Welcome to the first Malthouse blog for 2013.  Despite the new head of the PPTA teachers union making the quite astonishing claim that most New Zealanders are on holiday until the 24th of January, many readers and certainly this writer have been back at work for a while now. Several of you have taken the opportunity to politely inquire when my "perennially popular and/or controversial selection of the Top Beers of the Year" will be available. The answer: right now.

Happy New Beer

This is officially the last Malthouse blog for 2012. In fact, if those Mayan mathematicians were indeed correct then this will be the last Malthouse blog ever. 

At 12:12pm on 12/12/12 a small but malevolent presence took over the Malthouse. The Impish Brewer Luke Nicholas forced 12 of his outrageous Epic beers on tap

Describing Luke Nicholas as “a bit of character” is akin to characterising the Great Wall of China as “quite a large construction project”.  The head honcho at Epic Brewing Company is internationally renowned

The great author John Ronald Reuel (JRR) Tolkien famously said “I am in fact a Hobbit in all but size. I like gardens, trees, and unmechanised farmlands. I smoke a pipe, and like good plain food

Like David Shearer and David Cunliffe, Palmerston North and I have never really gotten along. The town slogan may be “Knowledge City” but I have often referred to