Craft Beer - a thread of beer snobbery and looking down one's nose

Everywhere.

Seems more likely than the YF political party at least. I reckon a blonde ale; 07% to reflect our founding year, and as mentioned some charcoal notes in homage to the Phoenix ashes/Backbencher barbeque.

I don't know anyone, but I think Tuatara do quite a few one-off brews for things like this. They did a special brew for TedxWellington last year.

Also did one for the release of 'What We Do In The Shadows'!

I know Sean from Tuatara, he sails at RPNYC.

Can't say I've ever really tried craft beer before. Can anyone suggest anything decent for a noob?

Start off with easier to drink, less hoppy brews as some could put you off initially as they are very strong. I'd suggest: Yeastie Boys Golden Perch Yeastie Boys Gunnamatta Garage Project 'Beer' Kereru Maidstone Lager Sprig & Fern Scotch Ale

@KG19 I would say pop into Garage Project in the old gas station in Aro or Parrot Dog near where Magnum Mac (Now PB tech) used to be on Vivian Street and have a talk to them. Fairly certain they do tasters.

Garage Project can be pretty adventurous. 

What sort of beer do you usually drink?

Tuatara Aotearoa Pale Ale. Easy to drink and goes down so smooth!

Not hugely into craft beers but can get quite enthused about premium lagers

Peroni Pale tops. Going to have one right now!

peroni is an awesome lager...also quite like kronenbourg 1664 and becks

^ Nice one. All you need now is the beer.

might have to take up making it

Usually just drink "nice" supermarket beers Krombacher , Corona , Oranjeboon , Stella (anything not made by Lion and DB)

Am going to try and get some craft beer into try for Sundays game.

Exactly, no DB or Lion products. When  Macs beer prior to their sell out was good, you had a bottle of that and the other two tasted so watery after one, it wasnt funny. Sadly Macs brewery sold their soul and it hasn't been the same since.

I think a lot of that stuff is made by them under license anyway,iirc

It depends what you like KG19

The beers you have listed are all lagers. If you like lagers, then there are some good craft brewery lagers. But generally craft beer is about adding flavour and colour and working up (or down) from lagers.

The thing is you don't have to like it all, but it can be really enjoyable learning about the different styles of beer. You may try them all and decide, yep, I really do like lagers best. However, for me at least, I liked lagers because that's all I had ever been exposed to. And when I found Weizbier and dark ales, and later IPAs, APAs and oatmeal stouts... well my eyes were opened.

There is a massive variety in beer and lagers are just one part of the spectrum.

Ales form a whole separate family. There's also top and bottom fermented, and a number of other changes in the brewing technique that give very different taste characteristics.

Here's a couple of posters...

The first one is USA centric but I like the way it shows the colour and taste ranges with some examples.

This second one illustrates the wide variety of beer styles...

Maybe give the bigger craft breweries a crack as they are available in six packs from the supermarket, the likes of Stoke and Tuatara when they are on special they aren't much more than the beers you normally drink (which as said are brewed by lion and db under license).

Nice post, but if a beer is an ale or a lager is defined by it's top or bottom fermented. Ales are top fermented and lagers are bottom fermented.

If you are used to beers such as Corona, then it will be too big a jump to go straight to an IPA or Imperial Stout, etc. Instead I'd go for a lager brewed by someone who isn't Lion/DB, etc. Maybe try Tuatara's lager, then their pilsner, etc. Often wheat beers (e.g Hoegaarden white, or Tuatara hefe) can be a good (and refreshing/easy drinking) start to realising that beers have different styles. Even something like Moa's lager will have a little more flavour than the lagers you are used to drinking.

If you want something easy to drink that is cheap (yet not exactly craft beer), then Coopers Pale Ale or Sparkling Ale (stay away from their Stout for now!) is a step up on Corona. 

Once you are used to more hoppy beers (e.g try a few pilsner's from various craft brewers) then I'd jump into some easy drinking APA's, e.g Tuatara APA, Epic Pale Ale, etc. Once it's winter then check out some stout or belgium ales, any of the dark beer range from Renaissance Brewing is amazing (their chocolate oatmeal stout or scotch ale are ones I particularly like)

Before you know it you'll be knocking back Rex Attitude like it's water.

Fudge that, it's not cold water. Just buy a bottle of epic hop zombie and be done with it.

Based on your comment I rethought my post. You're right, skip all the children's drinks and jump straight to the double IPA's (or skip that and straight to the good stuff... Rex Attitude).

Edit - If they could bottle a beer into perfume, then epic hop zombie would be a good choice, that beer smells fantastic.

My 392 posts since 2007 is quickly going to turn into top post count now there is a beer thread.

Does anyone use Untapp'd?

Great way to keep track of what beers you've had and see what is available around Wellington.

Also, if no one has been there, you NEED to get to Thorndon New World. Amazing, amazing range of craft beer! 

Bitter about Hops?

If you're up in the tron.  The good George brewery in frankton does a range of good drops. Their amber ale has been my pick of the summer

went to a craft beer festival yesterday which was very enjoyable. Tried a very cheeky 10.5% chilli porter early doors and then things went a little bit squibbly after that. Was drinking the Sierra Nevada Torpedo which is probably one of my favourite beers at the moment.

Lots of new Garage Project beers floating around at the moment (of one's I just haven't seen before). The API made for Webstock was very nice and the Hops Trial #3 is a winner.

Good George had a Combi at St Johns on Sunday with kegs on the back and Brian and I have two vouchers, each of which was for ten free (half pint) beers.

Started with the Sparkling Ale, which was good, but not stellar.

Changed up to the Amber Ale and it was so nice we had 3 of those each.

Then had their IPA which was just the ticket at that stage. I think we had 4 of those before handing our remaining vouchers over to the two NZ Spurs Supporters club guys who were up from Timaru and we headed over to 4 Kings.

Thanks Good George.

The Bellvue had a Craft  Crap Beer on tap I have not seen for years. Lion Brown. 

lol, better than Rhineck and Lion Red and any DB product. Try a craft beer and the others taste watery.

Macs brew bar on the water front used to be a lion brown brew bar. Does that mean Lion Brown was at one stage a craft beer?

I think it more shows Macs isn't really craft beer.

/Snobbery level up

Macs was the closest thing we had but now it's not great (although they did release some interesting beers at Beervana I haven't seen on sale anywhere else).

I was a fan of 'Great White' until I got into decent beer and now it just tastes bland.

Interesting generic beer observation though - Corona is a pretty good beer when you don't bother with the lemon and put it into a glass. Changes the flavour quite a bit and is a lot better than other imported 'Premium' lagers.

I don't mind Mac's Sassy Red, as far as reasonably cheap widely available beers go.  Sorry Leigh, but I think Corona is watery and flavourless, even compared to other mainstream lagers - you may as well drink Brenner!

Tried Tuatara Dubbel the other day. Was quite impressed with it, very rich and strong. I see Tuatara have also opened their own pub on the bypass at the top of Cuba St. Sounds like they'll have a microbrewery on site too. Anyone checked it out yet?

Have you tried drinking it from a glass? The flavour changes dramatically to something more complex than regular mainstream lagers.

Not checked it out yet, we're lucky to have a lot of great places in Wellington, my favs being Fork n Brewer and Golding's Freedive.

A widely available option is Samuel Adams - most supermarkets have it now and it's pretty good..and on Super Markets, has anyone noticed that Pak n Save and New World have some great options while Countdown are awful for their beer choices?

Hello fellow beer snobs/fans/geeks!

I have been working with Smithy and a local Wellington brewery about getting a Yellow Fever beer to be made. I can’t give away too much detail at this stage (for a variety of reasons) but I would like to gauge all of your interest.

Here’s a rough rundown:

• Probably looking at around 1000L (20 x 50L kegs) of beer to be made.

• We can get distribution to other parts of the country based on level of interest (so out of Wellington people let me know…)

• While it only looks like keg beer at this stage, it should be available on fill your own at Regional Wines and Spirits and the brewery. Based on interest levels, I might also do a mail order type thing. Again let me know. In the future, other packaging is a potential option.

• I will probably need help in approaching bars to stock a keg or 3. If you are keen to help out then let me know in this thread (or alternatively on email: brendon [cat] primitiveman [dog] co [dog] nz)

As to the beer style – let me know here in this thread what you would like to see. Myself and the brewery have our own thoughts based on what works, sells and also what we like but I would love to hear from you guys.

I expect there to be loads of posts on this thread so it goes to the top of the Active threads ;-) 

Something drinkable. I would have thought marketing/packaging would be the strong distinguishing feature.