Farmhouse Lager?

Moa Brewing Company is doing an interesting thing up in Marlborough (The epicenter of New Zealand's wine culture). It was founded by the son of a wine making family, who was himself full of wine making knowledge. Moa bottle conditions their beer (adds sugar and yeast to the beer before putting it in bottles, thus allowing carbonation to build in the sealed bottles), but they bottle condition with wine yeast. What this does to their beers is quite interesting. Their three flagship beers, Original, Noir, and Blanc all have a yeasty funkiness to them. This is something common in belgian beers, which are all bottle conditioned, but the Moa funk is quite unique.

It is my expert opinion that this interesting use of bottle conditioning with wine yeast in their Original means they have created a new style of beer. I call it Farmhouse Lager, as the beer is made like a lager but demonstrates a lot of the belgian farmhouse qualities that I mentioned in my review of the Original. I will post my beeradvocate reviews of the Blanc and Noir bellow. Again, the complexity of the beer has lent itself to rather lengthy reviews so they are posted as written on the site:

Moa Noir:

375 ml bottle poured into a glass mug.

A: Deep mahogany with a one and a half inch tan head. Leaves lacing down the glass.

S: Sour funk takes a back seat on this one. Darker malts take the lead, lending both a roasted coffee like quality to the nose, and a sweet dark fruit and vanilla quality.

T: Again sourdough yeast is there but not upfront. Roasted bitterness and malty sweetness dominate. Coffee comes through as well. Yeast is there but only around the edges.

M: Medium body with crisp carbonation. Finish is clean but not as dry as the original and blanc.

D: The carbonation on these beers makes them awesomely drinkable.

Moa Blanc:

375 ml bottle poured into a glass mug.

A: Pours a hazy straw with one and a half inch white head and lots of carbonation rising from the bottom of the glass. Leaves some lacing down the glass.

S: Starts out with a lot of sour funk from the yeast. Followed by some fresh cut grass hay like notes. As the beer warms banana and coriander come through.

T: Raw grain, spicy hops, sour yeast. Finishes with a but of sweetness.

M: Crisp carbonation punctuates a lightish body. Wheat definitely comes through on the mouthfeel, lending to a dry finish.

D: Very nice. I like the house wine yeast funk that the two moa beers I have had so far feature quite prominently. The blanc was a bit less complex and lighter than the original but that almost makes it more drinkable.

In the land of giants (thoughts on being a midget)

Someone should have told me that New Zealanders are giant people. I may have not gone on this adventure if I knew that my pride would be damaged every time i left the house. But seriously, people here are really tall. Guys are tall, girls are tall, children are tall, old men and women are tall. It is to such an extreme that the other day when I was going shoe shopping (for a pair of leather boots) I was told, in reference to a pair of boots that were much too big on me, "those are the smallest size in the country, we couldn't even order a pair that would fit you". Shortly thereafter i did manage to find a pair of sweet boots that fit me, but they were the smallest size that store had available.

Shoveling

I don't know why I haven't posted about this activity yet, but it is something I have done twice at the brewery and which I quite enjoy. The activity is shoveling spent grain from the lauter tun (vessel where sugar is rinsed from the barley which has just come from a process called mashing. A process in which long chain starches are reduced by several enzymes into sugar) into bins to be collected by a farmer to feed to his pigs.

What this entails is putting on rubber boots, climbing into a big metal vat and shoveling the spent grain with a large shovel. The process takes about thirty minutes.

Why? you might be asking yourself, would a college graduate enjoy work so menial. For three reasons. First and foremost it is warm, and in a country where a lot of the buildings (my house) are not insulated and don't have central heating (my house again) and where (in dunedin at least) the cold is a nasty penetrating damp sort of cold, being warm, genuinely warm, is a rare thing. Secondly, it smells amazing. Maybe it is some baser part of my brain, the part that instinctually yearns for carbs, but the smell of baked bread and cooked oatmeal which rises off the warm bed of grains is pretty awesome. And finally, it is good exercise and makes me feel useful.

Anyways, this is probably something I will do frequently and i look forward to it.

Moa Original

I should probably reveal now that I review all of the beers I have been drinking three times. First in he journal I am keeping, then on the website beeradvocate, then on my blog. Usual my beeradvocate reviews are aimed more at precision and thus not verbose enough to warrant a blog post. However today I tried a beer which inspired me to write a beeradvocate lengthy enough to post here. So here it is:


I would like to preface this review by saying that this beer in a lot of respects reminds me more of a saison than a pils. I am sure the ingredients and process are consistent with that of a pilsner but the bottle conditioning and resulting residual yeast give it a nose and taste more consistent with a saison.

A: Pours an appealing semi-clear gold with a massive fluffy white head and lots of bubbling from the bottom of the glass. Leaves nices lacing down the glass.

S: This is where the saison thing starts happening. Spicy hops and fresh cut grass are the first thing I noticed. Underlying that first layer is a lemon citrus bite. There was also a decent dose of yeasty sourness, an unexpected but pleasant surprise. On final whiff, as the beer warms, there is a bit of coriander.

T: Hop bitterness and spice are most predominant flavor balanced by a raw grain backbone and some sourdough yeast (particularly after I emptied the bottle)

M: Medium to light body with crisp carbonation and clean finish.

D: This would be perfect for a hot summer day BUT even on this cold, late-fall (in new zealand) night it was an easy drink.

Nice palate cleanser after a dinner of frittata and toast.

Nature

I went on a nature excursion on sunday. It was exciting to go on my first outdoors adventure in this country known for its outdoor experiences. Day was a bit overcast but a drastic improvement over the constant rain of the two previous days. After a pleasant twenty minute van ride from the visitor's center, where I was picked up by the tour company, through the otago peninsula, we arrived at the albatross center. While most of us did not pay the extra money to go on the albatross viewing extension, we almost immediately saw two albatross fly across the sky.

Then we headed to the beach where we were to see penguins, sea lions, and seals. It was quite interesting to be so close to wild animals I had only ever seen in a zoo. Sea lions it turns out have absolutely no fear of anything on land, a fact which lead to there extinction on new zealand after Maori hunters easily killed off the population, and a fact which makes it possible to get within feet of them. We also happened upon a female sea lion (one of only twenty in the country) on a beach that usually has no females on it.

All and all it was worth the money to get so up close to animals that most people will only know, at best, through the looking glass of a zoo.

Bottling

On friday I helped bottle beer. In juxtaposition to the general idea of brewing as art in a fermented form, bottling is entirely unromantic. It is a process characterized by the loud whir of machinery, the water which seems to spew from everywhere in the process, and the repetitive nature of the human tasks involved along the way. That being said, I quite liked bottling. Not only was it physically grueling enough to make me feel I had actually done a days work, but there is something satisfying about doing a repetitive task over and over again, perfecting your motions along the way.

I have also noticed a unifying feature of all the Green Man beers. They are straightforward. Nothing about the beer is radical or screams for attention. They are just solid beers, containing the standard range of beer flavors and aroma. This is a reflection of the brew master's philosophy which is to make good beer the traditional way. Perhaps even more than that, it seems to be a reflection of his german origins and training, which emphasize the importance of tradition and culture.

I witnessed another symptom of developing beer culture yesterday. I walked to the home brew store in Dunedin (a walk which took me quite some time, through the hood, where I got offered a ride by a middle aged man driving a beat up red sedan with his dog in the back seat...I politely declined). While it is the only home brew store in the city, the owner and customers in the store really knew what they were talking about. And while I can't exactly diagnose the state of home brewing in the country from this one trip, it is certainly an encouraging sign that there seems to be a healthy home brewing culture here in Dunedin.

Going on a nature excursion today. Post to follow.

Lager, Dark Mild, Best Bitter and Strong

Green Man Lager 4.8%

500 ml bottle poured into a glass mug

Pours a clear yellow-gold with very active carbonation and a one inch white head that dissolves to several centimeters. Smell is pretty straightforward, grain and faint hops. Taste is grainy malt with a gentle hop bitterness. Body is light and mouthfeel is crisp with abundant carbonation. Finish is clean and dry. Subdued smell and taste with light body and crisp mouthfeel. What a lager should be. Paired nicely with my grilled chicken sandwich.

Green Man Dark Mild 3.5%

500 ml bottle poured into a glass mug

Pours a dark brown, not quite opaque, with a one inch lasting tan head. Leaves a bit of lacing down the glass. Smell is caramel like sweetness from the malt, not much else going on. Taste is gentle sweetness and bitterness both from some darker malts and hops. Both aroma and taste are a bit underwhelming. Mouthfeel starts of creamy but finishes watery, very light carbonation. Mils as the title suggests, can't really hold it against the beer but this style is not really for me.

Green Man Best Bitter 4.5%

500 ml bottle poured into a glass mug

Pours a deep clear amber with one inch off-white head and active carbonation bubbling from the bottom of the glass. Leaves nice lacing down the glass. Smells of sweet and toasty malts as well as some spicy hops. Taste is hoppy bitterness which manifests itself as a bit spicy and fruity. Malt is there but flavor profile is not balanced. Not a problem, this is by design Medium body and medium carbonation with a lingering finish. Most hop aroma and bitterness of all the green man beers I've tried. As a hop head, I approve.

Green Man Strong (Whisky Barrel Aged) 6.5%

500 ml bottle poured into a glass mug

Pours a deep amber red with an off white head. Smell is sweet vanilla, oak, heat from the alcohol, and spicy hops. Taste starts with hop bitterness, oaky and malty sweetness in the middle and closes with heat from the alcohol. Body is medium with light carbonation and a lingering finish. Probably the most interesting beer in the Green Man line-up in terms of aroma and taste.

Only beers I have yet to try are the Pilsner (part of the regular line-up), the Whisky Bock and Enrico's Cure.