About half an hour’s drive out of Auckland along State Highway no 16 is the lovely rural area of Riverhead. The area has plenty of farmland, vineyards and fruit producers. We came across a great little brewbar and restaurant which had an incredible range of quality beers called Hallertau. They produced beers using the traditional artisan processes with nothing other than water, yeast, hops and barley and rainwater. The brewers produce four regular beers and a range of seasonable brews, we were lucky enough to try a few of them including the Copper Tart or No 3 beer which as the name suggests is a red ale with a very tasty caramel and chocolaty taste. Delicious. Their Statesman Beer or No 2 was a very rich pale ale which had a fairly bitey hops kick. They also did a nice Kolsch style beer called Luxe or No 1 which had some delightful fruity aromas and aftertastes and plenty of character. The venue had great food, there was a as they called it grazing menu in the bar area with a range of tasty treats and more of a restaurant style menu in the main part of the complex. The beer has been recognised by many leading critics in New Zealand and due to the small quantities produced is pretty hard to get outside the brewery but several places around Auckland are stocking it as a boutique craft brew.
Well I found another treat around at my local bottle shop. VIrgin Blonde- a low carb blonde beer from the Steel River Brewery which is located in New South Wales. The beer has been on the market for a little under 2 years and if the guy in my bottle shop is correct reckons it is very popular. The beer is an organic beer and is fairly pale being made from lightly roasted barley that has been grown organically without pesticides or any other nasty chemicals which has got to be better for you. The grain also hasn’t had the normal fumigation which many of the larger breweries do to their grains. So this beer is not only using healthier products in its production it is low carb so it shouldn’t be too bad on the waistline. Not that it had a problem anyway…eh!
Virgin Blonde Beer was introduced onto the Australian market a few months ago and is the first of what is hoped to be a range of beers by …… using organic products with no nasty chemicals or synthetic products. This tasty blonde dosen even have extra sugar added to the brew it uses just barley, yeast, New Zealand grown hops and water- Nothing else. Brewed by the Steel River Brewery in Mayfield, New South Wales, which is near Newcastle north of Sydney. This beer contains 4.0% alcohol volume and is very refreshing and lets not forget dosent’ contain any of those nasties so many other beers contain with all the big words like Polyvinylpolypyrrolidinone or Rhoiso-alpha acids or Di-Ammonium Phosphate – their names alone are bad for you.
Recently many beer drinkers have been concerned about additives and other nasties in their beer, and then there are people who are allergic to different things- well from deep in the German Black Forest not far from the French border town of Strasbourg comes Schnitzer Brau a organic gluten free beer which is full flavored, fresh tasting and brewed using organic millet malt instead of wheat. There are two flavors to look out for the Original and a very tasty German Hirse Citrus and Lemon blend. The brewery also takes pride in ensuring the beer is organic with no nasty chemicals, pesticides or insecticides used on any of the products going into the brew, which has got to not only make the beer tastier but much better for you. Look out for Schnitzer Brau- it is available outside Germany.
Our beer brewing friends at Lion Nathan are offering a great new promise- ‘beer brewed in compliance to the Natural Beer promise’. Their big brands- Tooheys New, Tooheys Old, XXXX Gold, XXXX Bitter, Swan Draught and West End Draught are now only being brewed using natural ingredients and no nasty artificial additives or preservatives. Similar to the Purity laws in Germany Lion Nathan have rules which only allow five natural ingredients in these beers, malted, or unmalted grains, hops, yeast, water and cane sugar- that’s it nothing else- no artificial colours, preservatives, flavour enhances or any other nasty chemicals. It’s usually the chemicals like preservatives and colourings like sulphur dioxide which give you that nasty head after a big night- not the beer. This is great news for beer lovers and hopefully it will extend to more of the Lion Nathan brands and all other beers for that matter- there is nothing better than natural ingredients, they taste better and they are better for you. Read the rest of this entry »
