Getting to know your beer

Tastings: Beer advocate Geoff Griggs, left, and Moa Beer brewer David Nicholls invite people to extend their knowledge and appreciation of beer at new monthly Beer Options nights

Beer aficionados who enjoyed comparing the ales at Saturday's Blues Brews and BBQs festival might consider more samplings at a monthly Beer Options night.

The concept is being launched tomorrow at the Moa Brewery Company's Jacksons Rd garden bar. Self-described "beer advocate" Geoff Griggs and Moa brewer David Nicholls are organising the Options nights and say craft beers have an increasing presence in New Zealand.

Extending people's understanding and appreciation of them is good for the industry – and certainly good for Marlborough, the men say.

In a region better known for its vineyards, local breweries include Moa, Pink Elephant and Renaissance. A Blenheim man brews 666 in Nelson and 8 Wired is an independent label brewed at Renaissance.

Many craft beers challenge New Zealanders' traditional concept of ale as a light, thirst-quenching beverage best enjoyed on hot summer days, Mr Grigg said. A few ales did fit that category but others didn't – and some beers weren't even fizzy, he said.

Teams of four to five people would be set up for Options nights and multi-choice answers would be issued with questions to help drinkers analyse the samples of beer served.

"As they answer the question, everybody learns that little more about the beer," said Mr Griggs.

Half of the samples will come from New Zealand breweries, the other half from overseas.

"I hope the overseas ones are fresh ones and not `off'," Mr Nicholls said. Beer, he explained, was nearly always best when it was poured fresh. "Ninety-nine per cent of beers get worse from the day they leave the brewery."

The oldest proven records of brewing can be dated to 6000 years ago in Sumeria, which included the ancient cities of Babylon and Ur.

Mr Grigg said one theory suggested beer was being brewed before humans were even making bread. "The fermentation was probably discovered by accident.

"Someone [probably] harvested some grains, left them in a pot; they got rained on and the grains started to ferment. Then someone drank it and thought, `oh, that's nice. Let's do that again!"'

The Options night starts at 7pm on Wednesday and thereafter at the same time on the first Wednesday of the month. Phone 5725146 for more information.

- The Marlborough Express

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