Mount Brewing

A new one for me, this ‘American’ pilsner promises to be even more hop forward than the New Zealand variant.  You might suggest that puts it pretty close to IPL territory, which probably isn’t far wrong, but with Boneface being the current holders of a Brewers Guild trophy for exactly that style (The Outlaw), I see that as a plus.  The aroma blends familiar citrusy noble hop aromas with distinctly American stone fruit and melon.  The palate is sharp, taut and incredibly fresh, with a cleansing bitter finish that lingers on the citrus.  It’s a fairly big pilsner at 5.5 per cent, but nicely rapid and refreshing nonetheless.  An intriguing and satisfyingly full-on evolution of the NZ pilsner style.

The Generation Game — Mount Brewing At 30

For Briar Harley, born into the brewery life, there’s plenty of excitement in sharing the news that come June a third generation will born into the Mount Brewing family. Briar and husband Niall, who own Mount Brewing in partnership with her parents Glenn and Virginia...

Boneface Knuckle Duster West Coast Pilsner

The ‘West Coast Pilsner’ style continues to wander through the craft beer labyrinth somewhat without a bearing, and drift 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...

Bach Skinnay Ultra Low Carb Hazy Pale Ale

While low carb beers are bigger than they’ve ever been, it’s still uncommon to see the styles range too far from the lager safe-zone.  You’ll find a few zero% hazy IPA’s, but an actual low-carb-full-strength example is rarer.   Never idle for long,...

Eruption Brewing — Lyttelton’s Local Legend

To understand Eruption Brewing’s place in Lyttelton, it helps to zoom out — first a couple of centuries, then a few million years. The town sits inside the remnants of the Banks Peninsula volcano, long extinct but still shaping the landscape and, fittingly, inspiring...

Epic Stout

While not to say that Epic is a total stranger to dark beer (they’ve made some extremely good ones over the years) it would be fair to say that it wasn’t exactly the style they’re known for.  So it was a surprise to see this one show up (and slickly presented too, I...

“Unicorn” Brewery For Sale — Emporium On Market

Here's a big opportunity for someone who wants to get into the brewing game: Emporium — a profitable, successful business is — for sale! You heard that right. Profitable, successful. Given that, why, I asked Paul Finney of Emporium, does he want to sell his brewery,...