Keith Bowman - beer & wine author
New Zealand beers are not only diverse in their varieties but also in their geographical locations and there is no further brewery south than this little blue shed named Invercargill Brewery. I had little info on this brewery apart from a phone number, so I reach for the dog and bone and had a natter to the owner, Steve Nally who was happy to talk about his brewing passion.
Steve brews four beers and one cider (Nally’s Cider) in 600Ltr batches and knocks up two batches a month at present with about 70% going into 500ml bottles and the remainder into kegs for local sales. He established Invercargill Brewery in 1999 after returning from England and Western Europe with a real taste for quality brewed beers and found that none of the mainstream beers were up to scratch, so decided to set up his own brewery and show the locals what real beer is all about. And a dam fine job the fella has done, cos’ these beers are great! You get a real taste of a brewer’s passion in these beers and he talks about future brews heading into real fruity numbers, a crack at an Old Ale and making use of the surrounding quality Central Otago wineries with a possible Pinot Noir mix. Further plans are to brew his stout, ‘Pitch Black’ to 7%abv in line with the Bluff oyster season and market his superb Biman lager into smaller 330ml bottles to Indian and Thai restaurants which are the perfect food compliment to this beer. Anyway on with the tasting…
Wasp 4.2% A Manuka honey colour with a light though frothy head to give a ripe banana aroma which really came out in the flavour. The finish was crisp and dry with a light honey flick at the end. Styled on a German Kristal Weizen beer using both barley and wheat malt. It would go a treat with any light Italian dish that has a loads basil and parmesan. My mate Bob reckoned that this is the perfect ‘after mowing the lawns’ beer!
Biman 5.2% A rich teak coloured lager with great head retention. Fairly hoppy on the nose with malt and sweet barley sugar aromas which bought out a good hoppy flavour amongst some great citrus tropical fruits that you might taste in a Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc of lime, passionfruit and mango. The mango remained in the finish, again nice and dry ready for another quaff – what an absolute cracker of a beer which would of course go well with hot spicy food so you could spend a whole evening on the stuff!
Extra Special Bitter 4.7% A deep orange breakfast marmalade colour with a nice light brown head giving cherry and marmite aromas and not the weedy Kiwi marmite, instead the ‘full on, I’ve got the minerals’ English marmite (sorry to wave the St George’s flag there!). This is a great character of a well brewed ale and we mean an ALE which we just lapped up in the flavour. This fine crafted natural finish had a lovely lingering malt and barley finish. By the fire with a homemade cottage pie and a few of these ales – lovely!
Pitch Black 4.5% Not surprising, this is a black coloured brew with a smooth caramel coloured head. The aroma was a roasted coffee which really came out in the flavour along with a chocolate and malt, the latter following to the smokey finish. A classic premium malty stout to wash down a freshly baked chocolate brownie – nice! Regional Wines and Spirits are the only current suppliers of Invercargill Brewery beers in Wellington that I could find but it’s only a matter of time before you see this in the beer list at your favourite curry house – if not, start demanding it!