Craft beer goes off in small-town Methven
BY GEOFF GRIGGS
Relevant offers
Beer
Last Thursday I drove down to the sleepy Canterbury farming town of Methven at the invitation of Steve Ling, the owner-manager of the local supermarket. The purpose of my overnight visit was to present a tasting of New Zealand craft beers for his customers.
During my brief stay I learned that Methven's population is just 1460 – although, as the accommodation base for the neighbouring Mt Hutt skifields, that figure swells to around 6000 in winter. Needless to say at this time of year it's a pretty quiet place!
Methven may well be the smallest town in which I've conducted a beer tasting, but from what I saw its inhabitants certainly seem to be developing a taste for craft beer. With brews from Harrington's, Three Boys, Epic, Renaissance, Moa, Tuatara and Green Man vying for space in the chiller, the town's cramped SuperValue supermarket offers a selection that would shame many larger, big city, stores.
But why Methven? Why is craft beer "going off" in such a tiny rural town when many areas of the country with much larger populations are still craft beer deserts? I suspect the answer lies in the neighbouring skifields. My guess is that it was visiting skiers who first started asking for craft beers from the small Kiwi breweries.
Steve responded to such demand and started offering the beers and then it seems some of the locals started giving them a go.
Last week's tasting was held at a delicatessen cum restaurant adjacent to the supermarket and attracted around 40 people. With the exception of one man – a visiting wine lover from France – those present were all locals. One half of Methven's (two-man) police force was there and I later discovered that the town's second officer also wanted to come, but his wife had refused him permission.
For the tasting I selected 11 beers from seven New Zealand craft breweries; the range designed to offer a broad cross section of styles and to represent brewers from all around the country. The breweries included were Three Boys and Dux de Lux (both from Christchurch), Moa and Renaissance (both from Blenheim), Tuatara (Waikanae), Epic (Auckland) and Invercargill Brewery.
At the end of the tasting a show of hands revealed the preferred beers. In third place was the newly released Renaissance MPA 2009 (Marlborough Pale Ale). For the latest batch of this hefty New World IPA (8.5 per cent) the Blenheim brewers have ramped up the hop aroma and flavour. If you enjoy a hefty smack of New Zealand hops (these are the Rakau variety) in your beer, this limited-release beauty is a must-try.
In joint second place were two Christchurch-brewed beers, Dux de Lux Nor'wester and Three Boys Wheat. Named after the hot, dry winds that parch the Canterbury Plains each summer (but not when I visited), Nor'wester is made with a grist of six British and German malts, hops from both sides of the Pacific and an ale yeast sourced from Truman's of London.
Pouring an attractive orange marmalade hue beneath a tan head, Nor'wester's punchy aroma combines toffee, caramel, chocolate, smoke, dark fruit and citrusy hops. The palate is creamy and mouthfilling, with malt, fruit and resiny hops merging into a long, bittersweet finish.
Spiced with coriander seed in the usual manner of a cloudy Belgian white beer (witbier), Three Boys Wheat is flavoured with lemon peel rather than the more usual Curacao orange peel. This crisp, quenching, zesty brew was sampled first at the tasting because its restrained level of hop bitterness doesn't blunt the palate.
In first place was a beer I reviewed just a few weeks ago in this column, Three Boys Golden Ale. This delightful, crisp, aromatic, hoppy, summery brew may have headed the poll but New Zealand's craft brewers were the overall winners on the night. Well done Steve – and Methven!
Meanwhile Marlborough's Pink Elephant brewery has just released its annual Christmas seasonal brew, Humbug.
This malt-accented strong ale (7 per cent) pours an attractive russet hue and starts sweet, with toffee, nuts, chocolate, suggestions of several spices (most noticeably pepper and cloves) and warming alcohol in evidence. While there's little evidence of hop bitterness the beer's malt sweetness is balanced with an edge of tartness and the spicing, and the finish is dry.
At around $7.50 a bottle it's certainly not cheap, but don't be a scrooge, give it a try.
Cheers!
- The Marlborough Express
Newest First
Oldest First
