Organic Beer

NELSON CAFE owners can be forgiven for wincing every time John Duncan walks through the door.

The owner of Founders Brewery decided to call his first brew Long Black and he's been laughing ever since.

``Long Black was first name I came up with. I thought it would be fun to go into a cafe and ask for a long black. I go into cafes in Nelson that supply the beer, hoping for coffee, and they give me a beer. But they know me  … and the Long Black does have that coffee flavour.''

It does. Deliciously so. I'm a big fan of dark lagers such as Speight's Old Dark and Black Mac but Founders' Long Black probably surpasses both in that it's fuller bodied and has a more pronounced coffee bitterness. The viscosity and carbonation are spot-on. On the longest night of the year it was perfect drinking. And, at about $6 for a 500ml bottle (if you buy it by the dozen), it's pretty good value too.

While the Long Black name perfectly reflects the contents, I'm not so sure about the latest addition to the Founders range, the Fair Maiden Ale.

Don't get me wrong, what's in the bottle is excellent, it's just that the robust beer doesn't seem to marry up with the Fair Maiden moniker. I was expecting something light and sweet and instead got a strong orange-citrus push of New Zealand Cascade hops on top of a well-balanced maltiness and 5.4% alcohol content. Nothing fair about this.  

Duncan calls the Fair Maiden an APA  Aotearoa Pale Ale  a style riffing off the popular American Pale Ale and growing in popularity. 

But the name, John?

He explains that after the Long Black, came a Tall Blonde lager, then a Red Head amber ale.

So it made sense to continue the feminine naming. ``Also it was my son's first solo brew, so it was his `maiden' brew and it tied in with the other names.''

Founders stands apart from nearly all New Zealand breweries because it is certified organic.

That, Duncan says, ``has been challenging because we've only got four or five hop varieties to choose from and three or four malt varieties, so to do a range of  styles you have to be a bit more creative, but we've come to know our ingredients pretty well''.

Duncan has also been using the same yeast strain for eight years, which is different to the practice in many breweries which, he said, ``would go to a new culture every six brews  but we keep using it batch after batch''.

After 12  years in  e brewing and cafes (Founders has a cafe on-site), Duncan and wife Carol have decided to sell, and this week the brewery  goes on the market.

``Carol and myself run the cafe as well as the brewery and it's been a seven-day operation and it's time to try some other things   maybe retire and write the family history.''

That family history would be pretty much about brewing, as Duncan is a fifth-generation brewer, with sons Matt and Callum making it six generations. He hopes the boys will be able to keep working in the brewery for the new owners.
* This post first appeared in the Sunday Star-Times, on June 26.

Processional at Congressional

Is Rory McIlroy capable of winning the next two majors to end the year with three? Why not.
McIlroy's US Open record-setting score of 268 strokes (mostly incredibly accurate strokes) has only been surpassed twice in a major when Greg Norman posted 267 at Royal St George's in 1993 British Open and when David Toms shot 265 at Atlanta in the 2001 PGA. 
Guess what? Those are next two major venues.  Sure conditions need to be right but in both cases  if the courses are there to be taken, McIlroy is the best-placed player in the world to take them.
His attacking mindset, his distance off the tee, his laser-like irons and newly discovered mint putting touch mean that if it comes down to a low-scoring shoot-out, McIlroy is almost unstoppable.
The processional at Congressional was a case in point. Never has a US Open seen such low scoring  it was the easiest US Open in half a century, maybe ever. And McIlroy, in those conditions, lapped the field.
Nick Faldo, who tweets under TheSirNickFaldo said this: ``Hogan's accuracy for most just legendary stories. 500 million worldwide all witnessed something legendary from Rory!'' 
Wow. A comparison with Hogan doesn't come lightly. Tiger Woods was never compared with Hogan, mainly because Tiger's strength was (is) his mental discipline, his focus, his creativity around the greens, his clutch putting.  Woods was never super-accurate but he could grind out a score with his discipline, creativity and putting.  McIlroy's accuracy and length means he gets plenty of looks at birdie every time he plays.
He has the all the weapons  especially now (thanks to puttign guru Dave Stockton) he seems to have sorted out the putting blemishes that used to mar his play.
Of course, this one victory doesn't mean McIlroy will win every time he steps up, but with his new-found confidence, and with majors known for whittling away many pretenders, he should always be in the mix from now on in  just as Tiger used to be. 
He might be biased, but McIlroy's Northern Ireland countryman Graeme McDowell spoke to the shifting mantle from Woods to McIlroy as the player to beat when he said of McIlroy: ``He is the best player I have ever seen.'' 
What do you think? Is he the best? Can he be the man who beats Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 majors? One down, 17 to go.
Finally, I have to share my own little McIlroy story. Back in 2006 I was lucky enough to play Portrush in Northern Ireland, where McIlroy was a frequent visitor in his teens. It's a damn tough course, not made any easier by the wind that constantly scurries across the fairways.
After the round and following a drink in the clubhouse, the member who had accompanied us on our round stopped at the message board and pointed out the card pinned to the wall, showing the recently achieved club record of 62 (29-33 from memory).
It was signed by Rory McIlroy. ``Remember that name,'' said the member, ``he's going to be something special.''
I've been telling that story and waiting five years for those words to ring true. Now they do.

Boom or bust at US Open

The US Open golf tournament at Congressional is promising this year to be more thrilling.
Maybe they got sick of guys like Retief Goosen, Michael Campbell, Angel Cabrera, Geoff Ogilvy and Graeme McDowell winning their signature event. You know, all those foreigners with their grafting games honed on difficult courses. Guys who can play an array of shots and in all conditions in order to make a par. Did the USGA like that. Not really.
You get the feeling they'd rather see someone like Phil Mickelson, Bubba Watson, Rickie Fowler or Dustin Johnson grab the trophy. You know, big-driving, high-hitting excitement machines who live to make birdie.  
The USGA has spent years making the US Open tougher and tougher, only to find, that Tiger Woods (the ultimate grinder) and the dour Lucas Glover aside, those sorts of courses didn't really suit Americans weaned on a diet of target golf. 
So this year a change. The set-up has been tweaked. Par has been increased from 70 to 71. There's less rough, more risk-reward holes and less par-grinding grimness.
The USGA's Mike Davis says there will be more birdies, and a few eagles, but also some big ugly numbers, too. They want it to be like the back nine at Augusta during the Masters where this year Rory McIlroy was self-destructing with sixes and sevens while eventual Charl Schwartzel was skipping along with twos and threes.
There is potential for a glorious win or a gruesome demise. Unlike, say Winged Foot, where Geoff Ogilvy won after everyone else imploded. Ogilvy didn't dash to victory ... he simply arrived there.
So there will be room for the boom-bust merchants to crank out a low score, as long as they avoid big trouble. That said, the greens at Congressional are reported to be getting pretty fast already, so so Stewart Cink reported on Twitter.
So making those slippery six to 10 foot putts for par will still be crucial, as will lag putting. Predicting who will get hot with their putter is a tough one, especially when the heat increases during the final round.
I think it will come down to putting and with no crystal ball at hand I can only go on history and particularly the PGA Tour's extensive stats on putting. There a handful names keep popping up: Steve Stricker, Luke Donald, Zach Johnson, Brandt Snedeker and Ryan Moore.
I'm sticking with my original pick for this: Snedeker. he's in-form and when he's hot with the putter he's pretty impressive. For one at odds to continue the Open trend of throwing up an unlikely winner, how about Jason Dufner - with three top 10s in his past four starts, all at hard courses, he's playing as well as anyone right now.

Winter Ale

 
I'VE BEEN asked more than once: "That beer you reviewed, where can I buy it?" The implication is that some of the craft beers mentioned in this column are not as widely available as the mainstream brands.

I steer away from the mainstream beers because I figure most of you know what they taste like, so I've tended towards reviewing those quality beers which make up the niche craft beer market. The problem is that many of these brewers struggle to get their products into bars and pubs as they feel the squeeze applied by the moguls of DB and Lion.

This list is by no means complete but if you want to taste a different kind of beer try: Eureka in Albany St, Dunedin; Pomeroy's in Kilmore St, Christchurch; Hashigo Zake in Taranaki St, Wellington; and Brew On Quay, in Quay St, Auckland.

That's only a small sample of places with top-notch beer on tap and you can find more at realbeer.co.nz or soba.org.nz. Also New World supermarkets have a range of craft brews. Finally, there's the beerstore.co.nz, which has a great online stock of New Zealand and overseas brews.

Having got that particular house in order, I'm now going to bow to the power of the big breweries by talking about Monteith's Winter Ale, a six- pack of which arrived on my desk last week. (Note to brewers: this is an extremely good idea!)

Winter Ale is done in the German Doppelbock style which usually means something strong, dark and malty with very little bitterness.

However, it is a slightly watered-down version of the a German Doppelbock - at 6% it's not as strong as it could be and the body is quite light. It's probably designed to suit a New Zealand palate so if you're after something a bit more European, it's not for you.

What Winter Ale does deliver is the perfect fireside drink after you've been out in the cold. Its toasty, chocolate malts offer up hints of cocoa, coffee and an acidic fruitiness reminiscent of cherries or plums.

It's very lightly hopped, allowing the maltiness to shine through, although that means the deep richness you get on the front and middle of the palate isn't backed up by a strong finish, leaving you with the feeling there could have been more to savour.

That's a minor quibble though, because this is a great winter bevvy and can easily be enjoyed with rich, gamey meats like venison or duck. The Monteith's people suggest it goes well with blue cheese, and it's hard to argue with their assessment after a relaxing Sunday evening with this combination.

If you're not sure whether darker ales are for you, this limited edition ale is a great place to start.

Subsequent to the publication of this column in the Sunday Star-Times, I've had some good feedback on the Winter Ale, with the general vibe being it's served too cold in New Zealand bars! it is designed to be drunk at a slightly warmer temperature than the kiwi preferencwe for 0-4deg. Try it at about 8degC and you'll get more flavour from it.

(This column was first published in the Sunday Star-Times on June 12)

Tiger Woods stuck on 14?

Fifteen or so years ago, the late Earl Woods predicted lots of things for his uber-talented son Eldrick, just coming up short of describing his life as the second coming of  JC himself.
One thing that's always struck me is that while Earl was so over the top about Tiger he predicted his son would one day win 14 golf majors.
This is weird because Earl would have known Tiger's obsession with Jack Nicklaus' 18 majors and his son's determination to beat that mark.
Golf World writer John Strege, who began covering Tiger at age 14 said this about Earl when he died in 2006: ``If he was guilty of anything it was overspeaking at times. After Tiger won his second US Amateur, Earl started celebrating early and predicted Tiger would win 14 major championships. He got criticised for that because you can't put that on a 19-year-old kid. In hindsight, Earl probably underestimated it.”''
In hindsight, maybe Earl knew his son better than anyone.
Woods is stuck on 14 majors, with none to his name in three years since his limp-to-victory over Rocco Mediate at the 2008 US Open at Torrey Pines.
He hasn't won the Masters in six years, it's been five years since his last British Open triumph, the emotional one which came shortly after Earl died, and four years since his last PGA Championship.
A lot has happened to Woods in the last three years: severe injuries, being exposed as an adulterer, coming out as a sex addict, losing his mana, losing his swing, changing his coach, getting divorced and now, injured again. The latest injury news means he will miss next week's US Open. 
It's time to ask whether Woods, at the age of 35, is done. Will Earl's prediction end up being spot on, that Woods will be forever stuck on 14 majors, falling short of Jack's mark due to a combination of his own weaknesses, both in body and mind.
I have serious worries that Woods can make it back to the force he once was but that doesn't mean his pursuit of Jack's mark of 18 is done and dusted. If Woods learns to swing within himself and get by on his once magical putting, he can win plenty more tournaments.
And don't forget Nicklaus won four of his majors after the age of 38, including three in 40s. And golf is full of players who get a second life in their late 30s and 40s and go on to become major contenders.

Courtesy of paul.edrosky.com

To illustrate the two golfers' careers I found this great graph on http://paul.kedrosky.com/
which he did back in 2009. The only thing that changes is that the flat-line for Woods at 14 continues for two more years!
But what Woods will have to face that Nicklaus never did, is a generation of young powerhouse swingers inspired by Woods and chasing the riches only made possible by Woods.
While Nicklaus was the star of his class he's had nowhere near the same effect on golf as Woods.
To win more than 14 majors Woods will first have to make a full physical recovery, then he has to get his game in order (maybe restricted his distance and going for a Luke Donald- or Jim Furyk-style of golf) and then he will have to overcome a much deeper list of contenders than Jack ever had to face.

home brewery

Last week I tried out the new WilliamsWarn home brew system http://www.williamswarn.com/ which is a brilliant piece of Kiwi ingenuity.
Ian Williams, the designer, let me "borrow" it for a week to put down a brew. I didn't physically borrow it as the brew was prepared and fermented on his premises on Great South Road - after all he wouldn't want an amateur like me lugging his $6000 baby all over Auckland.
But Ian then delivered the 20L batch to our workplace on Friday evening where the cask was drunk dry in short time. Here's a pic courtesy of @richardboock http://yfrog.com/hsbaqtuj
The brilliance of the WilliamsWarn is that you can ferment and cask the beer in the same vessel, as Ian has developed some amazing gadgets which a) clear the yeast sediment b) clarify the wort without opening the lid c) keep the wort under constant pressure and temperature (to best suit the yeast) and d) take the fresh beer from the fermenter/barrel via and ingenious pump system so you can drink the equivalent of tap beer straight from the fermenter as it were. You can also carbonate to your desired level.
It's a pretty little appliance actually (though many people were surprised by how big it was!).
It's also expensive but Ian hopes that he if can sell a few in North America and Europe, the price will come down, particularly for Kiwi brewers.
At the current price it's not necessarily an ideal home brew system for a bloke on his own. Also, the idea is that the beer is supposed to be drunk fresh, although it will keep for a number of days, and the temptation of having 20L of beer chilled and on tap in your own home could be a disaster.
But you can bottle from it if you want (without the worry of calculating priming sugar/yeast or sedimentation).
It would be an ideal machine for a sports club or a big flat, or university dorm - where you can lay down a brew on Sunday and drink it the following Saturday night! It's a quick clean and repeat.
Twenty litres does disappear pretty fast with a few people around. At our workplace, it was quaffed  quickly (media people are a sucker for a free drink). Ian and I went for a blond ale with a late infusion of Riwaka hops and it was an easy drinking brew - just perfect for the large number of women in our building because it wasn't too hoppy and not too carbonated. It had hints of passionfruit and citrus and I got a light bubblegum whiff which I quite liked.
The real advantage of this machine (if you can afford it) is the commercial quality of the brew. It's super clear, with no off flavours that you often get from home brew. Because the entire machine is pasteurised before you start, there's no risk of infection and the temperature/carbonation control means everything that can usually go wrong doesn't.
Ian has some kits for making an array of brews but if you wanted to, you could do your own all-grain mash and then transfer the cooled wort to the WilliamsWarn.
In my dreams I'd have a microbrewery (more a nanobrewery) with half a dozen of these things lining the back wall with an array of brews on tap and another half dozen out the back brewing next week's batches.