Beer - #256 - Garage Project - Trip Hop

Sunday brings with it a Garage Project - Trip Hop - Brewed by Garage Project in the Style of an India Pale Ale (IPA), and of course they're in Wellington, New Zealand

The brewer says - "We love NZ Hops. How much? Here’s how much. Triple hopped with, Pacificica, Motueka and Riwaka hops in increasingly lavish quantities throughout the boil, Trip Hop’s bitter but (we hope) balanced on a malt base of pale, Carahelles, Vienna and Caraaroma. Rich amber red and redolent of the Nelson hop fields. Think easy drinking for resin heads and pucker up."

So stand by for bitterness from this a 650ml (22 Fl Oz) bottle of a 5.6% ABV beer. which is all of 2.9 standard drink units in NZ, and my guesstimate is around 300 calories in this bottle.

Of course a bitter aroma on opening, lots of the grass, but also other things.

Pours with a really lively head of fluffy bubbles, but they recede a bit to something more normal, and has a bitter aroma that I'm not familiar with, but which isn't unpleasant.

Plenty Floral things going on and there is a fair crack of malt sweetness to asset with the drinking.

This, to me, is more an English style bitter, for the reason that although you get an idea that the brewer wanted hops to be the thing they've run off and hidden themselves quietly and unobtrusively in the background.

A soft easy drinking beer, hardly a classic or one for the scarp-book from Garage Project, who's output any sane man would have trouble keeping up with.

The pdubyah-o-meter says that this would be 6 and one half on the random scale of arbitrary , making this an average beer in the scheme of things. Hey if you were out and someone wanted to 'try' a bitter her this might be the thing that you could get them by way of introduction.

To me however, to finish, I think this is a little thin and without a lot of depth and carry. I think that the hop aroma is pleasant, and the bunch of grass and flora notes that are delivered are pleasant and fulfilling. But it might be too sweet, and too soft. Not one for the scrap-book.

For background today,  the cricket plays to itself on the teevee and  Hooverphonic do their grooving on the music machine, accompanied by the drone of late afternoon lawn mowing somewhere in the distance. It could be a lot worse.

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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