10 beers of the summer

Everyone does top-10s and I’m no exception, so with 1/12^th of 2012 behind us, here’s my 10 beers of the Kiwi summer to date.

Tuatara APA

The highlight of the summer. Bursting with tropical fruit hops, this is the Kiwi cousin of Tuatara's ephemeral American Pale Ale, but made with New Zealand hops instead of American varieties, which proved too hard to get because of a US shortage. The relatively new Wai-iti hop strain adds a softer, sweeter citrus flavour than you find in many American pale ales  with more mandarin than grapefruit  which gives the punch-bowl flavour a tangy subtlety. It makes you feel like filling the swimming pool with beer and diving in.

Mussel Inn Captain Cooker

From this extraordinary brew pub in the middle of nowhere comes the definitive New Zealand beer. It tweaks the recipe that Captain Cook used  Leg 1 when he brewed the first beer in New Zealand, using tree bark and leaves from rimu and manuka, at Dusky Sound in 1773. The modern Captain Cooker uses manuka flowers, which give a beautiful turkish delight twist. It's an incredible beer.

Pink Elephant Mammoth

Blenheim brewer Roger Pink is a cult figure in the New Zealand brewing scene, making eccentric beers to match his quirky personality. Mammoth is a perfect holiday treat. It's got Christmas-cake aromas of dried fruit and nuts, but with a fragrant earthy sourness hiding behind a caramel malt curtain. I had mine with some leftover cold ham that had been glazed with my home-brewed old ale and marmalade.

Epic Larger

No it's not a typo. It's a lager, but a larger lager. In fact, it's an imperial lager, in the sense that imperial just means bigger. The higher alcohol level (8.5 per cent  be warned one 500ml bottle is 3.4 standard drinks) makes it an ideal food match. I had one with an array of Mexican barbecue food and it was a perfect match, strong enough to compete with the spice, yet still offer a change of pace on your palate.

Three Boys Golden Ale

Deirdre loves Ralph Bungard's summery Golden Ale, so every time she saw me pulling a distinctive Three Boys bottle out of the fridge, she would ask: ``Is that one of mine?'' I managed to sneak the odd glass for myself and what a lovely butterfly of a beer. Light and bright with gently fluttering floral hop aromas, it's a perfect summer drop.

Invercargill Smokin Bishop

Smoked beers were all the rage last year, and this is the best of them. This is what beer could have tasted like centuries ago when the only way to dry malt was over an open fire. The smoke is neither overpowering nor subtle. It's perfectly pitched and a stunning example of a classic style.

Epic Coffee and Fig Oatmeal Stout

Yep, those guys from Epic, again  this time with the commercial realisation of a brew they made with Victoria Wells from Dish magazine for the media contest at Beervana (where they trounced my Hop Off The Press collaboration with Emerson's). I shared this on New Year's Eve with some friends because you couldn't drink a whole 750ml bottle of this (well, you could, but it wouldn't be that sociable). Up front, there's chocolate-coated coffee bean that is softened by the oatmeal. It has the texture of sleek black cat.

Yeastie Boys Digital IPA

Yeastie Boys has decided this is an open-source beer and has put the recipe online for home brewers to try to replicate. I'll be giving it a go just because it's worth having many, many bottles of this citrus and tropical fruit  explosion. You could hop, skip and jump your way through three or four of these in no time flat.

Harrington's Anvil Dry Hop

Harrington's are starting to do more high-end, higher-alcohol brews and this is a fine example of their premium craft styles. A strong New Zealand pilsner, it is juicy and full-bodied, but splashed through with summery cut-grass aromas. It's refreshing and drinkable in the extreme.

Stoke Biscuit Lager

Another in the Stoke “Bomber” line, this lives up to its name with a chewy toffee character that reminds you of mum's baking. The hoppiness provides the icing on the cake.