The Garage Project

Welcome to Wellington!
We went to Wellington for the weekend, to see some friends and made a point of doing the whole Craft Beer Thing.
First up was lunch at The Malthouse, for the "Darkest Day". Had an EpIC Repocalypse. a Black IPA Collaboration with Fork and Brewer at 8.5%. All I can say is wow, Super Hop Flavour, with the patented Epic Late Hop additions. Pours Inkly black with REd hue.

Now onto the main Event, we spent the afternoon, at The garage Project, a brewery, who like to make very unique beers, they really push the boundaries of style.

The beers we tasted were:
California Uber Alles: Based off the Anchor Steam Beer with a Garage project difference, more hops etc.
Lil' Red Rye:  A Hoppy Red Ale, with Spicy Rye Malt

Sauvin Nauveau: A Grape Harvest Imperial Pilsner, using White wine grape Juice from this years grape harvest.
Pils 'n' Thrills: An American Hopped Pilsner, Big American Citrus Hops.
Aro Noir: A more hoppy version of a Stout.
Bourbon Barrel Aged Baltic Porter: A 10.5% Baltic Porter aged in Bourbon Barrels
Great beers with a twist.
Bought a Trip Hop, a new world bitter/Pale ale with Bold NZ Hops, Motueka, Pacifica, and Riwaka.

Sunday after some standard wellington Sight seeing, we took a trip to Goldings Free dive, for the Garage Project Tap take over, for one reason to drink this:

Heres my full review:
AROMA: American Citrus Hops. big bold and hoppy, with hints of Grapefruit etc. I get small hints of Mint and Chilli, but its very small.
APPEARANCE: Orange/Amber Colouyr with small lacing off white Head, Cealr to Brilliant, With some minor hop Haze
FLAVOUR: Major hops, Hint of Malt Background Complexity. Followed by a minty freshness, and Heated chilli. that reimains, a the bakc of the throat is some minty freshness and heat from the chillies.
OVERALL: WOW! What an amazing Beer, hoppy Spicy Minty, just wow, They only servied in Half Pints, because there was such a small amount.
if they ever make this again, I'll be buying in bulk..... lol.

Manawabrew WCIPA

Well, I thought I'd Post some notes from the brew he sent me. He sent me the recipe as well, which was interesting to note, so I could try and pick out the individual flavours.
Drank it on Sunday aftergetting back from a weekend away.
MANAWABREW WCIPA

APPEARANCE: Murky, Hazy Golden Brown, with small off White Head, plenty of Fizz for the Style. Murkiness, could be from the large hopping schedule, and Chill Haze. I think some kettle finings would have helped with the clarity.

AROMA: BOOM!!!!!!! Huge Citrus, passionfruit Aroma from the Citra Hops used. Just plain massive!! Cascade backs it up nicely.

FLAVOUR: Good Hop Flavour, especially when the beer warmed up to a better temperature. a tad boozy, but that'll be the high gravity and brown sugar. Minor Malt Background minimal caramel sweetness. Mainly Hops coming through.

OVERALL: Good Solid Beer. Hoppy and big, just like a WCIPA should be.
 for me , and this is only my opinion, as everyone has different tastes. My changes would be that I'd Keep the malt bill similar, swap the quantities of carapils and munich around.
hops wise, its pretty good, I'd add more late hops, from from 10  to 0, really smash the palate to pieces.

Check him out on manawabrew.wordpress.com some great information, recipes, and a general idea of what goes on in this guys brewing head. Cheers dude.

The End of the Universe "BAD WOLF"

Tasting the Bad Wolf Belgian IPA, gave a bottle  to the Mrs. as well.

BAD WOLF Belgian IPA - http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/new-belgium-belgo-269744/

Appearance: Golden Orange colour, with White/Off White Head. Very much the colour I'd expect from this beer, it seems similar based on the thread above. Much clearer than I thought it would be at this stage, however there is some chill haze

Aroma: After Pouring, and a quick whiff of the beer, I get a good solid solid Belgian Yeast aroma. Followed by a nice smell of grapefruit etc. from the amarillo. Aroma is not anywhere near as much as I'd like, but very pleasant.

Flavour: Minimal Malt Character, followed by a Biter Hop Character and yeast y character. The beer started out a too cold, and I couldn't taste alot, but once it warmed up a bit, I got a nice Grapefruit flavour, and maltiness came through a little bit more. aroma changes as well once it warms up.

Overall: All in all, a Nice Beer, Still Undercarbed, so it need a nother week or two for carbonation. Good Colour, thats something I wouldn't want to change, the malt balance needs to improve a tad, the honey malt they use in the recipe, would be a great start, but we can't get this in NZ. Overall, I think not the same beer as the recipe suggests.

Changes: 

- Different Yeast, I'd use 3522, Ardennes yeast, the fedback is that this yeast, doesn't hide the hop flavour so much, which is why I have a little trouble smelling and tasting, it kind of subdues it a bit. 

- I'd add a flameout addition into the mix, and probably remove the willamette hops, and add more cascade hops. Get some more aroma and flavour in there.

- Control my Temps better than I have been, This isn't far away, once i get the shed up and running.

- and lastly Fix my Water/Salts Additions, I used 12g of Calcium Sulphate, Which gives the beer alot more bitterness, some of the other beer guys in christchurch are working on this.

-