Beer O’Clock – From the Archives

This afternoon's Beer O'Clock come comes from Neil at Real Beer ...

Today’s column celebrates the return of my good friend Shong Mau from Merry Old England. He has bucked the trend and moved to New Zealand from a high wage economy. Of course, he is not the only person to have done this. There have been three recorded instances in the last year alone.

While my Realbeer colleague Stu is promising a year’s worth of informative and educational columns on classic beer styles, the reappearance of Shong got me thinking about a pile of beer tastings he and I undertook years ago. I faithfully took notes on what we said about each beer and… well, they have been in an orange folder ever since. Ironically, the folder is clearly labelled “Reviews to write up.”

So, better late than never, this column is a dip into the Archives (the legendary 'M-Files' which include the full dossier on the global cover-up of that ferry which ran aground in the Cook Strait, and that secret tape of Lindsay Perigo chatting up Margaret Thatcher). It also contains never-seen-before reviews of beers which may or may not still be available.

 Sadly still available, Kronenbourg 1664 (5%, France) is recorded as being “surrender monkey yellow” in colour. The beer was described as “thin, insubstantial, looking like it would give up easily.” Annoyingly, the nose was reasonable but the actual taste made it “feel like you have already been drinking for hours.” It was stale, sticky and vaguely unpleasant with only a hint of bitterness. The embossed bottle was nice, the contents less so. In this case, I would have to agree with the striking brewery workers who tipped thousands of litres of the stuff down the drain. Shong said it was “not good” and this was reflected in the average mark of 4 out of 10.

Rooster’s Haymaker, (6.5%, Hastings) was described as tasting much better than it looked. It was frisky, malty with a pleasantly long finish. One taster picked up a dried apricot flavour in the background. Shong said it was “easy to drink.” It received an average mark of 5.66.

Another French offering, Fischer (6%, France) pictured right, proved very popular however. It had a light and fluffy head and sweet malty nose with a hint of wood smoke. Proclaimed as “being so good it could be German” it was quickly noted that “it was for a while there.” Fischer showcased a certain fruitiness and bitterness as well as a mellow finish. Shong said it was “good.” The beer scored 7.5.

We have all missed Shong’s beer wisdom and palate.

Cheers, Neil