festival – #freshhopnz14 . Nervous because I haven’t brewed a fresh hop beer in this brewery, and still need to work through the details of how this is going to work logistically.

Fresh Hops take up 5 times the volume compared to dry hops. I hope the tank we plan on using can hold all the hops I ordered, and that the hops don’t suck up too much of the beer.

(It’s 10 years since I made my first fresh hopped beer.)

And this will bring me to the end of March. I am excited to let you know what April has in store.

P.S. Here is another video I have which shows the #hotchillidance Turn the sounds down as the language could be a bit rough for young viewers.

[TASTING TUESDAY] – 140218 – Vultures Lane

Vultures Lane (previously know as O’Carrolls Irish Bar)

It has been really cool to see the transformation of this bar over the last few years. From one of the most popular Irish bars in New Zealand into possibly the leading craft beer bar in Auckland.

(Why is it called Vultures Lane? I have now found out this was an old name from early in the 20th Century when Vulcan Lane was in a bit of the seedy part of town with working ladies, drunks, sailors, pirates and undesirables, hence Vultures)

Coopers Pale Ale – mostly as I expected, the bitterness was higher, and yeast lower.

Ben Middlemiss White Lady – I would guess this is a different batch from a few weeks ago. The initial aroma this time was a black pepper spice note, pretty interesting. It was drier and more of a belgian yeast fermentation note.

Sawmill Pale Ale – hazy, diacetyl, caramel, and no hops for the style. But told it is a good seller. Maybe the staff push this one more than others

The Right Stuff – Yeastie Boys and Hopmongers. First question was who are Hopmongers? Told they are Christchurch based, asked if it was brewed at 4 Avenues, told don’t know. Guess I need to do some research.

A Belgian IPA, the best example of the style I have tried in New Zealand. Good Belgian aroma, followed by wonderful US hop characters.
If you see it, give it a try.

Nerdherder – Yeastie Boys
This beer is all about the biscuity malts, a little husky, a little crystal. Not bad, body felt a little light for the flavours.

Schippers Boffin Aroma hints of sour, in the mouth it seems water and thin, possibly an acetic character too. Not very enjoyable.

Iron Harvest – Behemoth
A pretty nice hefeweizen, delicate banana note, pretty good drinkability, but the abv was slightly too high and noticeable. Then I was told it was a Saison, Oh!?. Therefore if it’s suppose to be a different style than hefeweizen then it isn’t as good. I didn’t know what the style was going in, it was good for what I tasted, but when I was told it was something else I was disappointed. This is the best beer I have had so far from Behemoth.

Sawmill Pils – having now had three beers from Sawmill with diacetyl. I was totally expecting to get it again in this beer. Some how it wasn’t there, if it was, then at much lower levels. The beer seemed to be something like an Emerson’s Pilsner, driven by an NZ hop like Riwaka. But there was a smokey note in the background, possibly like a burnt element or a character sometimes contributed by hops.

Golden Perch – Yeastie Boys
A third beer from Yeastie Boys, guess it is a bit of a tap take over. A solid hop flavour, this beer is worth at least a pint if not two. Big sweaty and savoury hops. Makes the beer seem like it is delivering more than its manageable 4.4% abv

Liberty – Oh Brother
Possibly the best beer on tap today at Vultures Lane (I am excluding my own beer ;-). Wonderful piney citrusy flavours. If you like big hop flavours with a manageable 5.1%abv then you should be drinking this all afternoon.

Governors Lager
Last time I had this it was more of a fresh lager yeast character I like. This time it was dominated by the malt, somewhere between a Helles and a Vienna style lager. The malt flavours are sweet, grainy and husky, almost a little worty. Not bad.

Brew Brothers – Fork & Brewer & Yeastie Boys
Actually that is now four beers on tap today. Surprised I didn’t see Sam here for lunch. This is a Spring Ale, which I am drinking two weeks before Autumn. So yes it was showing some real age, so will leave it at that.

I probably shouldn’t go into the beers on hand pump other than just list them. They were in a very distressed state to say the least.

There are four hand pumps. Three are currently in use. The beer is being served from a 20 litre bag, stored ambient, and taking more than a week to sell. Oh no.

Stoke Olde Pour Oatmeal Stout – fastest seller, nice roasty note, not the body or creaminess I would expect from the oatmeal

Raindogs ?? Black IPA. You wouldn’t know as there weren’t any hop notes, but some vegetal.

Golden Eagle – Belgian aroma, lemon, lime and bitters flavour, told it was an American Pale Ale.

Enough said. Maybe just run one hand pump, and keep the beer fresh and turning over.

The taps are unique with them being set into a steel I beam. The beer lines and cooling lines are exposed. The tap badges for each beer are located on top of the of this I beam.

If you are short than 5′ 5″ you won’t be able to actually see these tap badges so won’t know what is on tap to be able to order

Recently this problem was remedied by them adding a blackboard behind the bar where they list all the beers on tap.

Yes there is free wifi from CallPlus. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to connect to it. Then again I had been told by Dave the owner that he was having problems connecting to the internet to pay the wages. So maybe the internet wasn’t working for the wifi either.

Give it a go and let me know.

LUNCH:

Top: Buttermilk Chicken, was very tasty, goes well with the dipping sauce, and juicy thick pieces of chicken. $11

Bottom Right: Mini Corn Dogs – pretty nice sausage, kind of chorizo like, batter is a little doughy, flavour needed a little boost, and the mustard seemed to help it. $8

Bottom Left: Two Soft Shell Tacos, changes each day, today Hapuka in one and prawns the other. Fresh and yummy, needed a little hot sauce to jazz it up. $10

People next to us had the dipping bread and fries. Great for soaking up beer. This carb hit is only $6, with 4 different dips including an olive oil with chilli flakes.

The Only Burger – review mid this blog post

Up the lane

Down the lane

In the sky

Inside

The end.