Research, tasty, tasty research

Now you cannot brew a good beer without first knowing what a good beer tastes like. Like a chef who doesn't like food, a brewer who does not like beer should not be a brewer. So since I like to have a pint after working a shift at the bar and we have 39 taps, I thought that trying a beer and writing some tasting notes and a little bit about each beer. As well as this I will try and write about slightly more obscure beers just to keep it interesting. Maybe you might like what you read and try it for yourself :)

So without further ado...
Beer #1 Invercargill brewery - Men n' skirts, Scottish Ale 7%

I picked up a bottle of this little beauty from Rumbles on Waring Taylor St in Wellington, it cost about $7 or so. I have tried this beer at the Matariki Winter Ale Festival the day before I went to Japan in June. It was by far my favorite beer of the day and it happened that I was volunteering at the food stand right next to it, so tried it a couple of times.

The beer pours a dark ruby colour, and has maltiness and port on the nose and almost a Belgium mouth feel. It has a full creamy mouth feel with tight bubbles.  It has a rich malt flavour with a highland whiskey flavour with subtle hints of peat. It has a lovely linger of rich smokey malt that has slight tarty notes with a little taste of cherry, I do not like cherry but it works, the cherry linger changes into a smokey flavour a few minutes later, lovely complexity in this. 

It tastes very different at the Matariki Beer festival whit it had been put through the same line as Rex Attitude (a 100% peat malt beer that I will defiantly write about soon!) and it gave this beer a lovely peaty flavour better suited to a darker beer like this rather than a golden ale. I love this beer maybe I should try mixing it with a bit of Rex Attitude next time.

Go out and give this one a go :)


I have my first Friday night shift in 90mins, should be an experience!

Andrew