10 KIWI BEERS TO TRY BEFORE YOU DIE
Award-winning beer writer Neil Miller recommends his top 10 Kiwi beers that every beer drinker should sample, at least once.
Neil Miller is an awardwinning beer writer. To contact Neil regarding beer features or samples, please email him at beerlytweeting@gmail.com
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FIRST OFF, it is hard to follow in the footsteps of acclaimed British beer writer and author of 300 Beers To Try Before You Die, Roger Protz. A gentleman, a scholar and an Englishman, I swear he always wears a tie, even to breakfast at a beer festival. Accordingly, I set some more simple rules for my Antipodean mini-missive – the 10 beers listed must be reasonably available (so no festival beers or one-off crazy brews), and they must reflect something fundamental about Kiwi beers. These are not necessarily my favourite New Zealand beers - that list would be dominated by nine different Pale Ales and a Pilsner, but they are the selection I would offer to a visiting craft brewer, beer writer, alien, or even an Australian. It is a personal snapshot of craft brewing in Aotearoa…
FMCG BUSINESS: THE SHOUT - NOVEMBER 2018
1. Deep Creek Undercurrent Pilsner This is a punchy New Zealand hopped Pilsner with notes of grainy malt and sharp lemon zest. Undercurrent is a favoured tipple of my lovely partner, but also stands on its own merits and in the end made me appreciate again a finelybalanced New World Pilsner as a contrast to my usual American hop bombs.
2. Yeastie Boys Pot Kettle Black Brewer Stu McKinlay claims he made this beer to unite the hoppy beers that I adore, with the malty monster ales that he loves. “Although it started out in my head as a very robust American Brown Ale, I now think of Pot Kettle Black as an American-style Porter or perhaps, a ‘new world style’,” he said . “PKB is a wonderfully balanced beer with notes of chocolate, stone fruit, liquorice, toffee and cleansing hop bitterness.” He made it to test me. Do not tell the brewer – but it is actually lovely. I particularly enjoy using this beer to make Welsh Rarebit (basically posh savoury cheese on toast) eaten in the dark with an accompanying pint of said PKB. It makes me sleep well and dream of Scotland beating England at cricket. Oh, wait, we just did that.