This extremely-limited American hopped triple IPA (11 per cent ABV) from Behemoth suggests a certain attitude when it comes to the brewing of such IPAs. I share a similar, somewhat adjacent philosophy, only mine is more ‘screw it let’s drink it’. The nose presents an impermeable wall of ripe fruit aroma, massive tinned pineapple and grapefruit with a background of pine and sticky fruit syrup. The flavour, for all it’s massive strength and vast concentration of hops, actually shows a remarkable restraint. Sharp fresh fruit blends precisely with the rich malt, and before anything can get too sweet, a slow but absolutely unstoppable bitterness gradually eclipses the palate. Without a doubt one of the longest and most profoundly bitter finishes on an IPA that I’ve tasted in a very long time. A religious IPA experience.

Haagen Lager

As consumers, we all have two lines that constrain our habits.  Above, there’s the price ceiling, when the cost of beer gets above a certain point we’ll turn away.  That price ceiling has been talked about to death over the last five years (at least). ...

Boneface X Brave Cold IPA

Cracks are already appearing in the fresh hop dam… but before we’re completely awash in those impending releases — one more conventional IPA. The third in Boneface Brewing’s rolling series of collabs (this time from Hasting’s Brave Brewing) and quite possibly the best...

Sawmill Barrel-aged Imperial Porter

As a tribute to the official end of summer (or perhaps a final nail in the coffin, for those of us in Canterbury), I’ll turn to a more fireside coded drop, crafted by Matakana’s Sawmill brewery. In terms of its principle construction, this is a fairly simply patterned...

Boneface Knuckle Duster West Coast Pilsner

The ‘West Coast Pilsner’ style continues to wander through the craft beer labyrinth somewhat without a bearing, and drifts further from its (admittedly flawed from the beginning) descriptor in the process.  It’s as much as I can do to classify them as ‘good ones’ vs...

My Life In Five Beers — Matt Warner

While still at university in 2008 and after a hot Friday of Wellington hillside landscaping, I vividly remember propping up at the end of The Malthouse bar with my flatmate and being smacked in the face with a pint of Emerson’s Pilsner. It was brash, full of...

Drinking In The Middle Lane

When my recent piece ‘A slow walk through paradise’ was published, a mate joked, “Jeepers BH, you’re a bit middle-of-the-road in your beer tastes to be talking to the craft beer community.”...