Mmmm... Beer.....
Well you knew it would happen eventually. A post specifically about the beer here. Overall, I would have to say I am "pleased" with a bit of longing. Most of the people here have a liking for simpler and less complex beers. They like the lager category of beers and drink pale yellow watery drinks. In my quest for some good ales, I have been all over town and have only found one IPA anywhere. Here's the run down on the major brands, bars and the future.
There are 4 major breweries around here from the looks of it. Lion Red is the BUD style brewery and is very popular. There are 3 others, Monteiths, Speights (Duneden), and Mac's. Monteiths is kind of your run of the mill brew pub style beer. Picture some random brew pub that makes 6 of their own beers. Most of the flavors are good ranging from an Original Ale, to a stout like dark beer and a few others in between. Although they are tasty, they are a bit uninspired and lack crispness and deeper flavors. Also there are very few hops to be found.
Speights is the big south island brewer from what I can tell. They also have a small line of several beers and I would just label them as almost identical in quality and flavor as Monteiths. They do have one brew called Distinction Ale which is quite tasty.
Macs is the crazy micro brew style company here and have outlandish advertising, and their own line of brew pubs around town with cheap (think $5-7) beers on tap. Some of their notable beers are Sassy Red (a beautiful bitter), Mac's Gold, a decent lager that is very popular and the daring Hoprocker which is a super hoppy Pilsner! Mac's is definitely my favorite beer line so far and is available at just about any store and on many taps around the city. Most pubs so far seem to have one of these three lines in them and that's about it. Sometimes they will have Guinness or some other beer to augment it.
As far as places to drink, there are a ton and I have only been to a few so far. Most cafes and restaurants are "licensed" to sell beer and some have BYO. Of note so far is the Belgian Beer Cafe - http://www.belgian-beer-cafe.co.nz/ This place has all the favorites from tons of Leffe on tap to Hoegarden, Stella, Chimay, Delerium, Duvel, Kwak, etc... They don't have an exhaustive list, but rather about 6-10 brewers featured only. They also have very few bottles beyond this. A place like this I would expect to have 100 different bottled beers for what they can't keep on tap, but alas, they don't. Still, it is a great place with good food. Some of the beer is pricey, but if you pick and choose what is on special or less expensive, you won't break the bank. They also have decent food and good atmosphere (at the Ponsonby location at least).
I have also gone to a place called the Cock and Bull. It is styled after a British pub and they had their own line of 5-6 beers. Most of them ranged from a lager draught to a nice wheat beer called Busty Blonde. The real gems were a Belgian style named Monk's Habit which has won local awards. This was $7 for a small snifter but was worth it. The pricey Mayhem was the only IPA I can find on tap just about anywhere unless you count Touys (which tastes like piss and has no hops). $10 bought me a pint of this since it was 6%. The barkeep was super friendly and told me about the local beer scene and let me try everything for free. They were out of Epic Pale Ale which is one of the best beers around here and very hoppy in character. Tastes more like an IPA. I got a six pack on the way home and tried it last night with Jen.
We also found a bar called Shakespeare's which has a custom line of beers from various places. They have about 12 taps and most of their stuff was VERY fruity. Think lambic almost. The stuff was almost sickeningly sweet, so I wasn't overly impressed. The beer did have a lot of character and flavor though and most of the percentages were 6-12%! Most of the beer you buy at the store here is 4% sometimes.
I would go back and try a few more beers here, but if you don't like sweet, stay away.
Jen and I tried out The Bog a few weeks ago which was a local Irish Bar. It was nice enough and is in our neighborhood but only had 1-2 beers from each of the above companies and Guinness. We did see a nice Aussie Rugby match on the tellie though.
None of the beers in Auckland, New Zealand are crazy flavorful, but many are a nice treat for a cold day and there are a lot of middle of the road staples. So instead of seeing a lot of crap on one end and a few good beers at the other end of the spectrum, everything is clustered firmly in the good/competent category with a few exceptions. It's nice to know we won't want for a good a brew when we are in the mood, but I still have cravings for a few brands back in the United States. I think the future for NZ is a slow move to more and more flavorful beers. Over the last few years the trend is starting to show that more people like Ales and more hoppy flavors or bitter flavors. This will hopefully lead to more and more companies like Mac's and Epic being able to take chances on more and more flavorful styles. Let's keep our fingers crossed.
Cheers,
Matthew
There are 4 major breweries around here from the looks of it. Lion Red is the BUD style brewery and is very popular. There are 3 others, Monteiths, Speights (Duneden), and Mac's. Monteiths is kind of your run of the mill brew pub style beer. Picture some random brew pub that makes 6 of their own beers. Most of the flavors are good ranging from an Original Ale, to a stout like dark beer and a few others in between. Although they are tasty, they are a bit uninspired and lack crispness and deeper flavors. Also there are very few hops to be found.
Speights is the big south island brewer from what I can tell. They also have a small line of several beers and I would just label them as almost identical in quality and flavor as Monteiths. They do have one brew called Distinction Ale which is quite tasty.
Macs is the crazy micro brew style company here and have outlandish advertising, and their own line of brew pubs around town with cheap (think $5-7) beers on tap. Some of their notable beers are Sassy Red (a beautiful bitter), Mac's Gold, a decent lager that is very popular and the daring Hoprocker which is a super hoppy Pilsner! Mac's is definitely my favorite beer line so far and is available at just about any store and on many taps around the city. Most pubs so far seem to have one of these three lines in them and that's about it. Sometimes they will have Guinness or some other beer to augment it.
As far as places to drink, there are a ton and I have only been to a few so far. Most cafes and restaurants are "licensed" to sell beer and some have BYO. Of note so far is the Belgian Beer Cafe - http://www.belgian-beer-cafe.co.nz/ This place has all the favorites from tons of Leffe on tap to Hoegarden, Stella, Chimay, Delerium, Duvel, Kwak, etc... They don't have an exhaustive list, but rather about 6-10 brewers featured only. They also have very few bottles beyond this. A place like this I would expect to have 100 different bottled beers for what they can't keep on tap, but alas, they don't. Still, it is a great place with good food. Some of the beer is pricey, but if you pick and choose what is on special or less expensive, you won't break the bank. They also have decent food and good atmosphere (at the Ponsonby location at least).
I have also gone to a place called the Cock and Bull. It is styled after a British pub and they had their own line of 5-6 beers. Most of them ranged from a lager draught to a nice wheat beer called Busty Blonde. The real gems were a Belgian style named Monk's Habit which has won local awards. This was $7 for a small snifter but was worth it. The pricey Mayhem was the only IPA I can find on tap just about anywhere unless you count Touys (which tastes like piss and has no hops). $10 bought me a pint of this since it was 6%. The barkeep was super friendly and told me about the local beer scene and let me try everything for free. They were out of Epic Pale Ale which is one of the best beers around here and very hoppy in character. Tastes more like an IPA. I got a six pack on the way home and tried it last night with Jen.
We also found a bar called Shakespeare's which has a custom line of beers from various places. They have about 12 taps and most of their stuff was VERY fruity. Think lambic almost. The stuff was almost sickeningly sweet, so I wasn't overly impressed. The beer did have a lot of character and flavor though and most of the percentages were 6-12%! Most of the beer you buy at the store here is 4% sometimes.
I would go back and try a few more beers here, but if you don't like sweet, stay away.
Jen and I tried out The Bog a few weeks ago which was a local Irish Bar. It was nice enough and is in our neighborhood but only had 1-2 beers from each of the above companies and Guinness. We did see a nice Aussie Rugby match on the tellie though.
None of the beers in Auckland, New Zealand are crazy flavorful, but many are a nice treat for a cold day and there are a lot of middle of the road staples. So instead of seeing a lot of crap on one end and a few good beers at the other end of the spectrum, everything is clustered firmly in the good/competent category with a few exceptions. It's nice to know we won't want for a good a brew when we are in the mood, but I still have cravings for a few brands back in the United States. I think the future for NZ is a slow move to more and more flavorful beers. Over the last few years the trend is starting to show that more people like Ales and more hoppy flavors or bitter flavors. This will hopefully lead to more and more companies like Mac's and Epic being able to take chances on more and more flavorful styles. Let's keep our fingers crossed.
Cheers,
Matthew
Labels: Ale, Auckland, beer, new zealand
posted by Matthew at
12:52 PM
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