Beer #187 - Invercargill - Wasp Honey Pilsner

Ok in for one Honey beer in for two - part he second  - an Invercargill - Wasp Honey Pilsner - Brewed by Invercargill Brewery in the style of a Golden Ale/Blond Ale in Invercargill, New Zealand.

This a 330ml bottle of a 4.9% ABV beer, and that's about 1.2 standard drinks, and at 16 IBU which is low by most measures of IBU more a Scottish Ale.
We’ve blended four malts and two hops with kamahi bush honey to craft an authentic taste of New Zealand... the perfect anytime beer. A New Zealand Pilsner that’s been inspired by Nature’s Raider. A great summer thirst quencher featuring Kamahi Honey, the bee-blended taste of Catlins Forest Park. Best served chilled.

Pouring a rich golden hue beneath a wispy white head, Wasp has a sweetish aroma and palate combining biscuity malt, caramel and floral honey. Medium-bodied, with a spritzy mouthfeel and lingering vanilla note that remind me of creaming soda, the beer finishes crisply with an edge of citrusy tartness from the hops.



So they talk it up a bit.

and I know I bang on a bit about head and lack of but I lost about 35% of this beer to over carbonation and a much livelier beer than should be allowed.

And I coughed and spluttered up truing to neck the foam. What an interactive beer this is!

and yes that's 66% head over beer, which isn't what you'd expect.

So It's settles to a murky golden colour that I'm now dubious of, there is a bitter aroma that reminds me of Belgium or Wheat beer, which I like though. The head thankfully has stopped looking like an ice-cream and settled back to being normal.

So the taste, which I actually sort of  like, and is nothing like I was expecting. There defiantly in honey in this but's it's a musty kind of taste. So to clarify that :  It's a taste that I wasn't expecting but am enjoying, and second the musty taste that I'm getting is part of the thing I like, but it's not what I'm expecting to have as the way this beer is described.

Almost as confusing at 66% head of beer.

So the pdubyah-o-meter is having a confusion.  Label says Pilsner, Web Site says Golden or Blonde Ale, tastes like a Wheat or Belgium beer. The heck. This is a beer that could put you seriously wrong in your thinking. I notice too that in various reviews that the ABV content wanders around like a lost person in a mall

So this is a confusion in a bottle, is it a Pilsner, Golden or Wheat beer? And for that reason it scrapes a 5 despite it having a taste that I'm not unhappy with. Or I am unhappy with as described. That and that wandering ABV.

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• Beer - #177 - Invercargill - B.Man Pilsner (pdubyah.com)

Beer - #177 - Invercargill - B.Man Pilsner

Somewhat oddly named b.man is a really smartly presented 330ml bottle of a 5.2% ABV beer (thats about 1.3 standard drinks) with an IBU of 42 making it near the high end for a Pilsner.

Brewed by Invercargill Brewery in the style of a  Pilsener and that's of course in Invercargill, New Zealand

One of this country’s finest aromatic Pilsners and a showcase for New Zealand’s uniquely herbaceous hop varieties, B.Man pours an attractive bright gold beneath a lingering fluffy white head. In both the aroma and palate biscuity sweet malt provides the luscious canvas on which the hops play and their citrusy and tropical (passion) fruit flavours lead into an emphatic, resiny, dry finish. Lip-smackingly good and the perfect match for a hot Thai curry!

Pungent hops on opening. Rich orange golden colour, with a very lively head of fluffy white, and it retains the hoppy aroma.

It's quite sharp as a drink, dry on the palate, the abundance of hops adds a nice bitterness, You can tell why it's won awards. You get the citrusy flavour too, all very neatly delivered.

The pdubyah-o-meter says easily 8.25 making it very good but not quite great. I'm glad that I chose to only have the one beer today and that it was this one that came out first. From the colour, to the aroma, the head and the lacing, this was a pretty nice beer to experience. I bet it's cracking with a Thai curry as suggested.

I don't however think I'd enjoy this as a session beer though, the flavours are all pretty crammed together in one package, it's not a drink of many layers, it does what it says it does, very well, but that's all it does. There isn't a journey and an unfolding of taste. Again you can tell why it won awards.

Beer – #85 – Yeastie Boys – Pot Kettle Black

Yeastie Boys – Pot Kettle Black - a recommendation! This one is in the style of a Porter / American Porter

The Yeastie Boys brew at the Invercargill Brewery, and for this they did it in the style of a Porter. In a 330ml bottle containing a 6% ABV beer. And having been recommended I have a big expectation.

Pot Kettle Black’ is an unusually hoppy rich and robust porter balancing the delectable dark malt flavours of traditional porter with fruity hop characteristics usually associated with modern craft pale ales. The result is a rare beer indeed: moreish, nutritious and delicious.

Pours dark, I wouldn't say black, but it's dark alright, There's not a big aroma, and less of a head. What aroma there is, is a toasted note. 'k I get chocolates, and a fruit flavour, and a burst of carbonation. Bit of a dance.

I find this though a bit "thin" on taste and body. There are lot of crowd scene flavours in the background but nothing that takes a centre stage on the palate. Nothing that appeals to me. Nothing that makes me frown though.

In pdubyah world there is beer you drink and beer you enjoy. I enjoy a lot of different beers, some of which are very drinkable.  This sits somewhere in-between, that confusing place between this is a beer I'm drinking but I'm not enjoying, but that it's not unpleasant. It's not just for me. Not a second time anyway

For that thought this is competent and the pdubyah-o-meter, in it's arbitrary way gets to a solid 7 things from a thing. Does not set a benchmark, the house on fire, the tone. I Think that there is a  mélange of things going on all of which add up to a sum of less than the parts.

I'd like to add that this is a "porter" and I've been struggling with that genre for a bit, and so my confusion might be just my confusion and not a reflection of this as a porter.

Beer - #81 - Yeastie Boys - Gunnamatta IPA

There they go again, the Yeastie Boys -This time with the Yeastie Boys Gunnamatta IPA, Brewed at the Invercargill Brewery, and this one is a Spice/Herb/Vegetable beer.

"A new world India Pale Ale with subtle grapefruit and lemon hop flavours intermingling amongst the explosive bergamot orange and leafy aromatics of the ‘Earl Grey Blue Flower’ English tea.

Inspired by the instrumental surf rock opening track of Paul Kelly’s 2004 album ‘Ways and Means’. as Paul Kelly says himself: "Deeper water, leading me on..."

cripes... 330ml of a 6/5% People’s Choice Winner at Great Australasian Beer SpecTAPular 2012 beer, that's talking it up a bit don't you think?

After the day I had this could be a panacea and good for what ails me. And opening was a surprise and the contents so keen to see the light of day came forth.... all over the table. Pale and golden, nice frothy head (given the excitable nature I'd expect nothing less), but leaves no lacing in the glass.

This is a very aromatic on the palate beer, floral, almost violet, and there is some lemon, and on top of a nice mellow malt, and a background of  the astringent.  A mixed bag really. It does a good job at providing a distraction for my day just past. This is unusual as a beer, it has a nice mouthfeel, and the right carbonation, and presents itself as a respectable thing. I like it.

The pdubyah-o-meter rates this as an easy 8.5 arbitrary things, and I'm smiling because you actually never know what it is you're getting until you get it. I don't get why it's an IPA though, there is some more research that I need to make before making bold claims like that, but I guess it has to sit somewhere on the scale of things.

A nice little beer, in a nicely presented bottle, from those nice people at Yeastie boys, and thank you to the nice man at Liquorland who never ceases to amaze me with his ability to stock such a great range of beer.  Surf's up!

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