Beer thread
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Just a quick mention, been up Waikato visiting Whanau for a couple of days, and managed to find Bootleg Brewery..Not easy to find as it back of an old dairy factory, and no sign over door or anything. Anyway taproom/bar was closed etc, but the brewer happily unlocked and gave me a taste of a few beers. I brought a bloody tasty Belgian Blonde , APA, Hazy ,Pilsener and IPA. All tasted pretty good, and my bank account is actually want me to abuse the fella that introduced me t craft beers a few years back!

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@Dan54 said in Beer thread:
Just a quick mention, been up Waikato visiting Whanau for a couple of days, and managed to find Bootleg Brewery..Not easy to find as it back of an old dairy factory, and no sign over door or anything. Anyway taproom/bar was closed etc, but the brewer happily unlocked and gave me a taste of a few beers. I brought a bloody tasty Belgian Blonde , APA, Hazy ,Pilsener and IPA. All tasted pretty good, and my bank account is actually want me to abuse the fella that introduced me t craft beers a few years back!

I went there on a trip back to NZ last year for a friend's birthday, she's actually mates with the owners so we had an impromptu tour os well and after I bought a paddle they just kept bringing out beers for us to try so my NZ bank account didn't take too much of a hammering.
@Bovidae I've also been to Brewaucracy but it was a while back so I can't actually remember if I liked the beers or not.
@MN5 I haven't been to GodsOwn, will have to remember to give it a visit when I'm next back home.
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@Dan54 said in Beer thread:
Thing that I enjoy also going to these breweries is talking the brewers etc. They seem to all be of a mind and will happily recommend other breweries, and say how good their beers are. A real community, and something I enjoy.
Yeah that’s very noticeable.
Was in Queenstown over the weekend and went to Searchlight Brewery and Altitude Brewery. The girl was in charge of the itinerary on Sunday so that was nothing but vineyards which are also awesome in a different way. As we didn't hire a car on both occasions we walked a couple of km to each, made the beer taste more rewarding !
One of life’s joys is to get a tasting paddle and some fried chicken and chewing the fat with brewery folk. Outstanding fun. There is definitely a kinship there, the moment I mentioned we were from Wellington they raved about Garage Project, Parrot Dog and Panhead.
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OK, first taste of first All Grain brew by yours truly. 5L batch to just learn the ropes/process and probably still needs a week or two in the keg. Thanks to @nzzp's help, its drinkable....
Lovely aroma, nice and dry and drinkable but lacks a bit of flavour and body (know why - got water volumes & hopping wrong). ABV turned out to be around 5.2% once Vic the Dummy figured out the need to convert refractometer SG readings.
Just kegged another 5L's which tastes much much better with more body. Whole process much less complicated than it seems and I do like the way any sediment compacts which make kegging so much easier. Onward
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@Victor-Meldrew said in Beer thread:
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OK, first taste of first All Grain brew by yours truly. 5L batch to just learn the ropes/process and probably still needs a week or two in the keg. Thanks to @nzzp's help, its drinkable....
Lovely aroma, nice and dry and drinkable but lacks a bit of flavour and body (know why - got water volumes & hopping wrong). ABV turned out to be around 5.2% once Vic the Dummy figured out the need to convert refractometer SG readings.
Just kegged another 5L's which tastes much much better with more body. Whole process much less complicated than it seems and I do like the way any sediment compacts which make kegging so much easier. Onward
That is really great looking head.
( Probably only appropriate to say on this thread or when Australia are scoring rapid centuries in the Ashes )

Searchlight Brewery | Queenstown