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Last week the news media reported an overall drop in alcohol consumption in New Zealand for 2009. According to Statistics New Zealand, the total amount of alcohol produced for consumption last year fell by 3.1 per cent to 471 million litres.
Despite this, beer remains this country's most popular alcoholic beverage, accounting for 65 per cent of that total. Given our continuing love of beer I find it surprising that many Kiwis, even some discriminating craft beer drinkers, know so little about their tipple of choice. Especially when compared with wine. I'm sure most Kiwi wine lovers would know that merlot and sauvignon blanc are different grape varieties from which wines are made. But how many beer lovers know the ingredients of their favourite brew?
I'm not talking about having an in-depth knowledge of all the styles (there are over a hundred), let alone knowing the difference between ale and lager, which is as fundamental as the difference between red and white wines (but has nothing to do with colour): I'm referring to having a basic understanding of beer's core ingredients. Here's an example of what I'm talking about ...
Last weekend I was in Wellington with Blenheim brewer Soren Eriksen to present a series of tastings of aromatic New Zealand craft beers at Regional Wines and Spirits, the city's leading specialist beer retailer. Included in the tastings were two beers from Soren's hot new beer brand, 8 Wired.
On Saturday, while offering tastings, Soren was listing the ingredients of his beers when a customer asked: "So how do you grow crystal malt?" The customer, who is a regular craft beer buyer at the store, clearly had no idea how the different types of malt used to make beer are produced.
Many people think that beer is made with hops. While that's true, hops are just one ingredient, an aromatic seasoning that's used to flavour the beer and balance the sweetness of the malt. It is grain – in most cases malted barley – which contributes the sugar (on which the yeast feeds to produce alcohol) and is responsible for much of the beer's flavour as well as its colour, head and mouthfeel. By roasting malt in a kiln at increasing temperatures and for varying amounts of time, maltsters produce a range of different coloured malts which brewers then employ to adjust the hue, flavour and body of their beers. Lightly cured golden and amber malts give sweet, biscuity, caramelised and toffeeish flavours and a full mouthfeel, while small additions of darker malts deepen the colour and contribute nutty, toasty, chocolatey, coffeeish and dry, roasty flavours. The similarity with coffee is hardly surprising; dark malts are usually roasted in circular drums in much the same manner as coffee beans.
One of the standout beers at the Wellington tasting is an excellent example of what can be achieved when a brewer blends a range of different coloured malts. It also taught me a valuable lesson; never judge a beer too soon. The first release in the 8 Wired range, ReWired (5.7 per cent), is a brown ale in the modern hoppy American style, but featuring Kiwi hops. I first sampled it last November from the maturation tank (before kegging and bottling) just before it was released and my initial impressions weren't positive. I found the darker malts harsh and astringent, the hops overly blunt and bitter and, despite rave reviews from others, I thought it lacked sweetness and balance.
What a difference three months can make! Tasting the same beer last week was a revelation. The astringency from the darker malts has now softened, allowing their caramel and chocolate notes to come to the fore, while the bitterness has tempered to reveal some delightful herbal and citrusy hop notes. It seems some beers, like wines, can benefit enormously from a little bottle age. Brown ale is an exceptionally food-friendly style and ReWired will be a fine match for pretty much anything off the grill at a late-summer barbecue. Two thumbs up! Cheers!
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