Sniff in the right direction and Christchurch might smell a little more hopped up than it used to be. There’s more beer here than before, so much, in fact, that the Canterbury conurbation has been making cheeky claims to be the new crafty capital of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Fair enough too, and look out Wellington. Christchurch is increasingly bursting with brewing and there are now more brew bars dotted around the tabletop-flat city than even Mr Good Bar can get his hazy head around. And I’m in town for just a night, so it’ll have to be only one of the very many — and the one I choose is said to be among the best. Also, it’s just a short hike away from my hotel, down endless Colombo Street, rain clouds lowering over the Port Hills ahead.
Two Thumb Brewing has been in business five years now and runs its wares through five outlets, two in central Christchurch, one over the hills in Diamond Harbour, one out to the coast at Redcliffs, and one over the hills and far away, in Nelson.
The Colombo Street spot is a comfy barn of a place, a mix of bar stools and tables and worn leather sofas, deep and embracing.
There are deep and embracing options on tap too — 18 or so, running the crafty gamut, among them lager, pilsner, IPAs and APAs, a berry sour, stout, a couple of hard soft drinks (lemonade, ginger beer), a guest tap and four funky options “on pull”. Being just a longish lurch away from my hotel, I figure I can sample a few and set out with a pint of their Fresh Hop Hazy, a delicate, tingle of a 6.2%.
Back, sunk in my sofa, I can take in the centrepiece of the room, the beautiful bar itself, a massive back-lit work of art. There’s a middle-aged joker in a backpack standing at it, seemingly transfixed by all those tempting taps offered up there on the drinks screen, struggling to decide, asking questions, pointing, sampling. That pint he’s finally cuddling in the corner took ten minutes to choose. But he looks happy.
There’s food here too, of course, barbecue, burgers (seven sorts) and a solid selection of snacks, some of them rather healthy-sounding (cos half with buttermilk dressing, picked corn, egg and tomato anyone?). But I desire protein and it’s the Nashville Fried Chicken that catches my eye. And, to accompany that, something a bit more room temperature perhaps, their Yorkshire Bitter, a warm and woody mouthful and one you could sup for hours at just 4.5%.
The chicken ($18) is flipping spicy, virtually shouting out for chilly company now that I seem to have downed that Yorkshire Bitter. It carries a bit of a corny name, but the Two Thumb Haze There Delilah New England IPA (6.8%) is an absolute belter, creamy, delicious. So good, I’d have another, but don’t want to put too much zig-zag on the walk home.
This column marks Mr Good Bar’s seventh outing in Pursuit of Hoppiness and while there is sometimes a slight feeling of Groundhog Day when it comes to visiting so many of our beer-mad nation’s brew-bars – the unflashy industrial ambience, the burger and fried chicken-loving menus, the beardy blokes – the thing to remember is that you really are here for the beer, brewed fresh in one of those tanks back over there, served with pride by people who know what they’re talking about, who are happy to let you sample two or three before you chose one.
Which is to say that it’s a thumb’s up for Two Thumb.