Tastings Past

It's been a week of tastings. First came Rogue on Tuesday, Hashigo Zake's best attended and rowdiest single brewery tasting so far. It must have been a success because by the end the XS tasting (in a couple of weeks) was fully booked. We've since had a cancellation so if anyone is interested in sampling six of the rare and special Rogue XS beers in one sitting there are two places available.

Next came our first ever custom tasting which was for Wellington's American Women's Network. We created a menu of eight American beers from five breweries using our inventory here at the bar. It seemed to be really well received too. There are likely to be more of these kinds of events. Anyone interested in working with us to come up with a tasting for a social or work group is welcome to get in touch.

Finally late on October 25 came our first ever invite-only, "landlord's selection" tasting, made up of around 20 beers, mostly from my own cellar, but augmented by a few random additions and some of Kieran Haslett-Moore's own output. I'd heard whispers that Kieran knew a thing or two about brewing traditional English beers but his Merchant of the Devil Imperial Stout was some eye-opener. Now the beers and the years took their toll on me the next morning afternoon. But before I'd even made it out of bed some of our attendees had been all over the web and facebook with reviews and comments. I dunno where these crazy youths get the energy. Here's Kieran's article on his employer's website: http://www.regionalwines.co.nz/beer-content.aspx/cellaring-beer. (Kieran, you left out Utopias and Eisenbahn Beer Likor.)