I’ve read so much about this beer and wanted so much to try it for myself, so I was a little nervous opening it.
What if I don’t like it?
What if it’s all just hype?
I shouldn’t have worried.
Yesterday my order arrived from BeerRitz and there it was looking at me and saying, “You can open me now as all these other bottles need to rest. Look, they’ve got stuff floating in them, but I’m ready for you.”
This beer is exceptionally good.
It has a delightful runny honey fuelled backbone, sweet but not sickly, some homebaked bread roundness and a hopping that just goes on and on (and on and on), building and changing with each mouthful.
This is a New Zealand Pale Ale, brewed with four hop varieties from that region, you get by turns mango flesh sexiness, intense lime zest bitterness, super grapefruit pith dryness, a big sprig of resinous pine needles, crushed green hazelnuts, tamarind, peppercorns and even a hint of bay leaves.
I’m struggling to find the right words to describe how much I like this beer and that’s unlike me, so all I’ll say is that I’m going to stop writing about it and get on with drinking it.