The dust is settling: 51.5 weeks to Beervana 2016

This year was the first Beervana run by the new owners, The Wellington Culinary Events Trust, and they seem to have done an outstanding job from what I witnessed and what I have heard from many others.

I tend to get a slightly skewed view of beer festivals because I’m virtually always there as a presenter or media. Only rarely am I a paying punter and actually I quite treasure those occasions. To my eye, the Beervana crowds looked big but well behaved and happy. The layout has been tweaked [2] which seemed to create more space to move, the welcome addition of more seating and shorter queues. [3] It is hard to imagine but the stands were even better than last year with Garage Project probably topping the stakes with their modest rock star stage and dry ice.

My personal highlights of Beervana would include seeing Funk Estate’s new Randall the Enamel Animal (the original Hopinator) from Dogfish Head), a tasty end-of-season whitebait fritter from Martin Bosley’s “Boz + Co” stall, and a stack of sticky Asian-style ribs matched with a full glass of Epic Hop Zombie IIPA.

That particular dish was a big hit at the beer and food matching sessions Martin and I ran for the VIP “Ultimate Experience” ticketholders. Each group got to try beers from Behemoth, Beer Baroness, Epic and Garage Project, which were matched with a dish ranging from curry to chocolate. The Beer Giraffe Andrew, The Beer Baroness Ava and The Impish Brewer Luke each presented at a session so participants could hear directly from the people who made the beer in their glass. Professionally, I really appreciated the quiet, well set up seminar room, and the work of the staff and volunteers who served hundreds of plates and bottles of beer seamlessly. It was great work by Jason and his team.

The dust has largely settled from Beervana but is almost immediately being stirred up again by Wellington on a Plate which also seems to get bigger and better each year. I’m delighted to see the number of beer-based culinary events in the programme, they seem to double in number each year. This trend reflects the fact that Wellington diners are increasingly taking craft beer seriously at the table.

Malthouse had a busy Beervana week and weekend with many Beervana patrons and Beervana brewers popping in for a quiet pint. [4] The tap selection is still up to Beervana standards, including a beer which was launched shortly after Beervana finished. The “Young Guns” Dylan, Jordan and Shiggy have created Funk Estate 12@12, a 12.12%, 12 malt, 12 hop Imperial Irish Red ale. It was launched at midnight on the Saturday after Beervana but my sources [5] suggest a few lucky patrons may have obtained an advance sip of this massive ale.

It is joined by the moderate (by comparison only) Funk Estate Afrogato Imperial Stout (8%). Now, this seemed to be an odd name even by Funk Estate standards but, as usual, it all makes sense when you know the back story. [6] The Funksters explain that it is an “Imperial Stout inspired by affogato – a classic Italian dessert with a shot of coffee and amaretto drizzled over vanilla ice cream. This big and boozy yet smooth and creamy treat is sure to please.”

Drinkers who like this style have complimented the strong coffee and vanilla notes, and the smoothness. However, easily the best comment my research revealed was by Untappd user Monique D who said Afrogato was “just like a chocolate milkshake only… beer?” Well played, very well played indeed.

There is also a selection of Wild Beer beers from the Wild Beer Company of Somerset. The brewery motto is “Drink Wildly Different Beers” and they are not kidding. [7] Their signature manoeuvre is using a “combination of ancient and new techniques”, usually the use of wild yeasts and/or barrel aging.

Wild Beer Modus Operandi (7%) is an English Old Ale which has been brewed with wild yeasts (most commonly Brettanomyces) and aged in oak barrels (either red wine or bourbon barrels). Designed to “explore the boundaries of the palate”, the Modus Operandi is a russet brown ale with a complex mix of funky yeast, oak, vanilla, bourbon, sour berry, nutty dark malt, plum jam, fig, cherry and tannin notes. It is smooth, rich and very different.

The Modus Operandi is joined by stable mates Wild Beer Evolver IPA (5.8%) which is a complex 100% Brettanomyces fermented India Pale Ale, and Wild Beer Sourdough (3.6%) which is described as being loosely based on the sour Berliner Weisse style but made with a nearly 60 year old sourdough bread yeast from the local Hobbs House Bakery. Sourdough is an intriguing celebration of the tremendous similarities between making bread and brewing beer over the last few thousand years.

Moving stylishly from the Modus Operandi to the Modus Hopperandus, Malthouse’s own Hopinator has something particularly spicy on offer at the moment. No, it is not hops [8] but a delicious combination of Garage Project’s Death From Above Indochine Pale Ale (7.5%) poured over a mix of mango, Vietnamese mint and chilli, all ingredients which appear in the beer itself. It should be nothing short of epic.

There are plenty more highlights including Hop Federation Barrel Aged Stout (2015), Garage Project Rose de la Vallee (a pilsner made with Pinot Noir juice and rested on grape skins), Garage Project Sauvin Nouveau (a Pilsner made with Nelson Sauvin hops and fresh Sauvignon Blanc juice), Garage Project Wabi Sabi (a sour beer made with Honeydew melon and Yuzu, a distinctive Asian fruit), and mike’s Double Shot VCP (a vanilla and coffee infused porter).

Once some taps are cleared there will be more Beervana survivors from breweries such as Beavertown, BrewDog and Weezledog, but those are for another day.

Next time, we drink to the Republican Presidential Candidate Debates. I’m a long-term political tragic but even I have never seen anything quite so bizarre. My three pieces of advice would be 1) have plenty of beer handy 2) swallow quickly or you will be spraying beer all over the screen from a mixture of horror and wonderment, and 3) do not play a drinking game where you have to drink every time someone watching says “did they really just say that?”

[1] Which today pretty much means “Twitter”.

[2] There is only so much you can do with a long curving concourse.

[3] Any beer festival that has no queues is not making any money.

[4] Sometimes followed by several noisy ones.

[5] Also pretty much “Twitter”.

[6] That is more than can be said for the latest Terminator movie. It is fun but so many time travel paradoxes.

[7] In general, people from Somerset are rarely “kidding.”

[8] It is almost never hops. I’m sure this is done simply to torment me. If so, it is working.

Cheers

Neil Miller

Beer Writer

Beer and Brewer Magazine