NZ Beer Collective in Berkshire - 2

 

Continuing an account of Todd Nicolson's return visit to Inn at Home, Newbury, for a New Zealand Beer Collective (NZBC) beer talk and tasting on Friday 26 November, 2021.

In the photo, Inn at Home's David Marklew is on the right, Iain Clarke is central and Todd is on the left. In true Berkshire brewing style, Iain is wearing an Elusive Brewing shirt and a Wild Weather Ales beanie hat. Iain was head of Sales and Marketing at Wild Weather but referred to by colleagues as Head of Fun. In a blog post, Wild Weather's Head Brewer, Jamie JD Duffield, writes about Iain's farewell beer It's Knuckle Puck Time, Iain's new role as Internal sales co-ordinator for the EU with Baarth Haas X (formerly known as Simply Hops) and includes a Q & A section with Iain.

The three I's - Ingredients, Ingenuity and Isolation - were a theme that Todd referred to during his talk in connection with the things that make New Zealand beers special. 

The preceding post mentioned Green Bullet hops as an ingredient for a New Zealand-Style Pilsner. Todd mentioned other New Zealand hop varieties, often with Maori names like Motueka and a new hop Nectaron that is used as a hop oil in brewing Down by Splendour.

The second beer of the evening to be poured into our (now rinsed) glasses was another NZBC / Fierce Beer collaboration. It was named Stuff & Nonsense by Todd after the song by Split Enz, the NZ band formed by Tim Finn and Phil Judd in 1973.

The hazy NZ Pale is brewed with Motueka hops and Nectaron hop oil. This juicy beer is a favourite style and I would not leave Inn at Home until I had bought a can to take home with me!

It was now time to move on to beers imported by NZBC starting with a Beer Blender from Urbanaut Brewing based in Auckland. 

Urbanaut have championed the Beer Blender concept which is two small cans of different beers wrapped together with a double perforated label. Twisting the cans in opposite directions breaks the thin black part of the wrapper leaving two separate cans with beers that can be tasted individually and / or blended together to give a third flavour.

The Spicy Ginger Beer and the hazy Lime Juice Sour make a pale hazy blender beer when combined.

The Blender Beer is a good example of Kiwi Ingenuity!

No nibbles were provided for this event but Todd reassured anyone feeling hungry at this stage with the tip that 'there's a pie in every pint' and David offered to sell packets of nuts!

The next beer to try was served from a conventional 330ml can with distinctive artwork. Boneface Brewing are based in Upper Hutt. Todd knows Boneface's owner Matt Dainty, who developed the brand from a love of all things beer and sci-fi. Todd described Snaggle Tooth as a chewy 5.9% West Coast IPA with lots of NZ hops. As it has a slight haze, Iain Clarke suggested it could also be described as a No Coast IPA as it combines elements of West Coast and East Coast IPA styles.

Kelly Ryan is Boneface's head brewer who previously developed Jaipur IPA and Kipling South Pacific Pale Ale for Thornbridge Brewery. After returning to New Zealand, Kelly worked for Epic Brewing, Good George Brewing, Brew Mountain and Fork & Brewer before joining Boneface Brewing in January 2021.

Iain asked Todd how he picks the brewers that NZBC works with. Todd said 'I used to visit them for research purposes when I go back to visit family but for the last two years I've not been able to visit a brewery.' 

Todd said we're about to bring over beers from a really super exciting brewery called Duncan's Brewing in Paraparaumu (on the Kapiti coast, north of Wellington on State Highway 1). 'They are like the Omnipollo of New Zealand beer'. Todd said although breweries can send samples there is more of a leap of faith involved now when it is not possible to visit.

Todd said NZ breweries tend to think of export to Australia and maybe make the leap to Asia or China. NZBC made it possible to send beer 12,000 miles, which ordinarily takes up to six weeks (all refrigerated, so it should be in perfect condition when it arrives in the UK). Todd mentioned that NZ hops hold together over time much better than Australian hops. However, he said 'It's got so much harder to bring beer here from NZ now'. 

Todd said 'the UK beer scene now is amazing, it's phenemonal. It's so different to what it was seven years ago. You only import stuff into a country that can't do their own. Unlike wine, the UK can produce enough beer. It's now a much tougher proposition to import beer.'

In a competitive market, it makes sense for NZBC to emphasise the qualities of the Kiwi hop ingredients in their imported and locally produced beers, as in the above example.