Age-old tradition a winner
BY GEOFF GRIGGS
Relevant offers
Beer
Although it's probably the hottest trend in craft brewing worldwide at the moment, making and storing beer in wooden casks was once the norm.
The original reason for turning grains into beer and grapes into wine was to preserve a perishable seasonal food crop for later consumption and, in those early times, the standard vessels for storing bulk liquids were wooden casks. Today innovative craft brewers are looking to add complexity and interest to their beers not just with flavours from the wooden barrels, but also from what was previously stored in them.
In New Zealand it's hardly surprising that it's a brewery owned by a winery and located in the middle of a vineyard that's just about to launch a new range of cask-aged beers. That brewery is Blenheim's Moa Brewing Company.
With the family-owned Allan Scott winery just across the road, Moa is fortunate to have a ready supply of wine casks at its disposal. For a few years I've known that brewers David Nicholls and Josh Scott have been experimenting with barrel-ageing some of the brewery's stronger styles, so it was clearly only a matter of time before a new range of wood-aged beers emerged.
The new Moa Barrel Reserve series comprises three beers, each packaged in the brewery's distinctive 375ml bottles and presented under cork and capsule.
First up is Moa Five Hop Barrel Reserve (6.2 per cent). With its marmalade-like balance of toffeeish malt flavours and tangy, citrusy hops, the regular Five Hop Ale is already one of my favourite Kiwi interpretations of a strong English Pale Ale, but the wood-aged version is quite different. The new beer is blended from two casks, one a 900-litre puncheon and the other a 225-litre barrique. Both casks were almost new, having been used just once the puncheon for chardonnay and the barrique for pinot noir and the beer was allowed just two months in the wood.
The beer has picked up some delightful soft, oaky vanillins. While the intensity of the hop bitterness has receded considerably, the orangey hop flavours are still there along with the luscious sweet malts. The overall effect is softer and mellower than the unwooded version, but it's arguably a more complex beer and most enjoyable.
The second beer, Moa Imperial Stout Barrel Reserve (9.5 per cent), also spent two months in the same combination of barrique and puncheon, but this time the casks were much older and had previously contained only pinot noir. Made in the style of an Imperial Stout the "big daddy" of the stout family and fermented with a special, semi wild, hybrid yeast, there's plenty of the expected intense mocha and roast flavours, as well as a certain "funky" Belgian yeast influence, but the berry and cherry flavours from the wine are also evident and marry delightfully with the beer. The judges at this year's BrewNZ Beer Awards liked the beer so much they awarded it the best-in-class trophy in the wood-aged category.
The third beer, Moa St Joseph's Barrel Reserve (9.5 per cent), is a wood-aged version of the brewery's popular Belgian-style tripel. This time the beer was filled into an old barrel that had previously been used for gewurztraminer and given ten months in the cask. Here the intention was to complement the spicy vanilla and pepper notes produced by the Belgian abbey yeast (the Westmalle strain is used) with the spiciness of the gewurztraminer grapes.
The end result is a marvellous drink with the grape flavours obvious and combining beautifully with the sweet malt and spiciness of the beer. I haven't tried it yet but I'll bet the beer would be magical served with a fruity hard cheese like Jarlsberg or Emmental.
The new Moa Barrel Reserve range should be on the shelves within a week or so and will retail for around $9 for a 375ml bottle. Cheers!
There'll be an opportunity to sample the new Barrel Reserve beers at the Moa brewery during this Sunday's beer festival at the neighbouring Gibbs Vineyard Restaurant (just off Jackson's Road, Blenheim). Tickets to this annual celebration of Teutonic food, music and great beer cost $48 and are available from the restaurant, phone 035728048. The fun starts at noon and promises to be a great day.
- The Marlborough Express
