The Ladder

Reflections On The Event We Could Not Name

2011-10-27T17:09:00.006+13:00

The rugby tournament whose very name may only be used by companies with a commercial relationship with it is over. During the years leading up to the event there had been a presumption that hospitality businesses in New Zealand, and in particular those in cities hosting games, must thrive with the influx of thirsty supporters. Fortunately being in business during two Wellington Sevens tournaments made us wary of such presumptions. We have learned that a number of effects take place during a big event, particularly a sports event:

1. big televised sports events play havoc with our trade. Generally we suffer a net loss.

2. a really big event in Wellington like the Sevens or an All Blacks test might give us a modest boost in takings, although we have to put up with uncertainty, ebbs and flows in trade and, typically, a number of irregular customers who don't understand what sort of a bar they're in.

3. televising overseas sports events, particularly North American ones, has worked better for us than local ones, and we seem to do better from soccer supporters than rugby.

We told ourselves and hoped that international supporters of national rugby sides would be different from the typical Sevens reveller, for whom the quality of the beverages they consume (and perhaps even events on the field) are of low significance. Nevertheless we went into the rugby with some trepidation. We spent a little on some very targeted advertising, had a security guard on a couple of extra nights and rostered extra staff a couple of times.

Seven weeks later our most modest expectations were pretty much correct. But not without some pretty dramatic peaks and troughs. We had some great afternoons when good natured spectators waiting for an evening game in Wellington came in to watch an earlier game on TV. And the quarter finals weekend was hard work but very busy.

When the All Blacks played we lost business except when they played Japan and we were inundated by Japanese supporters.

By the semi-finals weekend it really felt as if the circus had left town. The games were only on TV and people seemed to be watching them at home or at the "fanzone". It seemed as though everyone's apprehension over the All Blacks' fortunes was drawing them into their shells. Our trade collapsed.

Then came the final. In stark contrast to the semi-finals tens of thousands descended on central Wellington - the fanzone filled up, every other bar filled up and by kick off we were swamped by spectators, a high proportion of whom were strays looking for a screen but who barely purchased a thing off us. Later we would find bottle caps for drinks that we definitely don't sell in the bar. When the final whistle blew the strays exited and were replaced by a steady flow of other customers, a high proportion of whom seemed to be drifting from bar to bar as well and struggled to comprehend our product list.

The net result was a record for Sunday trading that I doubt we'll ever break. But it was hard, funless work.

So after seven weeks of raised hopes, targeted advertising, apprehension, tension, hard work, no-shows and occasional packed houses we probably had a boost in takings that just exceeded what we spent chasing it.

It's tempting to have a good old whinge at the people who insinuated that the tournament would make us all rich. Even now the media seem conflicted between reporting the horror stories of suburban restaurants whose business has dried up and the claims of the payments clearing houses saying that tens of millions of extra money has gone through their systems. The fact is that simple logic suggested that a bonanza was on its way. And for a booze barn in the right location in Auckland or Wellington flogging beer in green bottles it probably has been a bonanza. But we almost all overlooked the alternative but suddenly obvious facts, that corporate travel and conventional tourism would dry up and people's angst over the All Blacks' fortunes would inhibit their socialising for weeks.

Fortunately Christmas comes every year and the trading patterns ahead of us should be more predictable. And before Christmas we've got a succession of events of our own design that we think will excite our regular customers.

Speaking personally, my main complaint isn't with the misconception that the tournament would bring a windfall - it's with the absurd legal and commercial protection bestowed on the event's sponsors. The capitalist system is supposed to use competition to drive efficiency. But at events like the Cricket and Rugby World Cups competition only takes place when would-be sponsors bid. Thereafter competition is outlawed and the actual ticket-buying consumers and their cash are directed toward the sponsors' products. And when the sponsor's product is as mediocre as HEINEKEN consumers are being treated with contempt.

In the last few years I've witnessed:

English supporters wearing actual replica shirts at the Cricket World Cup in the Caribbean told to wear them inside out because the shirts carried the logo of a rival to a tournament sponsor.
Children arriving at a Bledisloe Cup game in Hong Kong given toys by an "ambush marketer" on the way to the ground only to have them confiscated at the ground.
Hashigo Zake "inspected" to check that we didn't mention the name of the tournament that we were showing on a TV channel that we pay a commercial subscription for.

Clearly the rights of common or garden spectators, who generally paid a fortune to go to these events, are not being considered. New Zealand's Major Events Management Act is the local manifestation of a bizarre worldwide convention that says that rich corporate sponsors need protection from the random acts of individuals and small businesses.

I think it's time for a bill of rights for spectators at major events and fellow businesses in countries hosting them:

No monopolies at match venues.
Free drinking water
Adequate toilets
Freedom of choice in attire (subject to decency)
Maximum volume for stadium PAs
The right to use the name of any event important enough to have streets closed.

Pacific Beer Expo

2011-10-07T08:42:00.002+13:00

The near-final list of beers for the Inaugural Pacific Beer Expo is up here.

Endorsement comes from an unlikely source

2011-08-27T10:39:00.002+12:00

Hashigo Zake's reputation is important to us and so I regularly do google searches for recent mentions of our name. On the morning of Friday August 26, 2011, I hit the jackpot. On the pages at http://forums.punkas.com/ a conversation amongst some regular and valued customers the night before led a third party (calling himself “No Way Out Records”) to post:

fuck hashingo and fuck dominic and fuck you wellington idiots, I hate that fucking bar and it's idiot (self appointed elitist) fucking owner...

rant over...

check out Bruhaus and Taphaus over the next few months for some pleasant surprises!!!

First of all I was delighted that the poster used the term “elitist”. From day one we’ve aspired to be elitist – but at the same time unpretentious - about the products we serve and the way we serve them. But I don’t think elitist is a boast you can make about yourself – it has to be bestowed (or alleged) by a third party. So thanks mate.

Now I found this highly amusing and posted a screenshot on the Hashigo Zake facebook page. I was immediately contacted by one of the aforementioned regular customers and punkas posters who made two points: (1) he and a number of others on the forum were satisfied and regular customers of Hashigo Zake and (2) the poster was “Sean from beerstore”.

Everything suddenly made sense. This Sean turned out to be the same person (posting as STiG) who tried to mock our importing programme through comments on this blog back in January. (See here.)

For those who don’t know, the website called “the beer store” has been selling imported beer since before we opened. Unlike us they use what’s known as “the grey market” – they buy beer from overseas distributors rather than breweries, often against the express wishes of the breweries. The convoluted route that grey market products take to New Zealand often means that they are over-priced and in poor condition by the time they arrive.

We opened two years ago and have been sourcing our products using the most direct possible channels. As I tried to explain to Sean back in January, we use strategic alliances with importers in other countries to get introductions to the breweries we buy from. This has been an outstanding success for us.

Obviously I’m biased when I say this, but it must be galling when your business model is to do something (importing) badly and then face a competitor whose business model is to do it well. So perhaps I should be sympathetic towards the hysterical poster. And to be fair, I believe he followed his post with another showing a little regret. But the fact is that rather than accept the arrival of a competitor and adjust their business model accordingly – by, for instance, stopping the importing of brands that we import cheaper, fresher and with the approval of their producers – the beer store seem to have sought out beer from breweries that we bring in, such as Japan’s Baird and San Diego’s Coronado, presumably to spite us. As a result, and as hinted by his mention of the Tap Haus, you can go along to the Tap Haus and buy a 355ml bottle of Coronado Orange Avenue Witbier for $14 – yesterday it was on tap at Hashigo Zake for $11 per US pint.

But the point I really want to make is that as Hashigo Zake approaches its second birthday, seeing a competitor that we have little respect for vent like this is the best endorsement we could ask for.

For the record, beers that we imported from breweries such as Baird, Nøgne Ø, Rogue, Green Flash, Bear Republic, Coronado and Moylan’s are or have been at the following outlets:

Auckland:

Newmarket Liquorland

Forrest Hill Liquorland

Victoria Park New World

Wine Circle Kumeu

Galbraith’s

Hallertau

Palmerston North:

Albert St Liquorland

Wellington:

Little Beer Quarter

The Hop Garden

Bar Edward

Café Polo

Regional Wines and Spirits

Island Bay New World

Rumble’s

Bonsai Brewing

2011-07-18T14:41:00.004+12:00

I was lucky enough to be invited to observe a morning's brewing at Garage Project.

The beers needed for the brewery's launch (August 2nd) and Beervana (August 5th/6th) are nearly ready, so on Sunday it was the first of a pair of pale ales using two new, experimental hops. The hop we used this day was the romantically named 97-77-09. Yum.

To someone who last brewed using nothing but kitchen pots and pans and a plastic fermenter it's eye-opening to see brewing being done on a homebrew-like scale, but using electronically controlled kettles, a heat exchanger, pumps and the like. And going by the samples of the still conditioning first batches, the benefits of the slick equipment are apparent.

Not that Pete and Jos have it all that easy. In the cavernous, unsealed, uninsulated former garage in darkest Aro Valley the ambient temperature inside was colder than that outside. Lack of heating aside though, the garage is clearly an ideal space for a brewery. We can but hope that the remaining bureaucratic obstacles (zoning, planning etc) that might restrict the guys' plans will be systematically dismantled as all the past ones have.

An Open Letter to Dominion Breweries.

2011-07-14T14:02:00.002+12:00

A Pyrrhic victory is a victory with devastating cost to the victor; it carries the implication that another such victory will ultimately cause defeat. – Wikipedia.

About two months ago you sent one of your emissaries to my bar to ask what it would take to get DB or Monteiths products into our product range at Hashigo Zake. Clearly some people in your organisation cared that your product range and corporate image have alienated the market, particularly the portion of the market that patronise bars like mine. Or perhaps you’re alarmed at the rate that freehouses are opening up in Wellington. I was in a conciliatory mood at the time and suggested just two preconditions – the appearance of a “killer” product and the elimination of the Radler problem.

Now I have good reason to believe that after getting litigious with the Green Man Brewery you had internal advice to walk away from the Radler trademark, but for reasons no-one can fathom you chose to stick to it.

Perhaps you were still giddy from the good fortune of having been granted a trademark that even IPONZ staff concede off the record was a mistake.

Perhaps you have some kind of obligation to your corporate masters in Singapore and the Netherlands to give no ground in legal disputes.

So with overall sales of beer falling but the market for small independent breweries growing you have a victory that demonstrates you have nothing but contempt for New Zealand consumers and other brewers. Rest assured that the feeling is quickly becoming mutual.

So now that IPONZ have chosen not to eliminate the “Radler problem” I can be less equivocal about my response back in May. The chances of any product of your group of companies ever being made available for sale at Hashigo Zake just went from minute to nil. And this year if your company’s executives come to Hashigo Zake looking for good beer after the BrewNZ Awards they will not be served.

Being part of the Hospitality Industry, supposedly

2011-06-17T09:24:00.002+12:00

I just got a reminder that we should rush to nominate ourselves in the Hospitality Association's annual awards for excellence. There's a category called Best Bar. Here is the entry form.

Now one of the criteria is the quality of food on offer. Fair enough. A best restaurant contest might include the quality of the drinks list as a criterion. Although they'd probably call it the "wine list". (In fact I've checked and the best restaurant category does judge on the "wine list".)

Now if food is one criterion is it strange to expect that the quality of drinks on offer might make up a high proportion of the remaining criteria? Individual consideration for beer, wine, non-alcoholic drinks perhaps? Or at least one criterion?

Incredibly it seems you can be the best bar in New Zealand, according to the Hospitality Association, without the judging panel asking what drinks you serve.

Good on you HANZ. Keep lobbying for public holiday surcharges. At least our membership gets us a discount on our sky subscription.

Mikkeller Part 2

2011-06-14T13:56:00.005+12:00

Mikkeller / Three Floyds Beer Dinner

In late May Copenhagen hosts a large beer festival. In 2011 Mikkeller and Three Floyds collaborated on a couple of events to coincide with this festival. One was the dedication of most of the Mikkeller bar’s guest taps to beers from Three Floyds. This in itself is an exceptional event as the products of the brewery that ratebeer.com considers the best in the world are rarely available far from Chicago. The night before this tap takeover was an extraordinary collaborative dinner.

The venue was Mielcke & Hurtigkarl, an impressively elegant dining venue on the grounds of the Royal Danish Garden Society.

Planning had been going on (and the event had been sold out) for months. Eight courses had been devised to go with eight pairs of beers – one each from Mikkeller and Three Floyds. Mikkel of Mikkeller, Barnaby Struve of Three Floyds and Jakob Mielcke of Mielcke & Hurtigkarl were on hand to introduce each course.

A scan of the menu is attached, although the names of the dishes are somewhat terse. Interestingly of eight courses, three were seafood, three incorporated ice cream and the other two were based around pigeon and pork. None used red meat.

If I tried to pick a few highlights I would end up picking something from just about every course. Every dish was delicious and was at least a respectable match for the beers. For a few the lexicon of superlatives would be getting exhaustive use.

Perhaps the biggest highlight wasn’t on the menu - before formal dining started there was a chance to sample a brand new beer, created by Mikkeller especially for the restaurant. It was an 8.7% Belgian-style pale ale aged in barrels that previously contained Chateau d’Yquem – the world’s most famous dessert wine. It changed my view of what barrel aging can do for a beer, staying light and refreshing but still incredibly complex.

Of the beers, only a handful of the Mikkellers have made it to New Zealand so far (Nelson Sauvignon and Beer Geek Brunch Weasel) and none of the Three Floyds, although the Hvedegoop (Wheat Wine) is in the same series as the Oatgoop and Ruggoop that Hashigo Zake has a few of.

The event kicked off at 6pm and at around midnight that guests settled themselves into taxis, with about half of them going back to the Mikkeller bar for a bonus fourth dessert. It’s hard to believe that a beer geek could have a better six hours.

Mikkeller Part 1

2011-06-01T10:36:00.005+12:00

It shouldn’t be a surprise that the Mikkeller bar in Copenhagen turned out to be somewhat unconventional. In fact it’s as if they’ve deconstructed the whole tavern paradigm and eliminated every convention that isn’t absolutely central to its function. Not only are there no pool tables, dart boards, pokies or juke boxes, there’s also no soft lighting, gloomy corners, beer memorabilia or just about anything to betray the place’s function. There’s hardly even a sign to warn you you’re walking past the place you’re looking for.

Once inside, if you looked past the small, central bar itself, the rest of the small, slightly-below-street-level venue could be mistaken for an art gallery or hair salon, with white walls and ceiling and pale green floor. It’s also extremely small, with room to squeeze perhaps 40 people in.

The serving area is like a booth with a row of taps along one wall. There’s little else to reveal what’s on sale in the way of food and drink, apart from rows of glassware suspended from the ceiling and a few snack foods, such as sausages and cashew nuts waiting in the corner. In reality there’s an impressive bottle selection but you have to read the menu or be shown to the cool room to know about it.

There are twenty taps with nothing on permanently and around half given over to beers other than those of Mikkeller. When I visited all the guest beers were from other European breweries, including a couple from a brewery called “Evil Twin”, which turns out to be the brewery of Mikkel’s twin brother. But two days later seven beers from Three Floyds would be on, and some day soon there should be some 8 Wired on tap.

Not every beer I had was necessarily great – I definitely did not enjoy the Sorachi Ace Single Hop IPA and the 1000 IBU light (at 4.7% ABV) was pure, uncompensated bitterness. I also had my first ever hoppy witbier, whose net effect was something like a Saison and a dry-hopped version of Saison Dupont.

The highlights may have been a pair of beers from Copenhagen’s Amager Bryghus – the only Danish brewer higher than Mikkeller on ratebeer.com. One was a special coffee-infused version of their Hr. Frederiksen Imperial Stout, brewed to celebrate the Mikkeller bar’s first anniversary. The other was a bottle of the port barrel aged version of the same beer. Incredible stuff, and a good warmup for the over-indulgence in rich beer that would follow the next night.

See http://www.mikkeller.dk/index.php?id=91&bar_id=2&land=1 for a list of what's on tap at the Mikkeller bar at any time.

Nøgne Ø

2011-05-31T04:22:00.012+12:00

Nøgne Ø from Grimstad in Norway is one of Hashigo Zake’s favourite breweries. When we opened in 2009 our desire to stock their products led to a strategic relationship with their Australian importer. It has been our pleasure to stock many of their beers and one of their sakes. Their beers range from faultless interpretations of classic styles, like porter, witbier and tripel to big, unconventional beers, like the smoked barley wine (and staff favourite) Sunturnbrew and the 17% sake yeast-fermented red ale called Red Horizon.

In 2010 we entered the lambic-style fruit beer Tyttebær in the BrewNZ awards where it won a gold medal. The same year Nøgne Ø was named Champion Brewery at the Australian International Beer Awards.

Below is an account of a recent pilgrimage to the brewery.

Grimstad is a small city on Norway’s south eastern coast, a few hours drive from Oslo. It’s a classic coastal tourist town – full of traditional timber houses and leisure boats and surrounded by forests, lakes and bays. If the Nøgne Ø brewery wasn’t located within a former, very small, hydro-electric power station then surely the location would have been a timber mill or boatshed.

Evidence remains of the building’s former purpose – a neighbouring dam and a gigantic pipe from it to the building. And the brewery itself is housed where turbines once spun. But my tour with Kjetil Jikiun, Founder and Head Brewer and Scott Larrick, Sales Manager, began a floor above the brewery, in what is primarily a grain store. In spite of the imposing variety of malts present, the most striking thing about the room is the pleasant aroma emanating from the plethora of spices at one end.

The chilled hop room has surprises too: Nelson Sauvin and Pacific Gem hops and an estimated $50,000 worth of civet cat coffee. This is for brewing Mikkeller’s Beer Geek Brunch Weasel – a handful of Mikkeller beers are made at Nøgne Ø.

There are plenty of other features setting Nøgne Ø apart, including Europe’s only sake brewery. It’s idle right now because, as Kjetil says in a matter of fact fashion, “there is no market for our sake”. That sentence should send a shiver up the spine of anyone with an interest in the business, except that it was strikingly similar to another offhand comment: “for the first two years there was no market for our beer.” But rather than dumb down the beer Nøgne Ø (the self-styled “uncompromising” brewery) painstakingly built a market locally and offshore to the point where demand exceeds supply and the business faces a daunting two year project to relocate to a dedicated new complex but attempting to increase production in the interim.

That increase in production will be achieved by installing two new 25,000L fermenters at a temporary, separate location and using a tractor with a modified axle and bolted-on tank to move unfermented wort then fermented beer between the two sites.

Our tasting began with another surprise – a beer that looked and smelled like an imperial stout, finished with an assertive coffee-like bitterness, but had so little alcohol (0.3%) that it can be marketed as alcohol free. Called Stuten, it’s being developed partly because Norway’s drink-driving laws are so strict that someone drinking conventional low alcohol beers can still find themselves over the limit.

Norwegian laws and conventions are a recurring theme in discussions over the brewery’s output. Only beers under 4.5% ABV can be sold in stores – stronger beers must be sold through the state managed monopoly, which annually selects a finite number of products for its portfolio. So a number of beers are designed to sneak under the 4.5% threshold. The rest must be selected by the monopoly or sold only through cafes and bars or exported.

Then there are excise tax and sales tax. Excise is 4 kroner per litre, per percent of alcohol. So a 400ml serving of a 5%ABV beer will include nearly $NZ2 in excise. In New Zealand the equivalent would be $NZ0.52. On top of that is 25% sales tax. Which partly (but not completely) explains why a glass of beer in a bar typically costs around $NZ20.

Discussions with Kjetil and Scott turned to the relationship between Nøgne Ø and Hashigo Zake. It was revealed that Nøgne Ø have changed their Australian importer. As a consequence we have agreed to explore the possibility of shipping Nøgne Ø direct to New Zealand. This should give us better prices and more control over what we can buy. It also means we would be bringing in bigger quantities and hoping to share them with the outlets around New Zealand that we’ve recently been supplying.

Beer and Clothing in Scandinavia

2011-05-26T21:13:00.004+12:00

This is the first in a handful of posts relating to a recent trip to Europe that incorporated some pretty special beer hunting.

Searching in Oslo for somewhere to get a few items of clothing washed led to one of the more serendipitous finds you could ever hope for. Because the polite chap at the mobile phone shop sent us to the “Laundromat Café” (http://www.laundromat.no/). There were no fewer than eight craft beers on tap, (plus a few others) including Nøgne Ø & Mikkeller. Tap beers start at around 80 kroner (nearly $NZ20) for a US pint.

I had a very good Caesar salad. The place had a bright library-cum-cafe feel, free wifi, staff had a helpful, unfussy manner, as seemed to be the norm in Norway. AND we got our washing done in the self-service laundry.

I was pretty stunned by the prices but was told later that their prices for Nøgne Ø were the cheapest in Oslo.

All things considered the Laundromat Café appeared to be a totally original and refreshing concept. Until that is, we got to Copenhagen and were again in search of a place to wash some clothes. In the bohemian district of Nørrebro was another Laundromat Café. Here again were a self-service laundry, shelves full of books and a bustling café with a bright feel to it. I was told that there was no connection between the two businesses, and perhaps the Oslo one was a rip-off. So… chalk one up for Copenhagen on the grounds of originality except for one crucial difference… where was the good beer? The Copenhagen outlet had a few taps, but nothing distinctive.

It did have free wifi and it was in the district of Nørrebro, which I recognised as the name of a brewery. So it didn’t take long to establish that we were five minutes walk from a craft brewery. While our clothes soaked, washed and spun there was time to check out Nørrebro.

Nørrebro, it turned out, had one of the most attractive public faces of any brewery. The brewery occupies a space with a floor just below street level but with a ceiling high enough for some decent sized brewing equipment. But the brewery itself takes up just one end of the available space. The other two thirds is divided into a lower bar and an upstairs café, both looking across to or down on the brewery. The space is uncluttered and only a rope and a change in flooring separate the bar and brewery.

I mentioned that I’m from New Zealand to the staff behind the bar and was told that they were familiar with 8 Wired. I was all set to say “wow, that’s incredible, I know Søren”, when I remembered I was wearing an 8 Wired t-shirt.

There was time for a tasting tray covering what was on tap on the day. The range was impressive – nine beers covering a decent range of styles and all good or very good, but with only one or two beers designed to please the inner hop-head. But on another day I’m sure that would be different.

Standouts (to this hop-head) were the Ravnsburg Red and the North Bridge Extreme. And, like a certain other brewery whose name starts “Nø”, they’ve done a great job with simple, consistent branding.

The Male Target Audience

2011-03-10T13:20:00.003+13:00

I just took a call from a magazine publisher asking if we'd like to advertise in a particular magazine that is all about cars. I was told it should suit us because it reaches our male target audience.

What Do You Do?

2011-02-23T19:28:00.003+13:00

I hope we never have to face a day like Tuesday Feb 22 again. And not only for the obvious reason. At about the same time the earthquake happened two of our staff were returning from the funeral of Matthew Hall. The media reports of his murder seem to have understated his reputation as a home brewer, but Shiggy and Sam knew him and a matter of weeks ago he helped Sam with a brew.

It was a strange atmosphere in the bar on Tuesday afternoon with Sam and Shiggy returning to work in their funeral garb, while we watched the events in Christchurch unravel on the TV.

So it's time we did something drastic. This Saturday evening every cent taken over the bar at Hashigo Zake from 6pm until midnight will be set aside and donated to two causes. One is Atareira, in recognition of Matthew Hall. The other will be Christchurch earthquake relief.

The Hop Garden

2011-01-21T12:28:00.002+13:00

James Henderson deserves a pile of congratulations for creating the Hop Garden, in a neglected former Greek restaurant in Mt Vic. It looks fantastic, is well equipped and they've had the good sense to stock fresh Racer 5 and West Coast IPA. It's going to be fascinating to see how people patronise it - whether they stay to dine, what time of day they come, what kind of clientele it attracts. But it's instantly my preferred place to drink outside HZ.

It's opening a matter of weeks after the Bruhaus. You could almost get the impression that free houses are taking over Wellington. Wishful thinking I'm sure, or maybe not...

But if I was an exec at DB right now, with their humiliation over Radler a matter of months away, I'd be brushing up the CV.

Black, White and Grey

2011-01-12T16:38:00.005+13:00

I think everyone's tired of hearing about the rights and wrongs of official and unofficial importing. So here's a change of tack: pricing.

Of course I'm not remotely neutral here, but I have to say I'm surprised by how stark the differences are. Here are some comparative prices gleaned from the internet and a trip to Thorndon New World. And if it isn't clear, the prices on the right are for the "official" imports:

	Thorndon New World	The Beer Store	Regional Wines and Spirits	The Cult Beer Store
Green Flash Imperial IPA 650ml	$21.95	$19.44		$14.00
Green Flash Le Freak 650ml			$23.75	$16.00
Green Flash West Coast IPA 355ml		$7.97		$6.00
Ballast Point Big Eye IPA 650ml		$13.79		$12.00
Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye 650ml		$16.42		$13.00

Institutionalised Stalking

2010-11-27T12:25:00.002+13:00

I'm getting asked more and more often about whether we will take some kind of official position with foursquare (the location service, not the grocer). And of course some time soon Facebook's answer to foursquare will be rolled out in New Zealand and presumably become dominant.

Is it just me or are location services the most insidious and potentially dangerous development in the short history of electronic social networking? It amazes me that people disregard the possible consequences of voluntarily creating their own public, electronic trail for whatever short term benefit it gives them. And facebook's feature that lets other people create your trail for you is even more mind-boggling.

Call me a curmudgeon, but I find the whole subject very troubling, especially since people seem to expect us to embrace the whole idea. (Hashigo Zake was "registered" as a location on foursquare months ago without me being consulted.)

Keen to get feedback....

Roman Beer

2010-11-24T16:03:00.006+13:00

This week Hashigo Zake was lucky enough to host a visit by Italian brewer, beer distributor and bar owner Alex Liberati. Alex is a knowledgeable and charismatic evangelist for craft brewing. He was also keen to soak up New Zealand brewing culture and find some candidate beers for his importing business. An improvised tasting was put together with bottles that Alex brought in his luggage combined with a few local staples and one or two experimental ones from local brewers. Then when we ran out of time Alex stayed an extra night so we could continue. In return barman/chef Sam put on a bowl of green lipped mussels that had our guest in raptures.

Next time Alex makes it this way we'll put on something more structured for a bigger audience.

Suspending Judgement

2010-11-16T14:18:00.006+13:00

Blogger Martin Craig became a folk hero to many earlier this week when he revealed that he had secretly entered a commercial beer (Ranfurly Station Pale Ale) into the SOBA National Homebrew Champs and... it bombed. It scored 11/50 and was slated by the judges for various faults.

Since then there has been a little reflection amongst those close to the incident with respect to, shall we say, the ethics of entering someone's beer without their knowledge and in doing so breaking the rules of the competition.

Then today Martin's post disappeared. Fortunately for the curious, google has a cache.

It's tempting to jump to the conclusion that corporate and legal forces have been brought to bear on Martin. Or maybe he's taken pity on Ranfurly.

So should those of us who greeted the news of this guerrilla beer judging with glee also pause for a moment? Perhaps yes. I was reminded of the spat that broke out about a year ago when local brewer Stu McKinley harshly commented on a bottle of Stone Oaked Arrogant Bastard on realbeer.co.nz. That beer had been imported to New Zealand under circumstances that Stone's President Greg Koch expressly disapproves of and tries to stop. It was "grey market" and had been shipped without refrigeration.

Greg vented on the realbeer forum. Other participants generally disregarded Greg's assertion of brewer's rights, but anyone who has tasted Oaked Arrogant Bastard in peak condition would probably side with Greg.

As an importer and retailer trying to avoid the grey market, and as a fan of Stone Brewing, I naturally took Greg's side in that spat. So to be consistent I guess I have to concede that the brewers of Ranfurly Pale Ale were not treated fairly on this occasion. But in my book brewing bland beer is a far bigger crime.

Now I wouldn't bother with a spiel like this unless it was somehow self-serving, so here goes. Hashigo Zake is about to strike a blow for brewers against the use and transportation of beer in ways that they don't approve of. But the real winners will be our customers. We'll make an announcement at the Hophead's Picnic tonight.

One-a tara, Tuatara

2010-09-27T17:19:00.008+13:00

On the 18^th, 19^th and 20^th of September this year, three of Tuatara Brewery’s beers were served alongside many of Japan’s finest, and a number of other imports, at the Yokohama version of the Great Japan Beer Festival. This was surely a first for a New Zealand craft brewery and represented a bold play for a stake in the vibrant Japanese craft beer market.

The origins of the venture lay in an approach from the brewery to Hashigo Zake looking for contacts in Asia that might lead to export opportunities. The subsequent advice from Nagano Trading, Japan’s leading importer of US craft beer, was to exhibit in the GJBF. This was easier said than done. Between the peculiarities of the market and the intricacies of Japanese bureaucracy, the equivalent of months of preparation had to be squeezed into a few weeks before a pallet of kegs and bottles set sail in late August. In the end there were just hours to spare when the beer arrived at the Osambashi Hall in Yokohama on the morning of September 18.

Flying out of the Wellington winter to meet the beer and represent Tuatara’s interests were David Bernard of Tuatara and myself, in my capacity as “the guy who once lived there and knows some people”.

Before we started the hard work of dispensing New Zealand beer, 50mls at a time, there was a free day in Yokohama and Tokyo, spent at as many of those cities’ serious beer outlets as time would allow. There was the Nakameguro Taproom of Baird and the Aldgate and Craftheads in Shibuya and Yokohama’s own Thrashzone. At all four bars the stamp of Nagano Trading was evident. Many taps were pouring immaculately fresh beer from a variety of US brewers, even at the Baird Taproom, which sets aside four of its 28 taps to guest beers. It was eye-opening to see the impact one importing company has had on the Japanese market, particularly in Tokyo, whose beer drinkers might just be the most spoiled on the planet. Not that these treats come cheaply. A US pint glass (474 mls) can cost between 1000 and 2000 yen ($NZ15-30).

Indulgence is certainly the theme at the extraordinary Thrashzone. It starts with the owner, Koichi Katsuki, who indulges his two loves - extremely noisy thrash music and “extreme” beer. He manages to squeeze eight kegs into two kegerators – most of them high octane and highly hopped. A few are local but probably the majority are imports. There’s no concession to anyone seeking a session beer and very little room to do anything except sit or stand, drink and admire the heavy metal videos on the big screen behind the bar. But amazingly when some well lubricated foreigners wandered in late one evening, he willingly agreed to a request to “put some Queen on”.

On the morning of the 18^th we arrived at the venue. The Osambashi Hall is part of a huge, modern equivalent to Wellington’s overseas terminal. It extends more than 400 metres into Yokohama Bay. The hall itself occupies a portion of the terminal, with 2000 square metres of bright, open exhibition space. The exhibitors line the sides, leaving vast open space for festival attendees to mingle. Tuatara are with other imported beers, most of which are American, but we also find ourselves rubbing shoulders with Italy’s Revelation Cat. Curiously one of their taps is pouring a lambic, dry-hopped with Nelson Sauvin.

The paying guests start to arrive and a steady trickle wander up to see what we’re about. On offer are Tuatara’s IPA, APA and Ardennes. Signs are improvised to explain what the beer names signify, and a map appears with an arrow to Otaki. The Japanese seem comfortable ordering an IPA or Belgian Ale and tend to overlook the APA. Fortunately a different dynamic is at work on the other side of the trestle tables and the APA is quickly in demand from our fellow workers. In fact it becomes clear that amongst the plethora of highly hopped and/or flavoured beers from the USA, there are few, if any, classic American Pale Ales.

Overall the feedback is quite encouraging. While Tuatara’s IPA is far too nuanced and moderate to compete in an environment like this with the American IPAs, the APA is fresh and aromatic, has stood up to the sea journey across the tropics and is popular. One influential player stresses the need for original beers showcasing New Zealand hops. While his case is valid and I agree up to a point, he eventually has to concede that the reception has been too consistently positive to ignore.

By the third day of the festival the managers of several prominent bars have been through and expressed interest in getting access to the beer. Our ally says that it’s a matter of waiting and seeing how many calls come to him from bars asking for kegs. But there are extra kegs in this shipment and all the signs are that these will be snapped up by Tokyo bars.

While future orders are far from guaranteed and the hard work of adapting to the target market has barely started, there are signs that Tuatara might have a new export market. This should be great news not only to them but to all New Zealand craft brewers. Between sessions at the beer festival we took several cases of New Zealand beer, naturally including Tuatara, but also Renaissance, 8 Wired, the Mussel Inn and Emersons to an informal tasting for many of Tokyo’s most prominent beer lovers, writers and, well, pissheads. The reception was universally positive. There is little doubt that beers like Emerson’s Pilsner, Captain Cooker, Hopwired and Stonecutter Scotch Ale would gain an instant following if we could simply get a consistent supply of them to Japan.

I’m sure there is plenty of scepticism about the export potential of New Zealand craft beer. We came across it when another local brewery applied for funding to help get to the GJBF too. The dismissive tone of the poorly-informed functionary who turned them down sends shivers down my spine. Even if the craft brewing industry here is small and immature, sceptics overlook the trail being blazed by our hop industry. New Zealand hops are the height of fashion amongst leading brewers like Mikkeller, Baird and Sierra Nevada and are probably being used with little fanfare in many other

famous beers. At the GJBF we found ourselves next door to an Italian brewer boasting about his use of New Zealand hops. Aficionados are desperate to taste beers brewed in the land where these very hops come from. It’s time some of the resources bestowed on cinderella industries like wine, fashion and software were donated to something we have a natural advantage at.

Beer and Loathing, 2010 edition

2010-08-30T22:41:00.009+12:00

There was near universal dismay on Thursday when the 2010 BrewNZ awards turned into a benefit for the country's most ~~despised~~ misunderstood brewery - DB. But the results were, in a way, as unsurprising as the fallout. History was simply repeating itself after all - http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU0205/S00270/db-breweries-swoops-up-most-awards-at-nz-beer-cup.htm.

There are two main reasons for DB's seemingly inexplicable triumph. One is the modus operandi of beer judging. Beers are judged according to the style that they are entered against and in a mainly negative fashion - i.e. they are marked down for faults, not up for positive attributes. So for a beer to do well it must fit rigidly to the guide for its style and have none of the technical faults that elude almost everyone except those trained to discern them. So many a fine beer, full of flavour and merit, falls foul of the judges for technical reasons.

But these constraints are well known, if frustrating, and to ignore them is to be out of step with the world of beer judging.

More dubious is the grouping of the 70 or so recognised styles into 17 categories for the purposes of distributing trophies and, presumably, finding the champion brewery.

Some people would be surprised to find New Zealand Draught (dark, minimally flavoured, sweet, caramel coloured lager) is not only a recognised style, but is worthy of a trophy in its own right. Meanwhile European style ales (including innumerable interesting and difficult to make styles) have to share a single trophy.

So DB's Tui is one of two New Zealand Draughts to get a silver medal - a disappointing result considering the style and the beer are almost one and the same - but gets a trophy to boot. While the European-style Ales category yielded four golds and umpteen silvers but just the one trophy.

A similar story emerges if you compare the category of low-cal, low-alc and gluten free beers with that of the diverse and competitive New Zealand, US and International Ale Styles. The net result was a trophy for Export 33.

It's like some weird kind of gerrymandering.

When Three Boys Brewery was announced to have come second in the race for Champion Brewery the cheering and applause were deafening. When DB was announced as overall winner there was muted applause, compensated for by "We Are The Champions" being piped through the PA. Really classy. But outside the Duxton's Ballroom people weren't so polite. I almost felt sorry for DB's dinner-suited boss who must have heard the railings of a prominent SOBA member two feet away at Hashigo Zake later that evening. (But any sympathy went out the door when I heard of DB's latest attempt at intimidation of SOBA over the Radler farce.)

The outstanding question remains why the Brewers Guild allocate trophies the way they do. Could it be a relic of these awards' history? They were instituted by the large breweries themselves under the guise of the Beer Wine and Spirits Council. Or is it some kind of appeasement? One insider commented that DB's success was down to Lion's failure to provide a foil by sharing the honours in these relatively craftless styles. If the intention was for the industrial brewers to cancel each other out and leave room for a plucky small player like Three Boys to come through then it was a tragic miscalculation.

They're Using Our Hops Here.

2010-07-15T21:12:00.005+12:00

Regular customer and frequent flyer Jos Ruffell recently brought in a few bottles of Sierra Nevada's amazing Southern Hemisphere Hop Harvest Ale. We've also been stocking Mikkeller's Nelson Sauvin IPA for some time. Meanwhile our favourite Asian brewery, Baird, have been experimenting with New Zealand hops, and as we speak they are filling kegs for us with two pale ales showcasing NZ Cascade and Hallertau respectively.

Which begs for all these beers made overseas with NZ hops to be given some kind of showcase. And that's what we're planning - probably as a tasting in September. Now we've only got about half the beers we need for a decent tasting. So we're keen to hear of any other beers being made overseas that are built around NZ hops. Suggestions welcome...

plus ça change...

2010-06-07T14:36:00.005+12:00

With business booming and a regular email going out to subscribers (and archived here), there hasn't been so much to talk about here. Fortunately there are always a few idiots out there keen to cover themselves in glory with some really dumb petty crime. Check it out. Full marks to Dave though for seeing it happen and retrieving the item.

And guys if you're watching, that little glowing thing high on the back wall is a camera.

World Beer Cup

2010-04-12T23:50:00.003+12:00

I'm still absorbing the news of Baird Brewing's success at the World Beer Cup. To be tied with Ballast Point for the most gold medals in the competition is staggering. And as luck would have it our shipment of Numazu Lager (best American-style Amber Lager) went on sale today.

Melbourne

2010-04-12T23:01:00.003+12:00

Four days in Melbourne created an opportunity to catch up with the local beer and bars. There was no shortage of highlights, starting with the Little Creatures Dining Hall in Fitzroy and the nearby Lambs Go Bar. Then a long day being shown around by Adam of Boutique Beverage Distributors included visits to the Hargreaves Hill and Mountain Goat breweries and a couple of damned good bars whose names elude me right now. Later on I made it to the Local Taphouse in St Kilda.

There's no doubt that some extremely good beer is coming out of Victoria and the scene is thriving generally. I'm particularly looking forward to more chances to taste beer from Hargreaves Hill and Jamieson.

There were plenty of annoyances too. Do any bars there post their opening hours? And minimum charges to use EFTPOS? (Actually I can see the attraction of that for an operator but it's hardly putting the customer first.) And being prompted to tip was like being back in the UK or US.

Going Full Time

2010-03-31T16:08:00.003+13:00

We've been meaning to extend the opening hours for a long time and tomorrow's the day. A new sign for the door is being printed now, proudly stating our opening time as noon. Not that anyone ever paid any attention to the old sign saying that we open at 4pm.

Anyway it's another really satisfying milestone for us, given the dire predictions that were being made liberally all last year.

Sharing the Love

2010-02-17T00:55:00.007+13:00

One week in and the off-licence is working just as we hoped. A few customers are going out of their way to pick up modest orders of Rogue, Mikkeller and Flying Dog bottles. And we've had the odd rigger too. Some come in purely for a takeaway order but quite a few are deciding to take an extra bottle home after they've had a couple in the bar. No trouble, no debates, and certainly no "pushing booze on children" or whatever it was that the hysterical Bernard O'Shaughnessy predicted.

But the time to take things to the next level is approaching. Following a suggestion by a regular customer (thanks Ben) we found shopify, a web application that lets small operators like us come up with an online store with little effort. And as long as we handle issues such as shipping, pricing and payments in the simplest way possible, cultbeerstore.co.nz should be in business within days.

I should elaborate on those three issues a little because I'd like to invite constructive feedback.

1. Shipping. This will be by courier. We have to get back in touch with the courier company that we planned this with several months ago to confirm pricing. They gave us a complicated menu of pricing that takes into account weight, volume and destination. This is probably far more complicated than we can achieve with our simple website, so we will just simplify these down to a couple of prices and absorb the differences.

2. Pricing. For now, pricing is based on our bar prices, discounted 20%, which is what we've been doing with takeaway sales in the bar. The results still resemble bar prices as much as bottle store ones, so there's potential to drop them. In fact shopify will let customers claim a percentage discount using a code. At this stage we plan to let people do exactly that if their order is sufficiently large. And trade pricing can be enabled the same way.

3. Payments. We're looking into using payments gateways but it is actually possible to go live without one. The solution is to invite customers to make bank deposits using (in general) internet banking. I think this will actually prove acceptable to most people. I assume that trademe customers use this method regularly. It must be more cost-efficient than using a credit card. A payments gateway may not be too hard to implement and we may even have one by the time we go live, but I'm tempted not to just to see how acceptable direct credits will prove.

Shopify has proven pretty powerful so far. From what I gather there is an API that developers can use to make it perform tasks more complicated than its generic capabilities can be manipulated for. It would be good to hear if anyone has experience with it.

Nuisance Dealt With For Now

2010-02-11T10:27:00.004+13:00

This came in the mail last week.

So Mr O'Shaughnessy and the forces of [insert mocking phrase here] have been defeated for now and we can sell takeaways.

More info will follow, but for anyone interested, you can now come in between 4pm and 11pm and buy anything off the beer menu to takeaway at a discount.

It's an ill wind

2010-01-27T15:35:00.002+13:00

At least Bernard O'Shaughnessy has helped us score some free publicity... http://www.capitaltimes.co.nz/article/2741/Publicnuisance.html

Food

2010-01-27T00:08:00.004+13:00

We kicked off our 2010 tasting programme tonight (the 26th) with a matched beer and food evening. The event was proposed by our regular customer "M", who happens to be the executive chef at a Wellington restaurant that will remain nameless, but which most of us will never get to dine at. Chef M looked at our grill-less, oven-less, extraction-less kitchen and decided he could make it work. He and I picked some beers that he could work with and he figured out a menu. I expected some shortcuts here, some stuff out of packets with a bit of garnish there, and maybe one serious, thought out dish. How wrong I was.

Chef M and his assistant turned up with an array of prepared portions, sauces, garnishes, a couple of extra domestic appliances and a plan and got to work. They were ruthlessly efficient, cleaned as they went, never raised a sweat and did things with certain kitchen devices the manufacturers never intended. Without extraction we had strong food aromas spreading through the bar and our normal cooking methods are designed to avoid this, but as a one off the glorious seafood and red meat aromas could be tolerated.

The results were stunning. It was a real eye-opener for us beer geeks who struggle to turn out passable meals and snacks from our primitive equipment. The full menu is below.

Nelson Scallop & Tauranga Prawn Duo on Coriander & Carrot Mousse with Three Boys Wheat
Venison with Black Pudding Crumble, Rhubarb Compote, Kumara Porridge with Mike’s Organic Ale
Nori-wrapped Salmon with Pickled Cucumber & Raspberry Balsamic Glaze with Baird Angry Boy Brown Ale
Bacon Wrapped Angus Beef Fillet on White Bean Cassoulet with Rogue Chipotle Ale
Kikorangi Blue Sandwich with Sea Salt Chocolate Canache served with Renaissance Craftsman Chocolate Stout
Banana Tarte Tatin with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream served with Eisenbahn Bier Likor

For the record, the most popular dish of the night was the Angus Beef Fillet, the most popular beer was the Baird Angry Boy Brown Ale and the most popular match was the Banana Tarte Tatin with Eisenbahn Bier Likor.

Many thanks to everyone who participated and especially to our chef and sous-chef.

Objectification

2010-01-08T12:01:00.002+13:00

It has been our intention for some time to get an off-licence. Mainly this is so we can get faster turnover and a quicker return on our imports, but also because it's something that customers are asking for. It took a while to organise all the paperwork because September to December of last year were simply so busy. Then having set the whole thing in motion, something went wrong with the publication of our public notices and the whole thing was set back several weeks.

This delay has had even worse consequences than we could have foreseen because it means we've unwittingly come to the attention of one Bernard O'Shaughnessy of Newtown. I say we've come to his attention but in all honesty, I find it unlikely that he knows the slightest thing about us. I say this because he has lumped us together with every other company that published a public notice regarding a liquor licence on December 17th and the text of his "formal" objection makes no connection between his problem with the liquor trade and the way we do business.

His objection is expected to delay the issuing of our licence by one or two months. This is even though the local licensing authority have said that they support our application and are as frustrated with O'Shaughnessy's wholesale objections as I am.

I'm using very restrained language here. I don't think I need to say what I really think, because here, here, here and here are the four pages of his objection. I won't even suggest what readers' reactions might be. Feel free to comment, but please don't use language and terms that might raise legal issues, because I'm considering legal action for defamation myself, in the hope that it will convince O'Shaughnessy that using the provision for objections in the Sale of Liquor Act in this manner is a misuse of the process and an unjustified slur on businesses such as ours.

But you be the judge. And if anyone has any suggestions that will help us throw out this objection sooner rather than later then chime in.

New Year

2009-12-24T18:48:00.004+13:00

With the mailing list, facebook and the demands of work in general this blog has been a little neglected lately. But for the hell of it, here are some clues about what may or may not happen on the night of December 31.

At the very least we will be putting on what is probably the last keg in New Zealand of Hopwired, the extraordinary IPA from 8 Wired Brewing.

What else goes on is pretty much in the hands of our Freight Forwarding/Logistics company and the trucking companies they use. Apparently our shipment of fabulous west coast beer was due to arrive in Tauranga today (the 24th) and then has to be taken to Auckland then Wellington. I've got no idea why it can't come straight to Wellington. But apparently there's a chance it will arrive by New Year's Eve, in which case we plan to unleash two kegs of fresh hoppy goodness at different times during the evening.

Of course the chances of this working out are still around 50%, so we happen to have some good backups in the cellar. Croucher's Vicar's Vice and Emerson's Maris Gold maybe.

Update :- a container ship that may be the one carrying our order docked at Tauranga at about midnight last night.

Craftheads

2009-11-24T13:42:00.008+13:00

This was a huge bonus. I got invited to a small gathering at a new bar in Shibuya called Craftheads. It's the second outlet belonging to Koji Nomura (the first one being the far more remote Sal's in Saginuma).

I like the way Koji has taken a fairly basic space and let function pretty much define the way he has filled it. But by using solid, chunky furniture and letting his taps and bourbon collection dominate the bar he has actually created a surprisingly inviting atmosphere. See http://www.craftheads.jp/craftheads/Welcome.html.

As well as the owner Koji (a.k.a. Michael) were beer writers Tim Eustace and Bryan Harrell, Kjetil Jikuin of Nøgne-Ø and Eigo Sato of Tamamura Honten (brewers of Shiga Kogen beer).

Koji has cultivated such good relations with US brewers that he can stock beers on tap and in bottles that are rare in the cities they originate in, let alone in another country. The bar is pretty much a home away from home for breweries like Three Floyds, Bear Republic, Stone and Allagash. All official imports - not grey market.

Koji had heard about the fuss created when Greg Koch of Stone learned of grey market imports of Stone into New Zealand and isn't short of an opinion. I'll leave readers to guess the nature of those opinions.

Kjetil didn't arrive empty handed. He provided a very early, uncarbonated sample of a radical new Nøgne-Ø beer called Red Horizon. It was fermented slowly, at low temperatures using a sake yeast to no less than 17%ABV. You'd swear it had been fortified. With a little age and a little carbonation this is going to be an instant classic.

Kjetil also hinted at some other upcoming Nøgne-Ø releases, such as an Imperial Dunkelwit(!), Beetroot Ale and a collaboration with Mikkeller and Brewdog. And sake brewing will begin soon.

I won't bore you with more details of what was said and drunk. Here is a picture of Kjetil, Sato-san and Koji discussing the technicalities of eco-kegs. What a pity that in a city of 37 million people the public transport shuts down so early.

Popeye, Maltan and smoke

2009-11-21T20:14:00.005+13:00

First chance I got I visited Popeye in Ryogoku. While more places are opening up Popeye seems to retain its place as the natural home of craft beer around here. There were a few changes - a single, bilingual menu and the "Hops Heart" which is an ultra-late hopping device like the Randall. But the concept, the friendly well-dressed staff, the extraordinary beer list and the uncompromising prices are still unchanged. I got a congratulations on Hashigo Zake's opening from the legendary Aoki-san and it was a relief to hear the name Hashigo Zake get the laughs that it was meant to. I had a pint of Toshi's IPA (7%! and outrageously rich), two glasses from the Hops Heart (one passing through Centennial that smelt like a peach and custard danish and one Simcoe which was surprisingly restrained by comparison) and an Ozenoyukidoke IPA (always good).

Next it was a quick feed at an Izakaya and a reminder of the bad old days - cigarette smoke. While other countries resort to legislation to liberate our lungs, the Japanese government (50% shareholder in Japan Tobacco) all but make smoking compulsory by forcing smokers indoors.

Amends were made by a quick stop at Maltan in Kanda. It's an atmospheric underground bar with a good mix of tap and bottled beer. And particularly enjoyable when you come across it by chance.

Pilgrimage to Numazu

2009-11-20T14:07:00.003+13:00

A trip to Tokyo would hardly be worthwhile without a visit to the Baird Brewery in Numazu. Bryan gave me a thorough tour which also gave me a chance to say hello to legendary home brewer Chris Poel. Not that Chris can really claim to be a home brewer any more.

It's a surprise how small the brewery still is considering how many different beers are made and how far they are now reaching. But Bryan insisted that they could in theory quadruple production before having to expand. Having said that he did foresee a new brewery becoming necessary in two years.

Lean Two

2009-11-12T22:04:00.002+13:00

Nothing like custom made furniture to really make a space. Thanks Florian.

Tastings Future

2009-10-26T17:29:00.003+13:00

We've been busy planning and confirming the next phase of our in-house tasting programme. For some time we've had a Rogue XS tasting scheduled for Nov 10. It was fully subscribed but one cancellation has opened up two places for anyone quick enough to get in.

We can now confirm that that will be followed on Nov 17 by an event dedicated to Japan's (and Asia's?) best brewery - Baird Brewing.

Now that we have stocks of Flying Dog's Canis Major range we have enough of their products for a dedicated tasting, so that will be November 24.

The programme will take a break during the first week of December as the first Tuesday of any month is generally the night of a SOBA event. But we'll be back with a vengeance on December 8. We can't say with certainty what will be on the menu that night, but we will be starting with Sake. This is because we are regularly being asked to have a follow-up to September's Sake and Sumo tasting. But this time we won't stop with a simple wander through a representative range of sakes. Between now and December 8 I will personally fly to Tokyo and exhaustively search the inventory of the city's great liquor stores to come up with a range of fermented and distilled Japanese beverages unlike anything ever sampled in Wellington before. Who knows what we'll end up with - peach jelly infused sparkling sake? beer made with sake yeast? $500 whisky? There will only be one way to find out.

Tastings Past

2009-10-26T16:57:00.003+13:00

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.)

Festival Time

2009-10-18T15:48:00.003+13:00

Here's the face of someone whose friends have just bought him a Mikkeller Festival Special Edition for his birthday. One and a half litres of grins.

Licensing

2009-10-17T17:34:00.003+13:00

Today we received in the mail a document I can only feel should be named: “How to charge over and over for the same thing.” It came from the Australasian Performing Right Association. It started with the sentence “We understand music may be being played at Hashigo Zake”. Not “we believe CDs are being played…” or “we believe live bands are playing..” BUT “music is being played”. It seems APRA are claiming ownership of all music. So much for whistling while you work. Yes that’s a facile interpretation but remember that if we turn the TV on, and at a sporting event some of that banal and infuriating incidental music is being played so loud it comes through on the TV broadcast, then APRA considers that background music is being played and a licence fee is payable.

Now we’re busy enough here at HZ HQ without picking a fight with the apparent guardians of the rights of performers. So we will probably pay the fee, which isn’t too much for us as we simply play a (very good) commercial free radio station. Although it would be good if the fee was relative to sound volume which would get us a huge discount over every other bar in the vicinity of Courtenay Place.

So instead of fighting APRA I plan to embrace their business model and borrow from it (while praying they won’t claim royalties). Henceforward we won’t be selling beer - we will be selling licences to taste. Note that by default the licences will only be to taste. All beer must be returned in a slops bucket. (You’ll never guess who’s buying those off us.) Anyone wanting to swallow their beer must return to the bar and upgrade their tasting licence to a consumption licence. And it doesn’t stop there. We’ll be installing an array of closed circuit television cameras to clamp down on the degenerate practice of beer-sharing. As soon as anyone is seen so much as pushing their glass across the table top towards a fellow customer a siren will sound and all occupants of the table will be detained until evidence of a beer-sharing licence is shown.

Baird

2009-10-08T12:30:00.004+13:00

Well it finally arrived and it hasn't disappointed. A succession of oohs and aahs followed the unveiling of Rising Sun Pale Ale (APA) and the Harajuku Taproom Celebration Ale (American IPA). The Rainy Season Black Ale (a hopped porter) went down pretty well too.

We're already talking to the brewery about what to bring over in the next shipment. With the northern hemisphere winter coming they have a bunch of big, high-gravity beers conditioning now.

Saturdays

2009-10-04T20:48:00.002+13:00

Saturdays seem to be the most challenging night of the week. There's no pattern to when people come in, sports events play havoc with customers' movements and it's the night with the highest proportion of people who really have no idea what kind of a bar they've (literally) stumbled into.

But we also seem to get a random mix of genuinely interesting customers. For instance last night we hosted our landlord(!), Mick from the Freehouse in Nelson, Deon from Tuatara (it's great to be able to tell a customer that they're standing next to the person who made their beer) and a brewer from Melbourne whose name I never learned but who seemed to know our bottle list better than we do.

Still.. 4pm to 4am is a long night especially when all the customers disappear for an hour in the middle of it. Even more so when Friday was spent unloading unspeakable volumes and varieties of beer.

Which reminds me - ETA for Baird beer is now Tuesday.

Hop Oil Orgy

2009-09-28T18:45:00.009+13:00

That's how Bryan Baird describes his Harajuku Taproom Celebration Ale. The last I heard our first shipment of Baird Beer, including the one-off Harajuku Taproom Celebration Ale will arrive on Friday. The queue to taste these will form behind me.

Did I mention that we will be Baird's first outlet in the southern hemisphere?

The Harajuku Taproom Celebration Ale was brewed to celebrate the opening of the Harajuku Taproom (unsurprisingly) about a month ago. Here is a link to a review of the place by a legendary Tokyo barfly known as "Chuwy". http://drinkbrains.blogspot.com/2009/08/new-baird-harajuku-taproom.html.

High Def

2009-09-18T20:31:00.002+12:00

When we got Sky installed the lack of a High Definition decoder was a huge disappointment. It seemed that pubs weren't allowed them.

That's now changed and our tired old late '90s decoder was replaced today, letting us show sport in glorious high def.

For those with an allergy to sports bars please remember that there are no TVs in the lounge and in there you can remain oblivious to the fact there are people watching sport elsewhere.

Bledisloe Beer

2009-09-18T00:08:00.002+12:00

Just a quick note to promote what's coming up this weekend. To coincide with the Bledisloe Cup game in Wellington we're grabbing the opportunity to put on some fine Australian beers that we have access to. I'm talking about Little Creatures (Pale Ale and Roger's), Wicked Elf Pale, Bridge Road Bling IPA and Hargreave's Hill ESB. They'll be taking over whichever taps become available over the next couple of days.

And we've been shopping around as well. Thanks to Mexi-foods and Regional Wines and Spirits we suddenly have access to Sierra Nevada and Anchor Beer. We barely had them in the door today (Thursday) and they started flying off the shelves. Enjoy.

Mikkeller!!

2009-09-11T16:17:00.003+12:00

Mikkeller is here! Unloaded this afternoon with a few bottles straight into the fridge and more to join them tonight and tomorrow.

Feast your eyes on one of our six magnums of the 2009 Special Festival Ale.

Here's the full list.

Simcoe IPA

Nugget IPA

Nelson Sauvin IPA

Tjekket Pilsner

Jackie Brown 330ml and 750ml

Warrior IPA

Struise

Draft Bear

USAlive!

Monks Elixir

Fra Til (From To)

Oatgoop

Festival Special Edition

Big Worse Barleywine

And in the same shipment - more Meantime:

Coffee Porter

London Porter 330ml and 750ml

Chocolate Porter

IPA 330ml and 750ml

Winter Time

Elderflower Maibock

Tasting Calendar

2009-09-09T20:32:00.003+12:00

We've been planning a calendar of regular tastings at Hashigo Zake and now's the time to make some noise about them and start accepting bookings.

First up will be a journey through the beers of Norway's celebrated, maverick brewery Nøgne Ø.

Nøgne Ø was founded in 2002 by two home brewers. One of them (Kjetil Jikiun) also happens to be an airline pilot who has used his time travelling and his affability to forge links with renowned breweries in Japan (Shiga Kogen), Denmark (Mikkeller) and the US (Stone & Jolly Pumpkin). Luckily the beer is also uncannily good, so for a small brewery their reputation has spread disproportionately.

I was lucky enough to meet Kjetil in Tokyo late last year and this set in motion a sequence of events that led to us becoming Nøgne Ø's first outlet in New Zealand.

At the moment we have seven of Nøgne Ø's beers and this includes some of their best - the intense Imperial Stout, the IIPA/Barley Wine called #100, the puzzling Sahti and (don't tell DB) their Saison. Try it before they set their lawyers on us.

We are now taking bookings for this tasting.

A week later we will host something a little different - a Sake tasting with live (televised) Sumo thrown in. Our cocktail and sake expert, Shigeo Takagi, will guide us through a sampling of our sake range, plus a few special extras, climaxing in live coverage from Tokyo of the September Grand Sumo Tournament. The tasting will be oriented to beer drinkers - experience with sake will not be a pre-requisite.

To book for either of these, call the bar at (04) 384-7300 or send us an email at bookings@hashigozake.co.nz. The price for both events is $30.

Cylon Beer Dispenser

2009-09-09T18:02:00.002+12:00

We found some space on our bar top to install one of the self-contained keg pouring systems that White Cliffs Brewing make available for serving their 10 litre kegs. So we now have nine taps and Mike's Mild is in our lineup, with the new Mike's Pilsener waiting to come on next.

Tagger Caught in the Act

2009-09-09T14:27:00.003+12:00

I was thinking of offering a prize to the thousandth person to come in and suggest that we put a sign outside. Well soon we'll have the sign pictured, plus a sandwich board and eventually a sign bolted to the facade of 25 Taranaki St.

Speaking of taggers, someone fitting the description of the culprit in my Crimewatch post has a court appearance in a few days. I might have to take the day off to be a spectator in the courthouse. Or maybe even a witness.

Preview time

2009-08-30T22:19:00.003+12:00

The paint's dry, the taps are working and an eftpos terminal miraculously appeared late on Friday. If the business was software we'd be in beta testing. So since the middle of last week (Aug 26) we've been letting customers in. Not everything is working yet, but beer lovers are well looked after.

It was appropriate that the first customers were the Beervana volunteers, who patiently waited while the first four taps came to life.

On tap now are:

Emerson's Pilsener

Epic Pale Ale

Renaissance Elemental Porter

Hofbrau Weissbier

Harringtons Monsoon

Three Boys IPA

Emerson's Bookbinder

Mussel Inn Captain Cooker.

Waiting in the storeroom are Three Boys Pils, Three Boys Wheat and Renaissance Stonecutter. And thanks to Beervana we've had the brewers of almost all of those beers through the doors as well.

I'll think up some comments soon about the experience that was Beervana 2009.

Anyone in Wellington who's inclined to come in, please do. We're opening the doors at 5pm every day.

Crimewatch

2009-08-21T17:48:00.002+12:00

Another watershed. Our first crime and it was before we've even opened. Our friend wandered in as if he owned the place and started looking for something to steal. The fact that we confronted him, asked him what he was doing and continued to watch every movement didn't stop him finding the nearest bottle, picking it up and taking off. It didn't occur to him that one of us might be armed with a camera phone and be pissed off enough to chase him for as long as it took to get a good shot.

And here it is:

Cutting a hole in the tunnel to let the light in

2009-08-20T17:58:00.005+12:00

Joking aside, it's all coming together in dozens of small but frantic steps. Taps are on their way in, as is a heat pump, TV, Sky, flooring, leaners, the enomatic system, artwork, glassware... a couple of pieces left but there's light at the end of the tunnel.

Baird Beer

2009-08-13T00:08:00.002+12:00

Baird Brewery (recently voted the best craft brewery in Japan at http://forum.beerinjapan.com) are packing their first shipment to Hashigo Zake. This is a huge coup for us, not least because the brewery is in the process of opening only their third outlet - the Harajuku Taproom.

We'll be getting most of the brewery's year round beers, including the beer that sustained me through three years in Japan - Rising Sun Pale Ale. To top it off, Bryan is throwing in a small amount of Rainy Season Black Ale and Harajuku Celebration Ale. As good as the year round beers are, it is seasonals such as these that really get their regular customers in Japan excited, so we hope that there will be more of these to come in future shipments.

It's unlikely that this shipment will arrive in time for Beervana. This might be a good thing as I don't want to be cleaned out of rare and special imports on two days in August. But we'll mark its arrival in Wellington with a fitting celebration in September. Stay tuned.

Order #1 unloaded

2009-08-06T00:12:00.004+12:00

Watershed day today. On a gloriously sunny late winter's day in Wellington, 75 cases of the finest output of Nøgne Ø, Meantime, Flying Dog and Rogue were lovingly de-palleted and hand carried down the stairs to their home for the next three or so weeks. We also started making a few of the minor alterations to the interior that we think will make the bar more spacious and comfortable. Please excuse the grainy camera-phone picture.

Beervana Sponsorship

2009-07-29T08:02:00.002+12:00

Hashigo Zake is one of two major sponsors of Beervana, along with Regional Wines and Spirits. As a result we will have a presence at Beervana and will be open for business after each session (and forever afterwards). We'll be at Stall 11, next to Renaissance.

Location

2009-07-29T00:56:00.002+12:00

The sale and purchase agreement has gone unconditional. So I can finally let on that the location of Hashigo Zake will be the basement at 25 Taranaki St. At the moment it is the home of Vintage Bar, and over the years it has variously been known as Cell and Monkey Bar.

It's close to Courtenay Place but not in its noisy centre, which is something I always wanted in a location. It's also very atmospheric and already fitted out in a fashion that's compatible with what I wanted to create. It can hold 120 people, which should be plenty.

I take possession next week and have a few changes to make before opening later in August.

First Import Order On Its Way

2009-07-21T07:49:00.003+12:00

Hashigo Zake's first import order is on its way. It's not big and it's not cheap, but on opening night we're guaranteed to have at least one pallet of rare and exciting beer sourced from North America, the UK and Scandinavia.

Milestone

2009-07-13T21:57:00.002+12:00

A sale and purchase agreement has been signed (although it's still conditional) and I'm very close to being able to announce a venue.

Website

2009-06-10T16:26:00.002+12:00

hashigozake.com (or hashigozake.co.nz) is up and running. Give it a go.

News

2009-06-09T22:58:00.002+12:00

It's been a while since I posted. Lots of stuff in motion, not many results. Here's something at least - some artwork done by Sean Golding. Part of a pile of work he did including interior design concepts, branding and even a T-shirt design.

Tokyo

2009-05-13T19:24:00.003+12:00

I just blew a pile of frequent flier points and visited Tokyo. It was mainly for personal reasons but it did give me a chance to visit the Baird Nakameguro Taproom during its first anniversary celebrations and talk to Bryan about making Hashigo Zake his first outlet in the southern hemisphere. I got to try the Colombus IPA, Four Sisters Spring Bock and Temple Yuzu Ale. No disappointments.

More Beer Tourism

2009-05-03T22:32:00.004+12:00

I'm just back from Xxxxxx, where I met the local importer of yyyyyy, zzzzzz, qqqqqq and of course kkkkkk. Finding a decent beer in Xxxxxx was just about impossible, unless you were in the know, which I guess is true of most cities in this part of the world. Once I did get solid information about a well stocked bar I made my way along at around 8pm on Friday night and found it closed for a private function. Bit of a pet hate that. Take all your regular and prospective customers and tell them to fuck off in one go. For the record this is something I promise to never do at Hashigo Zake.

Speaking of Hashigo Zake itself, it's been a couple of weeks of dire warnings and scares. Rents for hospitality businesses in Wellington are going up just when they should be going down, the accountant and the bank and talking like undertakers and the ideal location just isn't appearing. Meanwhile distribution opportunities are lying there waiting to be pounced on. So it's increasingly likely that the next step will be to do that - import and distribute. It was always part of the plan to do this on the side and maybe let it grow, but it now looks like a useful stepping stone and sensible business move.

The Freehouse

2009-04-21T12:14:00.003+12:00

This is a brand new Nelson bar whose "soft opening" I snuck into. Two things are notable about the place. One is that they are, as the name suggests, a free house. The second is that they are occupying a former church. It's certainly a visually striking place, although with only a few tables and a few customers it felt a little empty when I was there.

Progress

2009-04-21T11:54:00.003+12:00

The company has been registered, with me as the sole shareholder and director. Registering the trademark is under way but it sounds like that takes several months.

Yesterday I went on a one day course as preparation for gaining the "LCQ" qualification, which is a prerequisite for getting a bar manager's certificate. Although apparently I can't get the bar manager's certificate until there's a real bar to manage, which seems a little circular.

Off for preliminary talks with the bank tomorrow.

Lighthouse Brewery

2009-04-21T11:41:00.005+12:00

Dick Tout is still making beer, 200 litres at a time, under the Lighthouse name. Although he has moved from Nelson to a kind of industrial estate in Stoke. The pilsener was much as I remembered it and he also sold me a bottle of "Nelson Victory Ale", a very English pale ale with a distinctive biscuity malt flavour. In spite of the tiny batch size - or maybe because of it - he also does some contract brewing for 666 in Blenheim.

The Mussel Inn

2009-04-20T23:07:00.003+12:00

The Mussel Inn must be one of the best pubs in the world. It's remote, atmospheric, idiosyncratic, hosts great bands and best of all serves its own great beer.

It had been many years since I tasted the Captain Cooker Manuka beer and it was as good as ever. Although I will concede that it is a matter of taste. It struck me this time that the distinctive flavour is a tad phenolic, which is sure to help polarise drinkers. I think though that Manuka beer is New Zealand's greatest single contribution to the evolution of beer - ahead of Riwaka and Sauvin hops and, ahem, continuous fermentation.

I liked the lemonade and the feijoa-infused lambagreeny too.

Unfortunately I had to leave in a hurry on the morning after and had limited time for taking photos.

Tasman Brewery and the Sprig & Fern Pubs

2009-04-20T22:48:00.004+12:00

I was really quite impressed by both the Tasman Brewery beer and the success of their own little chain of pubs, all called (slightly confusingly) the Sprig and Fern.

The Tasman beer range is large (apparently there are 28 beers, ciders, soft drinks and alco-pops altogether) and very consistent. I tasted no bad ones and several very good. I particularly liked the spiced Summer Ale, the Harvest Pilsener (made with fresh hops) and the Wee Heavy.

The pubs themselves (I visited Hardy St and Milton St) are new and friendly and have a light, clean and unthreatening feel. Interpret that positively or negatively as you see fit. They are also doing a lot of business. Attached is a photo of the Hardy St bar, with Scott the manager in the background. One of the group's directors, David Barrett, pointed out that they intentionally installed the taps behind the bar, rather than on it, to minimise the distance from the kegs, and were told it would never work. Once he pointed this out I realised that this is something I saw often at craft beer bars in the States.

Beer Tourism

2009-04-20T22:33:00.004+12:00

Having just returned from a trip to Nelson (to visit some brewers and find out more about the beer scene there) I thought I'd write a few notes on what I saw. I may throw in some recollections of the U.S. west coast as well.

Having slagged off trademarking...

2009-04-03T12:25:00.001+13:00

I've just applied for a trademark on the name Hashigo Zake (in New Zealand). I'm comfortable that mine is legitimate while DB's trademarking of Radler is absurd.

WTF

2009-04-03T10:26:00.000+13:00

Rob Owen (treasure of SOBA) mentioned this issue to me - the absurd trademarking by DB of "Radler". Words can't do justice to the contempt I have for companies that pull this kind of stunt. I'm looking forward to hearing imaginative ways to make the perpretators realise quite how evil they are.

Doing things with beer the brewer hasn't dreamt of

2009-04-03T01:32:00.000+13:00

One of Hashigo Zake's exclusive offshore suppliers is sending a test shipment of Japanese beer shampoo. It may yet transform the business.

... and crucially

2009-04-02T12:33:00.001+13:00

started this blog!

Official bits and pieces

2009-04-02T12:13:00.000+13:00

just applied to register the hashigozake.co.nz domain name. And yesterday I registered the company although that isn't completely official until I return the forms, which won't happen until my new printer comes from Ascent.