I never thought this was the case, until last December, when the Marlborough District Council’s banned of glasses at  the Brews, Blues and BBQs festival. The decision was effective immediately, despite it only being a month out from the event and the organisers, the Blenheim Round Table, having already purchased 3,500 glasses. Conversely, the Marlborough Wine and Food Festival was only encouraged to adopt plastic glasses, because we all know wine drinkers are a cultured, sensible lot. Us beer drinkers though – we’re not to be trusted.

The Marlborough brewers and beer appreciators then employed what I feel to be the best counter-argument: show, don’t tell. Moa, Renaissance and 8 Wired pulled out of Brews, Blues and BBQs and an alternate event, Summerfest, was organised. Held the day after Brews, Summerfest was a massive success. A lovely family day out, there was no incidents that required police involvement and the first aid tent had nothing to do all day. More than 1,200 people attended and were able to sample products from seven brewers, in a relaxed environment and with glass vessels. So, it turns out, beer-drinkers can be well-behaved – even cultured.

Lovely ladies enjoying a brew. Photo: The Marlborough Express

The Marlborough Wine Festival provided a stark contrast. Here’s the bare facts:
- 42 people were arrested
- 9 people treated for cuts from bottles and glasses
- 5 people were taken to hospital for treatment
- 9 people were treated for over-consumption of alcohol
I have received a photo of one lady’s injuries sustained from a bottling, but, due to its graphic nature,  I didn’t want to post  it here.

I’ll readily admit, I’m not comparing apples with apples here; the Wine Festival attracted more than 8,000 people, Summerfest only 1,200. But then isn’t that in itself also revealing? The number of people you plan to accommodate says a lot about your event; 8,000 people means a massive party, not a gathering of like-minded people to appreciate the finer points of a beverage. Humans are not at their best in masses.

There’s many more examples of this kind; I’ve heard horror stories of the train back from Taste Martinborough and yet am always impressed with the level of behaviour at Beervana. There are, of course, many stories to the contrary – the NZ Beer Festival in Auckland last year was chockful of bogans setting out to get munted. What I’m trying to say is that the type of alcohol being consumed is not the defining factor as to whether an event will be drama-free or end up headlining the news. There are far better factors to be looking at, for example, the size and composition of the targeted audience, or the timing and length of the event or its sessions. Most of all though, what’s the main focus of the event – taste or entertainment? Because, however unfortunately, Kiwis tend to tie drinking a lot of alcohol to being entertained. How that alcohol’s delivered doesn’t seem to matter much.

So here’s a tip to all the festival organisers out there: we want taste. We want to be able to discuss this taste with our friends. We want to wonder aloud how such a taste was created. We’d like to meet some of the people who make such tastes. If this isn’t the aim of your festival, you’re probably going to have problems.

As a result, all of my beer is stored in a cardboard box at the foot of my bed. It works fairly well – there’s no major fluctuations in temperature, the box keeps out a lot of light and neither of my flatmates knows that it’s there (introducing them to great beer may have been a mistake). But I can’t help but be a little jealous of  my friend Tom, who has room in his garage for a deep freeze that is set to chill, or my Dad, who has a basement that is naturally cool. Then, this morning, I made the mistake of putting ‘beer storage’ into Google and became starting dreaming outrageously of a time when I’m free of flatmates and possess money and room. Here are my top three beer storage dreams:

3) Storing in Style

This odd-looking fridge was designed by Stefan Buchberger and it’s original purpose was to prevent fights between flatmates by segregating their food. I think it would be much better utilised as a beer fridge, with separate compartments at the right temperatures for different beer.

2) Going Natural

A beer cave. The ultimate in natural beer storage. Or not so natural in the photo above – the cave is actually an abandoned goldmine in Colorado. Beer storage and history? That’s double cool points in my book.

1) Custom-made

I wanted to have a photo here of an amazing beer fridge I thought I saw at the Auckland Food Show, from Vintec, which had different shelves at different temperatures. However, when I went on their website, there wasn’t any such fridge and I began to think it was just a cheese sampling induced dream. So I put ‘beer’ in their product search – the only fridge that came back had a maximum temperature of 10C, which isn’t ideal for a Stout-lover. In fact, there weren’t many fancy beer fridges that could be revealed by a cursory search on the net. It seems, that as in many things, the beer geek needs to be independent and innovative. Much like the guy in the video below.

While his fridge is for storage and home brewing, I think this might be close to my dream fridge – custom-made to fit into my house and with handy serving taps. Now I just need the money for the house and the installation – not to mention the beer! It’s a good thing dreams are free.

Nøgne Ø Tasting
A few days after the Crouchers’ cask ale launch, I was extremely lucky to be back at Galbraiths for a tasting of Nøgne Ø beers and to hear from Nøgne Ø’s head brewer, Kjetil Jikiun. There was so many awesome things about this event that it deserves its own post, but I’ll keep it brief and save most of the details for the next issue of Pursuit of Hoppiness.

The event in and of itself was awesome. Kjetil took us told us a bit about Nøgne Ø’s history and principles, namely quality of materials and product; maintaining a diverse range of beers; and adherence to style, without watering down flavours for market consumption. They’d recently added another principle, which was not being extreme for the sake of it – they’d like people to finish a bottle of Nøgne Ø and be hankering after another. After the introduction, the beer sampling began with a farmyard Saison, followed by a delightfully fruity Pale Ale and a chocolatey Porter (that received a silver at the WBC). Then the big guns, in both flavour and alcohol, came out. Both the Imperial Brown Ale and IPA were very well balanced, with a coating bitterness and rich malt flavours. Then the really big guns (canons even) were loaded. #100 was Nøgne Ø’s hundredth brew and, if it did have a style, it would probably be an Dark Imperial IPA. It was beautiful, very dark red, with gorgeous highlights when you held it up to the light, and complex – my taste buds kept finding different notes to be happy about. Then there was the Imperial Stout, very toasty and very, very dark – a lot like a Twisted Hop Nokabollokov. If you can get your hands on either of these beers, I’d highly recommend trying them – the #100 is currently on tap at Galbriaths and Dave-the-bar-manager has a keg of Imperial Stout hidden away out the back, so keep your ears open.

That such an event should take place in New Zealand (let alone Auckland) is amazing. Big credit to Dominic from Hashigo Zake, who organised for Kjetil to come out and be involved in several tastings and two collaborative brews. Dominic imports Nøgne Ø beers (as well as many others) and he does a great job of balancing an appreciation for local brews, as well as ones from overseas, seeing the two as complementary, rather than competing. And even bigger credit to Kjetil! Anyone who’s attempted the NZ to Europe jaunt knows it is an incredible long haul, particularly for only five days in NZ. I’m really glad he made the trip though and I hope he enjoyed his time here. New Zealand must be a pretty cool place to have such an attraction to people.
Beer of the Event: tie between #100 and the Imperial Stout

My Birthday
Yes, it’s self-centred to include my birthday, but is truly was chock full of beer-awesome-ness. I got three beer books, two bottles of my favourite brews (Bookbinder and Mike’s Imperial Porter) and had one of those nights were every beer you have is excellent. I started out at Galbraiths with a Croucher Reserve Ale (still good, but quickly running out), a Norge O #100 (also still good and wonderfully boozy) and a Old Burton IPA, which is very English, soft and lovely. Then, across the road at The Corner Store, was the Twisted Hop IPA, which had a lovely fruity flavour I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Not tropical or citrusy, maybe more stonefruit? Whatever it was, it was moreish. Then, I had a Yeastie Boys Rex Attitude.

Now, I’ve never managed more than one sip of Rex before, but as I was drinking with the Yeastie Boys themselves, the politeness my mother beat into me as a child kicked in and I started drinking the offered glass. And it was wonderful! I’ve always said it smells like building boats, a mix of wood with something more processed or chemical (to me, this isn’t a bad thing). I can now maintain it takes like a forest. I’m not sure how to elaborate on that. It tastes like how it feels to stand in the New Zealand bush.
One of the best birthdays I’ve ever had and thanks to everyone who was lovely to me.
Beer of the Event: too many to choose.

The Future
And the Awesome Beer Month isn’t over for me yet! On Friday, the Brewery Britomart are launching their in-house beers; Monday, there’s a launch of Dale Holland’s beers at Galbraiths; Thursday, Epic are combining a launch of their new Larger beer with their sixth birthday party at O’Carrolls; and on  Saturday, there’s a Guild event.

If, I survive all of that, there’s Christmas and the Dad and mine’s Great Christmas Beer Tasting. It really is a good time to be a beer geek in New Zealand.

Choice (both in the Queen’s English and the local vernacular)
Awesome Beer Month started with the arrival in Auckland of Greig McGill, secretary of SOBA and the most well-known Hamiltonian in the world.  As per usual, Greig insisted on inspected the local craft beer scene with a pub crawl. We visited four bars – SkySport Grill, Suite, The Brewery Britomart and O’Carrolls - each with their own personality and a good selection of beers. Such selection in fact, I was able to stick to dark beers pretty much the whole night. This is more impressive when you add into the equation that we only repeated one of the six bars that we visited last time there was a Grieg-induced bar crawl.
Beer of the Event: Croucher Raspberrybock. While not a crowd favourite, I loved the raspberry-tart versus the malt-sweet. Reminded me of my favourite dark chocolate and raspberry cupcakes.

A Community of Experimentation
The day after the bar crawl, a hiccup of home brewers gathered at Hallertau for the Western Brewers Conference.  This quarter the style was NZ Pale Ale, not only a very popular style (there were 17 entries), but also one that’s quite young, so there was a fair amount of experimentation with hop varieties.  The winner had dry hopped with Wai-iti, second place used a lot of Kohatu and third NZ employed Cascade. This variety provided a lot of healthy debate, with one competitor describing the Kohatu flavour as similar to a pineapple that has been down your trousers, but that’s the fun of it. It was also great to see so many relatively new brewers walking away with honours – Brent, who took out third, has only been brewing for a few months and this was his first WBC. Not only is there a friendly, competitive homebrew community, but we’ve also got some world-class judges to help guide us along. With such a big field, it was reassuring to have the knowledge of Luke Nicholas, Kelly Ryan, Joseph Wood, and Steve Ploughman to sort through the entries and give everyone feedback.
Beer of the Event: Hamish’s first-place NZ Pale Ale. Absolutely stunning, flawless and drinkable, it was marked 49 out of 50.

Recognising Awesome People 
After only a day off from some seriously good beer, the Auckland beer crowd were back into it with the release of the latest Galbraiths Cask Ale series. Not only did we get the chance to taste another marvellous collaboration beer – this time Croucher’s Pale Ale – but there was also the largest gathering of brewers Auckland’s ever seen: Croucher’s Nigel and Paul, 8Wired’s Soren (in town to brew his own cask beer), Liberty’s Jo, and Emerson’s Richard. I have to admit, some Aucklanders were a little star-struck.  In addition to out-of-town guests, we had the chance to thank our Auckland SOBA leader, Martin Bridges, for his time representing Auckland on the SOBA committee and for, well, carolling the us into some semblance of an organisation. Personally, I really like it when people who do the hard yards (like Martin does) get recognised, so it was great.
Beer of the Event: Croucher-Galbraiths Pale Ale. So. Freaking. Drinkable. Perfect amount of hoppiness, so smooth and (as much as I hate this expression) thirst-quenching. I wish it would last until summer, but I know it won’t. It’ll be gone before you know it, so get down to Galbraiths now.

Well, that’s enough goodness for one post, stay tuned for Part Two.

Very early on, sis informed me ‘We won’t be having any of that fancy stuff that you and Dad like. We can’t afford it.’ When I duly reported this back to Dad, the silence last so long I thought he’d dropped the phone. It stretched on and on and then a small but firm voice simply said ‘No’. Since then, we’ve decided the beer shall be our concern and we’ve been debating the best way to organise it. Bottles or kegs? Local fare or bring in favourites? A variety of breweries, or just stick to one? Go with what guests will be comfortable with or wow them with something different? Then there’s the logistics of it all to be considered.

It’s all rather academic at the moment though, because the wedding’s not until February 2013. In the intervening time, Emerson’s will release six seasonal brews, a dozen new micro- and nano-breweries will start up, 8Wired will create several Trohpy-winning beers and who knows what sort of mischief the Epic boys will get up to. The brewing scene is evolving so fast in New Zealand, it is impossible to predict what it will be like in 18 months’ time.

The long wait though, does give Dad and myself a chance to gather information and learn more about beer at weddings.  We both have a bit of experience in weddings and a fair amount of experience organising small events with craft beer, but haven’t really combined the two. We’ve got a year to research, plan and learn from other people’s weddings. So what are people’s best tips for craft beer (or beverages in general) at weddings? Or large events? Suggested styles, serving formats and sourcing? What did you enjoy about other people’s weddings?

Don’t be shy and remember, your interesting stories and advice will be helping me through less enjoyable wedding-related activities. You see, I promised to take my sister wedding dress shopping up here in the big smoke – and I hate wedding dresses. But, I do know of three bridal stores within a three block radius of Galbraiths… so it won’t be too bad!

‘Where’s your beer?’ the guys asked me as I returned to our table.
‘They don’t do halves of the craft beers.’
‘What do they do halves of?’
‘Speights, Mac’s Gold and Guinness.’
‘Why only those?’
‘I don’t know.’
They turned it over it true pub-conversation styles and came up with a few theories, then quickly discarded each one. Tossed theories included: a lack of correct glasses; extra labour or training of staff; and loss of profit. All of these theories may have worked if they didn’t serve any halves, but they did of the mainstream stuff. Eventually one of the lads gave up and went and asked.

‘What did they say?’
‘It’s not keyed into the till.’
‘What?!’
‘It’s not keyed into the till, so they can’t charge people for it.’
‘That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard.’
‘I know.’
‘Don’t they have a bloody misc key?’
‘Yeah, but then their staff would have to know how much they are.’
‘But they charge the same for a pint of the craft, any craft.’
‘I don’t know, I’m just the messenger!’

Now this scenario could be many things. You could look it as the fine-tuning of the Auckland craft beer scene, which we all contribute too. You could see it as a bunch of beer geeks being, well, pedantic beer geeks. You could perceive it as host-irresponsibility.

But on the whole, it just all seems…silly.

Then she greeted me on Sunday night with ‘You suck’. Apparently it was all my fault that she’d be craving iStout all weekend. She’d gone to the supermarket, but the only Stout they had was six dollars a bottle and she knew that I’d paid a fair bit more than that and figured it wasn’t a very good one. My general lack of beer stocks in the flat was also remarked upon.

This afternoon, I received a phone call from Shelley at the supermarket, asking whether she should get Cascade or Young’s Double Chocolate Stout. Before I knew it, she was home, pouring us a bottle each the Young’s. ‘It’s nice enough,’ she decided, ‘but it’s not iStout.’

It appears I’ve made a convert – a slightly indecisive and fussy one, but a convert nonetheless.

In the midst of my self-congratulating, I began to think about new beer converts. We beer geeks spend a lot of time talking about gateway beers, but what happens when our newbies are through the gate and into Beerland? Here they must navigate supermarket aisles and liquor store fridges that seem to offer either an overwhelming amount of choice or very little at all. There’s a whole new nomenclature to learn and different brewers to discover. Then there are literally thousands of beers to taste and make decisions on.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the only way to explore Beerland is to jump right in and get tasting. But there’s small things we can do to help the beer grommet along. Be willing to share your beer and knowledge with them. Encourage them to join a SOBA or a regular beer group so they can learn from other people’s successes or mistakes. Have patience if the person in front of you at the taps takes a long while making their decision.

While I’m sure beer geeks will do their best to be welcoming, I do wish a bit more was being done in the retail and hospitality industries to help beer grommets on their way. In my local Pak’n'Save cheese section, there’s an excellent sign that briefly explains the different varieties of cheese. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have one in the beer aisle as well, looking at different styles? On my last visit to Liquorland Newmarket, the manager took the time to help me with my beer selection and answer my questions. Wouldn’t it be lovely if every liquor store had such a person on hand?

Beerland is an exciting place, but it can also be confusing with it variety and choice. Hopefully, with a few cheerful guides and helpful signposts we can make it a little more welcoming and encourage people to stay a little longer – or move in permanently!

Home brewers can be a little accident-prone and forgetful. One friend broke a hydrometer and a thermometer by standing on them – during the same brew. Another flinches every time his wife opens the kitchen draw, afraid she’ll break some of his kit. And then there’s the mate who looks sheepish whenever you ask what his starting gravity was – he can never find a pen.

Well, I decided to try and put a stop to some of this. As some of you know, I’m a part-time sewer and thought the perfect solution would be a brewer’s wall-hanging organiser (or Brewer’s Buddy).  The resulting design is below.

There are skinny pockets for thermometers and hydrometers, flat pockets for notebooks and airlocks, small see-through pockets for washers and plugs and larger pockets for taps and all manner of other things! Along the bottom, there’s loops for mash paddles and spoons and along the top, two strong lops to hang the Buddy from the door or wall of your brew shed / garage / man cave. And if you spill something on it, just pull out the dowel ends and chuck it in the washing machine – it’ll come out good as new!

The Brewer’s Buddy is available on the online craft store Felt and will shortly be available on Etsy, if you want to pay in US dollars.

I love Stout. I don’t know why and I’m not about to guess; I’ve given up working out why I like things (why is blue nicer than orange?). To celebrate International Stout Day, I’m going to take a look at Stouts of New Zealand past, present and future.

Past
One of the best and worst parts of loving craft beer is its ephemeral nature. Some beers are one-off brews, the result of a collaboration, some experimentation with weird ingredients or made to make a special event. These beers often have a lot of extra thought and effort put into them and it shows through in excellent brews. Vasta’s Velvet was one such fleeting moment of goodness. It was one of the Galbraiths’ ‘Cask Ale Series’, where brewers from around the country team up with the brew team at Galbraiths (Keith and Ian) to re-do one of their beers in the cask ale style. For Vasta’s Velvet, Carl Vasta of Tuatara Brewing came up and they brewed a version of his Polar Beer Stout. And it was beautiful. Off the hand-pump, it was smooth and roasty and delicate and chocolately and awesome. Paired with Galbraiths’ Stout Beef Burger, it was even better. But alas, it was a one-off brew and we shall never sup it again. I’m glad I got to try it while it lasted.

Present
For my present beer, I wanted to have a Twisted Hop Nokabollokov and talk about how I hope this remains a present beer. I hope one day the Twisted Hop crew are allowed back into their quake-ravaged brew bar and, if they’re not, that they can continued to find other places to brew like they do currently. But Liquorland Newmarket had run out. The Newmarket manager thought there might be one bottle at the Parnell store, but he was fairly sure that the Parnell manager was going to drink it himself  (can’t blame him really).  I’m happy to report that despite the manager’s slightly apologetic ‘We don’t stock many Stouts’, they had many others to chose from and I ‘settled’ for an 8wired iStout.

As part of my International Stout Day celebrations, I was generously sharing this bottle with my flatmate who has never had a Stout before. I cracked it open when she arrived home from the gym and poured it into a tulip glass. ‘It’s very dark,’ she commented, not suspiciously, more curiously. ‘Why is that?’ I explained about the malt being roasted for longer and therefore having a darker colour. She said that made sense and took a sip. ‘Oh wow.’ Another sip. ‘That’s really nice.’ Another sip. ‘Seriously, what’s this called, I think I’ll buy some.’ Before I could take three sips of my half, she’d finished hers and asked if there was any more. I think I’ve converted at least one person to Stout. I declare my International Stout Day a success.

Future
So what’s in store for Stout in the future? More of the same delicious and a bit of experimentation.  Hopefully, we’ll still be able to buy great Stouts like Nokabollokov, iStout, Three Boys Oyster Stout, Emerson’s Clam Stout, Epic Thornbridge Stout and whoever else I’ve temporarily forgotten.* Hopefully, we can convert more people to these tasty drops and the liquor store managers can proudly announce they have a full range of Stouts. Maybe, I’ll even be able to got to a restaurant and have a stout with my dessert, an absolute decadent luxury.

And, just like with any of our beer styles, there is and will be a fair amount of experimentation with Stouts. For International Stout Day, Epic brewed a coffee-fig stout, a version of which took away the Media Head-to-Head Brew competition at Beervana earlier this year. With caramelised figs in the wort and dried hopped with coffee beans, this stout is sticky, sweet and moreish.

So that’s my International Stout Day. Great memories, great beer in hand and looking like great things in the future.

*Forgotten is not necessarily a bad thing. There’s nothing better than re-discovering a beer.

In General: 
- Don’t be ashamed of your beer list. Please don’t hide it away at the end, next to the soft drinks. This is especially true if you market yourself as a beer destination - if this is a case, put the beer before the wine and cocktails.
- If economically possible, have more than one list so that customers can take it back to their table, particularly if it’s a fairly long list. This way, people can take their time and not block up the bar, um-ing and ah-ing.

The Essentials:
- Beer’s name
- Brewery
- Beer style
- ABV
- Glass type / serving size
- Price

The Nitty-Gritty:
- Double-check all your spelling, if only to prevent ridicule. ‘Batch 18′ is a wonderful Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout; ‘Patch 18′ could be anything from a fix for your computer to a area in Northland that contains illicit weeds.
- Be consistent in your formatting. It’s debated whether Pale Ale or pale ale is correct, but pick one style and stick to it.

Lastly, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Having a beer menu is still a relatively new thing, just like craft beer itself. If you’re not sure, ask a resident beer geek, email a beer blogger or contact your  local brewer. They’re mostly friendly people and would be happy to give you a hand.

Just like I’m sure they’ll now tell me what I’ve forgotten to include.