Beer - #364 - Moa - Pale Ale

This was on 'special' and so I dived right on in.  Drinking now a Moa Pale Ale.

In the giant 750ml bottle, this a 5% ABV beer, being around 150 calories a serve, and this bottle would be slightly less than 3 standard drink units in NZ.

Brewed by Moa Brewing Company this is in the Style of an  American Pale Ale, and they are in Blenheim, New Zealand

Moa Pale Ale is a New Zealand take on a popular North American beer style. Using

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famous Cascade and Nelson Sauvin hops, the dominant features in this beer are unique to New Zealand and the Moa bottle conditioned brewing method. Its hoppy strength displays powerful floral, citrus and tropical notes, and like its northern cousins is a beer best enjoyed just below room temperature. 

While the intensity of the typical Nelson hop bitterness is well presented in Moa Pale Ale, there are also luscious sweet malts and bright passion fruit flavours. Offering a heightened complexity, this exceptional beer displays flinty and mineralistic characters. Moa Pale Ale is best served at approximately 6˚C in a tulip glass.

A performance bottle, foil, cork, cage. Cork was difficult to get out! I need a drink after that effort.

Muted but lovely floral hop aroma.

Cloudy orange golden pour with a nice fluffy and lively head, less of the hops aroma in the glass.

 

Full carbonation, and a real burst of hops in this, not sour or overly bitter, just a pit intense and earthy like you'd be expecting.  I hope this mellows and flattens out more as it warms up, it's started well enough.

This is nice to drink, it really doesn't have any real peaks of dips, it's just pleasing and seems to be well balanced.

This is a great way for me to start a Saturday evening, this is easy drinking and palatable, but (and there is always a but) I don't know that you could session on this, or make an evening of it.

The pdubyah-o-meter rates this as 8 a of its things from the thing.  I have a kind of love hate with Moa, to in my head I do, and this is more towards the love, and that is a good thing. For all it loveliness though this really does lack a bit of body and strength in the palate.  Still think though this is a good beer.

The double dip review

1. Am I enjoying it? Yes.


2. Would I have another? I probably would, it's a nice performance bottle


3. Would I share with a friend on a porch and set the world to rights? Yes I probably would, I wouldn't however swig it from the bottle.

It was also a Bob Marley kind of afternoon

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFGgbT_VasI&w=420&h=315]

AMERICAN PALE ALE

American Pale Ales are light in color, ranging from golden to a light copper color. The style of this beer is defined by the American hops used. American hops typically have high bitterness and aroma.This is a perfect beer for big fare like grilled burgers or combination pizzas, as well as lighter fare like sushi and green salads.

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Beer - #250 - Moa - Ten Year Beer

Bit Excited to have a 2012 vintage Moa Ten Year Beer.  Brewed by Moa Brewing Company In the style of a  Sour/Wild Ale and they do that of course in Blenheim, New Zealand

Moa Ten Year Beer is a cherry lambic made in a uniquely traditional Belgium style. It is fermented as a tripel then poured into French oak puncheons with Marlborough cherries stuffed in the barrel. Wild yeast is added and it is left to slowly ferment and age over 10 months. The end product pours strawberry golden and has powerful aromas of cherries and dried herbs. The oak and cherries integrate over time and the base characters of banana and butterscotch are evident at the end of the palate. Moa Ten Year Beer is not as sour as traditional lambics and this complex style benefits from ten years of cellar aging.

750ml of a 10%% ABV beer, which is something like 6.2 standard drink units. Could also be 315 calories.

Presented in a Cork and Cage style, as is normal from Moa. But without the fancy foil that may have been on previous vintages.

So I've got to 250 with something a bit special, which means I still have my Epic Coffee and Fig Stout to have at a later date, and I am really looking forward to that.

Lovely Sour cheery aroma when the cork gently pops, goodly amount of carbonation,  Pours golden yellow brown, almost cloudy, which MrsPdubyah says is  "pretty", and she has no interest in beer at all!,   but without a head,  but fizzes away to itself in the glass. Aroma is dusky sour.

Sour in an odd way. Not a balanced sour but seems to be something chemical and unreal about it. Not sure what they've added to make this sweeter, but they could have used more.

I've had much more sour beers than this and they are fully in play with that. This is a good effort but it isn't a great effort. I will say that it's an incredibly ballsy effort and going out on a limb is always worth more kudos.

Having said that it's not great the end to end experience is pretty interesting. The colour and the aroma on the nose, the duskiness, and the wash of sourness as a underlying taste. However there isn't much tartness from the cherries, or much of chary at all in this, and then there isn't much carry, it's all pretty much front notes.

The pdubyah-o-meter, of course, random and arbitrary, a 7 , this is good but just that.  It's a very approachable beer for a sour, and  would stand a fairly robust food match, but it gets to be a bit tedious and that makes it a celebration or situation beer, and not for sharing or for sitting for a session with.

Lambics are wheat beers made with stale hops and fermented with wild yeasts and other microorganisms, traditionally only on the Senne Valley in and around Brussels. The most traditional of the fruit lambics are kriek (cherry) and framboise (raspberry). In modern times, peaches (peche), blackcurrants (cassis), grapes, as well as more exotic fruits are used. Traditional lambics are commonly denoted by the term "oud", which is a reference to "old-style", and these are the most sour. More commonly, though, lambics are sweetened to cut the intense acidity. Serve with sharp cheeses or pickled dishes, or use in the preparation of mussels.

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Beer - #125 - Moa - Five Hops

Brewed by Moa Brewing Company in the style of a  Premium Bitter/ESB  brewed in the Marlborough region , Blenheim, New Zealand

Premium! none of the riff-raff. All cage and Cork too , you get a premium delivery for such a small bottle 330ml of what is described on the label as a winter Ale of 6.2% ABV beer.

Moa Five Hop winter ale shows the unique signatures of traditional North European bottle conditioning. Displaying a Nelson-dominant hoppy nose with a subtle oak character leaving extra smooth and creamy, honeyed characters on the palate. A well-balanced companion to eastern style spiced foods. Traditionally served just below room temperature.

Nelson Dominant?  Moa Five Hop Winter Ale utilises pilsner, Vienna, Munich and crystal malts to produce a distinctive mouth feel and flavour. New Zealand grown B Saaz and Hallertau aroma hops are used.

To me this says "We have a few bags of a few things left over let's just chuck them in"

I have no idea why Moa beers carry a cachet of quality, taste, and remarkable, but I fall for it every time.

And back to earth this has nose-full of hops, which is somewhat re-assuring, it's well carbonated, carried a decent head, which tinges orange coloured. and is decent beer orange colour (they're not related I hope.)

The aroma portends a sour taste... here goes.... and ..... that's interesting. It's quite lovely, the hoppy combination is a bit of a joy, nothing that it going to shock you, and as a taste it's not at the extreme end of the scale.

I like beer, and although I enjoy the sweeter beers, getting back to a hoppy taste is something that makes me smile, and somehow resolve to have more of it. I'm entranced by this small bottle of apparent magic. It's quite mellow offers up a slight bittery finish and does not crease the brow with a difficult combination of things. It's alright by me.

After the sweeter Belgium beers this is a welcome and remarkable beer,  lots of tastes despite the apparent initial  lack of aroma, which arrives as it warms, and in that weird way matches the taste that you get.

This is good enough for an 8 on the pdubyah-o-meter, I could get carried away and say that it's as good as your money back, but it isn't. It's nice, very nice, nicely delivered, sense of occasion and does what it says. Impress your friends and get some, it'll  be expensive and you should have a stand-by or alternative to go to.

For me it leads me back to the hoppy beers... and when you start to think about the types of beer and how they fit on sliding scale should bring joy to the heart.

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Beer- #71 - Moa Imperial Stout

Woo Hoo - Moa Imperial Stout, custom bottle, cork, cage, all happening in a 375Ml of 10.2% ABV bottle of beer.

Brewed by Moa Brewing Company - Blenheim, New Zealand And this is the style of an Imperial Stout.

"Moa Imperial Stout Barrel Reserve is a very strong, upfront and rich offering of this famous Moa style. Aged in oak Pinot Noir barrels, this beer not only displays coffee and mocha characters but also some sweet and savory notes unique to Moa Imperial. This award winning Stout is seasonally produced and available for short periods each year. " They said

So at 10.2% ABV this isn't a quaffing beer, unless quaffing means something else that I'm not aware of.

I'd hate for there to be a unsightly accident if the cork flew out of this, and despite my trepidation it came out with barely a whimper.

Pours dark and rich, lots of fizz from the carbonation, and I get an Aniseed aroma. There's a bit of a mish mash of taste in it, nothing overt or leading, and teasing mouthfeel as you reach for the taste description.

There is a richness of taste in this, but as much as I'd like I can't get the coffee or mocha, but I do understand the tannin like thing going on. There's even some spice or fruit, it's not getting worse the longer it's in the glass.

The pdubyah-o-meter needs a little tap on the dial to make it move, and it arbitrarily and reluctantly gets to a 5 arbitrary things from 10.

The Stout market is well served with some very very good offerings, and I'd love to say that this was one of them. The presentation is magnificent, and you could get the impression that they're hoping that appearance counts for a bit. Sadly the contents don't appear to be able to reach the same wonderment that the packaging promises. Shame that.

If you're wanting to show off  to mates then this is for you, if you actually want a good Stout then perhaps give this a bit of a miss.

I'm sipping this (I told you it wasn't quaffing beer) watching some sport, and having a bit of Kaimai Creamy Blue, from Waharoa. It says it's a Buttery velvet mild peppery cheese. It's not. I think this is a tad long in the package and is almost bland and unpleasant.  The crackers are nice though.

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Beer - #47 - The Moa Methode

The time has come the walrus said.... to get into this 1.5Litre bottle of Moa Methode. It's 5.5%ABV and that makes the whole mission about 6 standard drinks and a stagger.

This then is as brewed by the Moa Brewing Company, in the style of a Pilsener, and hails from Blenheim, New Zealand

A German Pilsner - expecting Citrus and Hops. Might have bitten off more than I can chew, but who can resist a bottle that is bigger than you arm!

And frankly this has been in the fridge for far too long and I could make a million reasons I haven't drunk it year and all that but today is the day

And I poured myself an ice-cream! a Half and half. So I found a beer that I can pour with a head. At least it settles down with a fine lacing.

I'm sure If I could hold the bottle and glass I could pour a beer with a more acceptable head, as the bottle gets lighter I might get better, however the trade off might be that I get less steady of the hand.

So did I get the citrus hops? Yes I did. I also got a hazy golden pour of beer, with is pleasing to my little eye.

The taste is somewhat coloured by the hops, it has that rasp that you'd expect at a low end of the scale, some people might be put off by it, and I do get an earthy aroma, mostly from the fluffy white head which is still there despite my efforts to drink through it.

I had this with some of  the "Over the Moon - Triple Cream Brie" (which I just notices has a per Kg price of $76.00, I'm in the wrong industry), and I'm pretty much enjoying myself. I should write about the cheese, which is about as close to perfect. I'd sway towards a Camembert normally but challenged myself to a Brie. And you know what, pay a little more for the cheese and enjoy it a lot more.

The pdubyah-o-meter is needed to provide the usual arbitrariness of things, and on the scale this is about 8.5 from 10 arbitrary things. This isn't an offensive beer, it's not a front runner beer, it's a very fine pilsner beer. It carries itself well and it's consistent in it's taste. Of all their fine beers If you can find it I recommend the Moa St Josephs, which surprise to no-one is a Belgium style Tripel

I've not a lot to compare this too, from my very unreliable memory there are more pale ale and wheat beer types of beer than pilsner beers in the list so far, which is not to say that I've never had reason to talk about them, just not here.

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