Boysenbeery Back for Summer
Invercargill Brewery’s award-winning Boysenbeery beer is back on the menu.
The colour of fine claret, Boysenbeery pours with a frothy pink head and is styled in the finest traditions of Belgium fruit beers. Its strong colour and flavor is all natural.
“We don’t use colouring or perfumes in any of our products. The art to brewing is seeing what you can achieve by using malt, hops and yeast and the brew process itself,” head brewer Steve Nally said.“When we do use additional flavours they’re 100 percent natural too – like orange peel, Kamahi honey, herbs, spices and naturally reduced fruit concentrate – nothing that comes out of a chemistry lab.”
Boysenbeery gets its strong flavor and colour from fruit concentrate – each batch contains the equivalent of 15% berry by volume, more fruit than many branded fruit drinks sold in NZ.
Boysenbeery was launched in May 2008, going on to win a gold medal and best in class at the BrewNZ Awards that same year, securing its right of return as a summer seasonal brew.
Because the ingredients are all sourced fresh the beer flavours will change with the seasons.
“That’s the joy of batch brewing – a bottle of wine from a competent vineyard is always a reliably good drink but when the weather plays its part it becomes exceptional.”
The 6.5 percent beer is packaged to share in a 640ml bottle. Its higher alcohol content means it will keep well, making it a perfect special occasion brew.
“Boysenberries are a very New Zealand thing. I remember picking them as a kid in Central Otago, eating more than I took home,” Mr Nally said.
“The berries had a lovely tart finish to them and always needed icing sugar or ice cream – or both! So the tartness balances beautifully with the sweetness of the malt and, together with the rich colour, works perfectly.”
New Zealand brewers have tackled fruit beers in the past using an array of produce, including cherries, apricots, raspberries and plums.
Invercargill Brewery’s first foray into fruit beer was Cherry Spike in 2005 – a tribute to the late Spike Milligan using Central Otago Cherries.
Grown here as a table fruit rather than cooking variety, the too-sweet fruit was perfect for eating but lacked the flavour and acidity needed to carry a beer.
“It was a great novelty beer for Christmas but didn’t really live up to my expectations,” Nally said.
The base style is a wheat beer, with Nally picking the delicate flavor to allow the boysenberry to dominate. That’s been teamed with a Belgium White Beer yeast giving hints of orange and spice rather than the banana and clove of German wheat beer yeast.
Boysenbeery will be available on tap at the Invercargill Brewery Bottle Store in Invercargill or in 640ml bottles from selected beer outlets throughout New Zealand during the summer season.
Beer Facts:
Alcohol by volume: 6.5 per cent
Hops: Riwaka & Pacific Gem
Yeast: Belgium Wit Beer
Malt: Gladfield Lager Malt, Australian Wheatmalt, Australian Caramalt
IBU: 12
Boysenberry: 15%