thief
Mountain IPA you say? It’s a rather romantic way of describing a beer that falls somewhere between the two in-vogue extremes (geographically speaking, that is) of West Coast IPA and East Coast IPA. The former, righteously bitter and brightly clear, the latter as furry and fuzzy and full of fruit juice flavours. Somewhere in between, again geographically speaking, is Colorado where Oskar Blues produced Dale’s Pale Ale (sweet and piney 6.5 per cent pale ale) and Odell created Mountain Standard, juicy fruity with some haze and a hit of late bitterness and thus a regional genre was a born. A handful of Kiwi breweries have played with the “style” including Deep Creek and Ground Up. Given the loose boundaries of Mountain IPA, it’s hard to say a brewery has nailed it as such, but Laughing Bones Treeline IPA (6.3 per cent) gives you exactly what it says it will: a beer that’s juicy, fruity, a little hazy but with an underlying bitter kick. Utilising a load of the tropical-meets-pine Sequoia hop blend, it truly is east meets west and a good waypoint for anyone who finds West Coast IPA too bitter or Hazy IPA too sweet.

Thief Brewing Frog Wallop IPA

Thief Brewing continues to prove that there’s IPA in them thar hills of Banks Peninsula, adding this West Coast style to the range.  West Coast by way of New Zealand anyway, being driven by Nelson Sauvin, Rakau and NZ grown Chinook.   The...

Double Vision x Baan Bangkok Thunder Struck Triple IPA

The method by which I pick a beer to feature here every week is extremely loose, but usually there’s an equation that balances between ‘interesting’ ‘relevant’ and ‘good’.  Sometimes, one of those spokes dominates to such an extent that the others cease to...

Behemoth Chur-Toberfest 2025

Every year more of our local craft brewers don the lederhosen and kick out a kiwi version of a Munich Festbier.  Historically, the results have been mixed… NZ malt and even more so our hops just don’t mesh well with the peerlessly smooth, crisp and understated...

New Zealand’s Most Awarded Beers

It was Stay Gold that started this … the Brave Brewing XPA that won a trophy in the International Pale Ale class at this year’s New Zealand Beer Awards. I was looking back through the records and realised it was the fifth gold medal that beer had won, and I started to...

Slow Walk Through Paradise — Visiting Every Brewery in NZ

There’s something about beer that’s always been part of my story. From the early days of sneaking sips of Lion Brown at my dad’s feet and walking around the house with my ‘beer mou’, to the $2 jugs of Joseph Kuhtze Lager at the Southern Cross Tavern during University...

Fermented Culture — The Third Place

Earlier this year a battle was fought in the leafy hills to the north of Wellington. A liquor license was being sought for what was once Dick Mead Motors and the Onslow Service Station. The resident’s association successfully applied for an extension to the decision...