Beer legend retires

Another great non-alcoholic beer. How Coronation Street's Ena Sharples "killed" milk stout. Football star Peter Crouch launches his own weird beer. Inside Sweden's Omnipollo. Mild all the rage...

Welcome, beer lovers, to another edition of Friday Night Beers in which we wrap up the news of the week, and present a raft of beer recommendations for your weekend pleasure.

For paid subscribers there’s a heap of great reading, including a fascinating look inside the new Omnipollo brewery in Sweden, football star Peter Crouch launches a weird beer and I’ve found a new favourite non-alcoholic beer that is truly stunning.

There’s some tangential connections between a few other stories: A tasting of all three of Cassels’ milk stouts (the original, double and triple) connects to the story of how Ena Sharples from Coronation Street “killed” milk stout as a style, which connects, via northern England, to the 95th birthday of Newcastle Brown Ale.

But first … if you’re in any doubt about the value of just $1 a week to subscribe to the full email:

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Beer legend David Cryer retires

David Cryer, who announced his retirement from Cryer Malt this week, was one of the earliest influences and supporters in my career as a beer writer. Back then, Cryer Malt was based in Eden Terrace, just down the road from where I worked at the Sunday Star-Times and it was in that location I had my first Tall Poppy from 8 Wired. David was a guiding hand in those early years and I owe him a lot for his inspiration and enthusiasm. He is probably more influential in the beer industry than many people understand. His imported malts in the 1990s certainly helped Richard Emerson in the early days of that brewery when he struggled to find the right ingredients in New Zealand. And through his ownership of Beervana, David really did bring beer to the people. We’ll have more about David’s amazing career in the upcoming August issue of Pursuit of Hoppiness.

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The Hype is Real

While I have the usual beers of the week, I have to share this with you as an aperitif, if you like. The picture is of Burke’s Brewing Unforgiven Porter, New Zealand’s champion beer as judged at last year’s NZ Beer Awards.

It’s taken me, unbelievably, 10 months to get my lips around this but when I saw it on tap at Hopper’s bar in Ponsonby last week I ordered it with that huge sense of anticipation you get when you’ve heard all these extraordinary reports but you’re unsure it’s going to live up to the hype. But it does. Trust me. What makes this so amazing is the perfect balance of sweetness, hint of char, light fruitiness, just-right bitterness, luxurious mouthfeel, dry finish. One element alone doesn’t stand out and instead it’s this quite subtle but ever-building layers of flavour. It’s a loveable, warm beer that comes with quite the backstory. Judging at this year’s NZ Beer Awards has just been completed and we will find out the results in two weeks.

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Beer of the week No 1

Hop Federation in Riwaka are building a nice set of seasonal beers; their Green Limousine Fresh Hop offering has been one of the best over the last couple of years and their wintry Imperial Stout was a standout last year. Their Kono Hazy Pale Ale beer first came out in 2020 to mark the sale of Hop Federation to Kono, the Maori food and beverage company. The change of ownership and sense of renewal was a perfect connection to Matariki and it’s great to see the beer popping up again at this time each year. It’s a gorgeously thick and generous hazy with all the requisite tropicana and a lick of sweet lime. It’s a big step up from the original version, with the ABV boosted from 4.7% to 5.5% which helps with that lush mouthfeel. It’s a really good hazy pale ale that delivers huge flavour.