Beer - #580 - Altitude - Posturing Professional Pale Ale

It's time for the Altitude Brewing Posturing Professional Pale Ale.

Posturing, Posing, Pondering and Sports!

Named in honor of the ego driven montain professionals that we so often meet. Quality session ale that goes down a treat. Hey that rhymes!!

This is the 500ml bottle of a 5% ABV beer, making it 150 calories a serve,  rounded out with it being 37 IBU things and 1.97 standard drink units.

Brewed by Altitude Brewing Studio in the style that is  English Pale Ale and they are the magnificent Queenstown, New Zealand

Dedicated, and named, for the posturing mountain professionals the world over, that feel they are the pinnacle of human evolution. The Posturing Professional is a New Zealand pale ale that is intended as a flavourful session beer.

[caption id="attachment_10830" align="alignleft" width="300"] Game (Watching) Face[/caption]

Best enjoyed after a hard day on one of our alpine playgrounds, it is designed with New Zealand’s brewing heritage in mind. The flavours are a salute to our brewing forefathers and their innovations that lead to the Kiwi artisan beer culture.

Using New Zealand malts and old school New Zealand hops, the finished beer delivers a dry palate with clean spiciness and a bit of sweet lemon and honey. The nose has notes of citrus and cut grass.

What then could be wrong with that?

Soft hop aroma on opening. Cloudy looking dull orange pour with not much by way of head, which sits on top like a forlorn thing. Aroma in glass might be more orange.

Lightly bitter but quite a dense beer, slightly fruity but not overly.

Quite a strong hop roughness in this, and it has a much dryer finish than you might expect from the way profile is pretty much front forward.

I have to say also that this still looks cloudy as a beer, slightly unusual, and I'm not sure that I'm not confused by it, it's not a look that immediately reassures you that all is well.

But is sees to be, there is no obvious problems.

One of those beers that you have an in your head expectation, and this is slightly different to what I thought, much more hoppy, less malts, and dryer to be precise.

Should it put you off though? I can imagine having this with the recently BBQ meat things, or even with an indian Curry, or just with bar snacks. It is a reasonably neutral beer in that sense.

The pdubyah-o-meter rates this as 7 a of its things from the thing. It's not bad really, it fits many bills, and delivers like it says it should. All commendable. It is however slightly odd looking, not unusual lot have cloudy beers, it's just I wasn't expecting it.

I wouldn't suggest that this was a 'session' beer either that really would be a bit of a stretch, if they could figure out how to lower the ABV a notch and maintain the flavour it'd be a right winner.

The double dip review

1. Am I enjoying it? It's nice for a Sunday Starter.


2. Would I have another? I think it's a good platform to move on from.


3. Would I share with a friend on a porch and set the world to rights? Possibly if they were on BBQ duty I'd turn up with a couple, it's a good enough beer to share and unusual enough to be a talking point.

The music today was the sounds of ball on willow, V6 turbo charged engines and Football songs, as it was a big afternoon of sportings on the Televisual device. I could have ours just said, The Cricket World Cup One Day International Final - New Zealand playing Australia, in the Football the table topping  Wellington Phoenix  (NZ) are playing Sydney FC (Aus), and in the Formula One there isn't a New Zealander but there is an Aussie Daniel Ricciardo racing for Red Bull, and of course you all know that the McLaren cars were originally a New Zealand thing, Founded in 1963 by New Zealander Bruce McLaren.

ENGLISH PALE ALE

Classic English Pale Ales are not pale but rather are golden to copper colored and display English variety hop character. Distinguishing characteristics are dryness and defined hop taste, but more malt balance than what youll typically find in an American Pale Ale. Great to drink with all sorts of meats including roast beef, lamb, burgers, duck, goose, etc. Note that the term pale ale is used in England to signify a bottled bitter, and in that way there is no such thing as English Pale Ale to the English. The style is a North American construct, borne of the multitude of pale ales that pay homage to these bottled bitters – Bass in particular – and therefore the majority of true examples of the style are found outside Britain.

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Beer - #565 - Altitude - The Goldpanners Profit

The Goldpanners Profit.

Golden beer, golden voice, golden numbers and going for gold.

Clean, crisp lager. Perfect thirst quencher and oh so sessionable!

500 ml of a beer that is 4.6% ABV and 136 calories a serve size, so 1.81 standard drinks in this one, as well as a low 13 IBU things.

Brewed by Altitude Brewing Studio in the style that is  Golden Ale/Blond Ale and this all happens in the magnificent Queenstown, New Zealand

Named after the gold rush of the 1860s and the iconic first locals that settled Queenstown; the Goldpanners Profit is a brew we at Altitude are proud of.

[caption id="attachment_10683" align="alignleft" width="300"] Beer for an endless summer[/caption]

Brewed like all our beers, with all New Zealand ingredients, the Goldpanners Profit is designed around a flavour packed, silky malt profile.

This gives the beer an honest, refreshing and characterful flavour with a very dry finish and velvety mouth-feel.

Pale gold in the glass, it has been subtly hopped to give a very light bitterness on the palate and a pleasing nose of summer fruits.

What could go wrong? Call me odd but I get some kind of passionfruit thing going on on the aroma, it's quite sweet.

Definitely passion fruit. pale golden in the glass. No head to speak of.

Bitterness is light, and the finish is tangy, except the middle might be missing in action.

So then, a refreshing if somewhat bitterness dominated slightly fruit based crisp golden beer.

Being fair though this does have a nice middle, it isn't thin at all, the malt warm up and rounds off quite a nice drinking beer. But it's nothing special. Sure it has a lovely aroma, and does warm into itself.

What you get then is a nice easy drinking beer that requires little attention or thought to drink, the bitterness is pleasant, and beer sweet enough to sip or quaff. Ideal really for sitting in the late summer sun and telling stories.

I'd be right at home in a beer garden with this for the duration. call me when dinner is ready.

The pdubyah-o-meter rates this as 7.5 a of its things from the thing.

The double dip review

1. Am I enjoying it? It starts off a bit brash but warms into itself.


2. Would I have another? I would, it ticks a few of the right boxes for having a few of


3. Would I share with a friend on a porch and set the world to rights? This should make a pleasing session ale, it's not spectacular or difficult it is well behaved non intrusive and that sometimes is a good thing.

Riiight ....  The Bees,  (known in the United States as A Band of Bees) are an English band from Ventnor on the Isle of Wight. Isle of Wight, couple of lapss of that to resolve the America's Cup back in the day, and the are a bit of Indie rock, Psychedelic rock and SKA thrown together.

This is "The Stand"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KD3uw5UQ8Q

GOLDEN ALE/BLOND ALE

There are a few different types of blond ale. The first is the traditional “Canadian Ale”, an adjunct-laden, macrobrewed, top-fermented equivalent of the American Standard. The second is common in US brewpubs – a light starter ale, with marginally more hop and body than a macrobrew, fewer adjuncts, but still not a flavourful beer by any means. The British interpretation is easily the boldest, hoppiest blond ale rendition. Some of these can almost be considered American Pales they are so hopped up – very crisp, refreshing, with relatively low alcohol compared with their North American counterparts.

Beer - #555 - Altitude - Mischievous Kea

Altitude, Attitude, Aptitude and a good old party.

Hoppy yet balanced all NZ IPA.We give away a portion of profits from this beer to the kea conservation trust.

This is a 500ml bottle, and it has beer of  5.5% ABV and 58 IBU things, so 2.17 standard drinks, and around 220 calories in the bottle.

Brewed by Altitude Brewing Studio this on is in the style that is India Pale Ale (IPA) and they are in the very picturesque Queenstown, New Zealand

[caption id="attachment_10559" align="alignleft" width="300"] Mischievous you say?[/caption]

Much like the parrot that this brew is named after, the mischievous kea is a uniquely Kiwi brew with a cheeky attitude that separates it from all others.

Brewed using all Kiwi ingredients, it is packed with a carefully chosen blend of Malborough hops, that gives us the vibrant and fragrant IPA style with a tropical sweet citrus twist.

The malts are all sourced from the Canterbury plains and are purposely selected and mashed to balance the vibrant hop profile, with a toasty malty sweetness that gives the brew a rich full body.

So what could go wrong?

Not as strong an aroma as I'd expected, but a nice 'hiss'. Aroma is vaguely floral.

This is al of the 56 IBU things and tarty and sharply bitter. Despite that though there is a resounding and strong maltiness about this that fills it's boots nicely.

That though just adds a twist and makes this sharply bitter beer with a strong over-malted back, and leaves it with an oily bothersome coated tongue linger. No pleasing some people.

So I find myself not overly keen on this, which for an IPA surprises me, Not enjoying the aggressive front bitter hops, and the malt is perhaps a tad much.

It does look fantastic in the glass though, rich brown orange with a brilliant white head that is persistent and enjoyable. Looks a picture in the glass.

The pdubyah-o-meter rates this as 7.5  random things of its things from the thing.  If I had enjoyed it more I'd mark it higher, but it's as I drink it. I'm not sure I'm too far off the mark with the descriptions and experience, although this profile does appeal to some. Plus and let's not forget that this is a solid effort of the style, and would find a wider audience, and appreciation. I'm talking myself into liking it more as I drink it and would love to find it on tap in a pub somewhere, I should travel more perhaps I would.

The double dip review

1. Am I enjoying it? I'm not enthusiastic.


2. Would I have another? I would because it has most of the right things in the right place.


3. Would I share with a friend on a porch and set the world to rights? I might, because it has a cracking back-story and it is different as IPA's go in a field where there are a bazillion IPA beers.  Plus it looks great.

So I'm listening to a group called " Mountain Goats" and a rather splendid song "Best Ever Death Metal Band In Denton"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fKcROeuvCI

It is not death metal, all produced or any of those things, but it's just a really good set of lyrics that paint a picture and engage your thinking in a really good way. Go on treat yourself for 3 minutes.

INDIA PALE ALE & IPA

India Pale Ale gets its name and unique style from British brewers who were making beer for export to India. This style has an intense hop flavor which was used to preserve the beer for the long voyage. India Pale Ale has a golden to copper color with a medium maltiness and body. The aroma is moderate to very strong. IPAs work especially well at cutting the heat of chili, vindaloo or Sichuan cuisine.