Saturday, May 25, 2013

The Resident Spike Buckowski’s Red Rye Ale



By moniker alone, this beer had me sold from the outset. One, it is a red ale: my favorite style. And two, the guy who makes it shares a surname (if not the spelling) of perhaps the finest degenerate wordsmith rolling in his grave: Mr. Charles Bukowski. I had to write something. And I had to wait until I’d had several of these fine brews before I did so.

Slow Sunday afternoon.
Nothing like Mozart to
Chill the wind
Whipping down from the mountains
Extinguishing cigarettes
On the workaday weekend
Bender.
Except maybe Schubert
To wash down these beers.

Alright, that’s enough of that. This is an excellent beverage with rich flavors, good rye-intensity and a solid hop-profile.  It even references baseball and Tom Selleck’s moustache on the back of the label.  How’s that for a taste of nostalgia? Only one problem, though.  Upon closer inspection, it seems as though the brewery is not independently owned as the marketeering would have you believe. Instead it is a second small-batch label from an Auckland-owned conglomerate, no doubt the brew-master’s pet project.

I think the master of debaucherous pulp fiction and rugged poetry would only approve because of the relatively high alcohol percentage and the fact that at least they’re honest about exploiting American-bred ingenuity and kicking them out of NZ when their visas expire.

Choice as, bru.

Beermigos rating: Ballpark Brew. The booze-factor, the American influence and the fact that they mention baseball right there on the label would make me want to crush about a dozen of these at the cricket, hopelessly try to understand what the fuck was going on and d then go out on the town to chase some women with my mates. I’m sure both the brewer and the writer would support this.

Friday, May 24, 2013

Yeastie Boys Digital IPA




Yeastie Boys is perhaps the finest brewery name I have ever come across. It makes me want to fight for my right to drink fine beer. And the Yeasties up in Wellington have every intention to fight alongside.

This Digital IPA is the third Yeastie Boys brew I’ve tried and perhaps my favorite.  I spotted in on a casual walk-by of the single-bottle selection cooler and thought it would perfectly compliment a Saturday afternoon read of the book I bought from a Maori guy selling them from a shopping cart in front of the grocery store. It was his book, a true account of decades as a leader of the Mongrel Mob gang. Really cool guy, signed my book, gave me his e-mail and told me to write him and tell him what I thought about it.  Digital IPA seemed appropriate for the circumstance.

To the beer: This is a fine beverage, well balanced and not overly hopped. In fact, the malt characteristics give it a nice, semi-sweet flavor with a pseudo-Belgic, banana-peel element, and the hops, native Motueka grown at the top of the South Island , are more fruit-driven and aromatic than the bittering properties of Cascade varietals my palate is accustomed to. That said, I would be surprised to find the IBU to be very high, though it is an obvious India Pale Ale in style. With a solid 7% alcohol by volume, it registers as one of the stronger beers available in New Zealand, where even premium bottles by micro-breweries tend to hover around 5%. Not that that is the most important factor by any means.

More important is the taste (excellent), the quality (outstanding) and the sensation it gives me as it tingles past my lips, down my throat and into my fingertips as they transmit this information across the world (digitalicious).

Bonus: the recipe is open source.  You can download it from the website at www.yeastieboys.co.nz

Beermigos Rating: Burger and Brew Brew. This is an ideal complement to the kiwi-style burger, featuring standard toppings as well as pineapple rings, pickled beetroot slices and a fried egg.