Mount Brewing

Brothers Beer are starting the new year’s seasonal brewing off with the cleverly named Martin Scores Hazy, a big Nectaron and Mosaic driven imperial hazy IPA (8 per cent).  Both bold and extremely fruity hops, Mosaic and Nectaron should be a good combo for a strong hazy. Big, bright mandarin and grapefruit come out first on the nose, with pungent passionfruit and rockmelon not far behind.  A streak of zingy acidity flashes across the start of the palate, before an intensely ripe and sweet stone fruit character takes over and hangs on hard until the bitterness finally rises in the finish.  The body on this one is extra full, taking palate weight right to the line for even a double hazy.  If you like your hazy IPAs big, bold and decadently sweet then this one will surely satisfy.

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,...