SOBA, Beervana light up the winter
BY GEOFF GRIGGS
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Beer
Most people associate beer festivals with the long hot days and warm evenings of summer. That's certainly a fine time to enjoy the refreshment provided by a cool wheat beer or golden lager, but the cold, dark days of winter are an equally ideal opportunity to delve into beer's richer flavoured and more sustaining styles.
This Saturday (26th June) New Zealand's dynamic consumer group the Society of Beer Advocates (SOBA) is hosting "a celebration of winter ales in the middle of winter" at the Boatshed on Wellington's waterfront.
Running from 2 to 8pm, the inaugural Matariki Winter Ale festival will feature a range of rare craft beers along with a selection of flavoursome home-cooked food. The beers include a cross-section of styles from some of New Zealand's more adventurous craft brewers, including the likes of Three Boys, Golden Bear, Yeastie Boys, Townshend, Mata and Moa. Several ales will be dispensed by handpump in the traditional English manner.
An appetising beer-friendly menu is being prepared by local beer and food matching expert Kieran Haslett-Moore and includes beef, mushroom and mild ale pie, chicken vindaloo, aloo gobi (potato and cauliflower) and bratwurst sausages.
Tickets to what's being billed as "the SOBA event of the year" are limited to just 250 and cost $25. Tickets include eight tokens that can each be redeemed for a glass of beer or a serving of food and are available from www.soba.org.nz and, if any are still unsold, at the Boatshed on the day.
Now is also the time for Kiwi beer lovers to start making plans for another trip to Wellington, for this year's Beervana. The last week in August will see the capital once again play host to the biggest week in the brewing industry's calendar with a full range of beer-related events.
Running in conjunction with the annual BrewNZ Awards, the week culminates in four sessions of beer tastings over two days at Wellington Town Hall. The Beervana tastings, which are on Friday 27th and Saturday 28th August, are a mecca for beer lovers, offering them a rare opportunity to sample up to 175 beers from around Australasia while rubbing shoulders with some of this country's top brewers.
Last year Beervana attracted around 3,500 people, double the previous year, so for 2010 capacity has been increased to cater for 4,800 visitors. In addition to sampling, Beervana will host a range of beer-related seminars and demonstrations of beer and food matching.
Visitors will also be able to join a shuttle bus tour of Wellington's historic beer sites and visit restaurants where top chefs will be competing to produce the best combinations of local food and New Zealand craft beers.
This year I'm particularly looking forward to an event entitled "Malt versus the Grape - the Tussle for the Table" where Kiwi chef Graham Brown will prepare a five-course dinner and each course will then be matched with a beer and a wine by expert representatives from the two industries. After sampling both combinations, diners will then be invited to vote for their preferred match.
Beer will be represented by Sam Calagione of America's award-winning Dogfish Head brewery. Once described as "the Robert de Niro of brewers" the Massachusetts born brewer is a voluble advocate of beer and food matching and is known to be a formidable debater. It promises to be a most entertaining evening.
Full details of all Beervana events and links to online ticketing are posted at www.beervana.co.nz.
Cheers!
- The Marlborough Express
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