Beer pioneer has mammoth taste
GEOFF GRIGGS
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Beer
This week's column was inspired by a series of beer and cheese tastings that were held last week in Wellington.
In the tastings, cheese expert and beer aficionado Kieran Haslett-Moore presented a series of cheeses matched with craft beers. A poll of the 100 or so people who attended resulted in a landslide victory for one of Marlborough's least publicised beers.
But first let's have a look at the winning cheese, which is made a little further south, close to Akaroa on Banks Peninsula. A rinded cheddar that's moulded into wheels and then wrapped in cloth and left to mature for up to three years, Barry's Bay Mature cheddar is probably New Zealand's finest example of a traditional English cheddar.
It is a true artisan product, Kieran says. "Due to the natural ageing of the wheels, the flavour varies significantly from rind to core. At the rind, the cheese displays a complex mix of earthy notes, bonfire smoke and sometimes even a radish-like sharpness. The core tends to be palate-coating, rich, savoury and creamy."
Having chosen a cheese with such a strong English heritage, Kieran looked in the same direction for his beer match. In 1990, a decade after migrating from England, Roger Pink started to brew commercially in Brightwater, near Nelson. Looking for an unusual but memorable name for his brewery, he combined his surname with the elephant, the trademark of the once-famous Fremlins brewery in his home town of Maidstone, Kent. Pink Elephant Brewery was born.
From day one, Pink brewed robust English-style ales, a bold move in a country where the beer drinkers were more used to sweet, fizzy lagers. Looking for a more discerning and open-minded clientele, he observed the growing interest in wine tourism and in 1996 shifted the brewery and opened a tasting room in Rapaura Rd, in the heart of Marlborough's wine country.
Inspired by favourable reviews and a raft of brewing awards, Pink gradually increased his beer range. But brewing up to 10 different styles while also welcoming visitors to the brewery proved too much for a one-man operation, and the tasting room was subsequently closed and the beer range rationalised.
Having relocated to a secluded spot across the Wairau River, Marlborough's oldest craft brewery is no longer open to the public. These days, Roger Pink concentrates on producing high-strength specialty beers and occasional short-run, limited-release, seasonal brews.
The brew that took top honours at the Wellington beer and cheese tasting was Pink Elephant Mammoth.
First brewed in January 1990, it is Marlborough's oldest beer, and the good news is that, as it approaches its 20th birthday, it tastes as good as ever.
Pouring the colour of Cola beneath a wispy, tan-coloured head, Mammoth offers a confected aroma of Mackintosh's toffee and berry fruit. In the mouth, sweet caramel and vinous fruit notes slowly give way to a rising, earthy hop bitterness and a lingering, tart finish.
For a 7 per cent beer, it is deceptively quaffable and, as those lucky Wellingtonians discovered, sublime when paired with a top-notch mature cheddar.
Cheers!
- The Marlborough Express
