Monthly Archives: August 2012

Aug 31 2012

Beer – #51 – Hoegaarden Wit


 

Don’t think badly of me. I enjoy Hoegaarden Wit beer, it’s light, lemony and usually pours with a head, but since It’s me it doesn’t. Which means I can’t pour beer or live in some dead zone. No it’s not a craft or special beer.

It’s a commercial beer, the shame.

Hoegaarden Wit, 330ml 4.9% ABV. Brewed by Brouwerij Hoegaarden (InBev) in the style of a Belgian White (Witbier) and it’s made in Hoegaarden, Belgium

If you’re unsure about Wheat beer/White beer/Wit beer there would be far far worse places to start than this. It consistent like commercial beer is.

Arbitrarily this is always consistent  and 8 from 10 arbitrary things. giving it more would give away the lie that it’s somehow a craft beer, which clearly it isn’t. It’s a good beer however and I’m going to enjoy this one and the 3 mates it came with. Probably the beer that got me started on “different” beers truth be known.

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Aug 30 2012

Beer – #50 – Kaimai Golden Rye Ale


 

Brewed by Kaimai Brewing in the style of a Specialty Grain, and comes from the lovely Mt Maunganui, New Zealand. So I learnt that you can have a beer style of “Speciality grain”  This 330ml bottle of 5.5% ABV golden beer has been on or near my radar for a while.

“Rye in beer is technically more difficult than traditional barley – this beer comprises 40% rye! Brewer Andrew Larsen is introducing NZ palates to the delicacies of rye textures and flavours in this and his Porter Rye Ale. Golden Rye Ale is tinged with flavours of passionfruit and citrus. It is refreshingly smooth and silky and the rye produces a unique aroma and texture”

As a special beer then I’m sort of expecting special things. It’s unusually delivered small, which is possibly why I’ve avoided it before – being a bulk over substance kind of guy, But what better way to get to a 50?

Ok so it’s dark like Rimu colour brown, which isn’t so much “golden” as rich brown. You can catch the aroma of yeast. Nothing leaps out and announces itself.

I get a taste of grass, which I’m sure you all know is a favourite snack of mine.  It’s big on flavour through and leaves you an interesting mouthfeel. Of course it poured headless. What else would happen?

The twang and the spice are quite pleasing, but I’m bereft of ideas of how this beer is significant enough to have it’s own category of speciality. It’s a good beer. It’s not a stand alone in a class of beer beer.

The grass taste – well it might be the Rye of course, just thought of that.

Pdubyah-o-meter time, and this isn’t what I thought I might get,  I say that a bit with beers, sometimes they’re good words sometimes they’re bad. This is like the disappointment you get when you have a lotto ticket and you know the jackpot hasn’t been won. So for that this is 5 from 10 arbitrary numbers from an equally arbitrary number. This beer is just not special enough to be a class on it’s own, and a bit ordinary to be confused as leading the way with something, a bit ordinary and I probably could confuse it with something more commercial and a lot cheaper.

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Aug 29 2012

Beer – #49 – Renaissance – Craftsman Chocolate Stout


Renaissance – Craftsman Chocolate Stout, Brewed by Renaissance Brewing in the style of a Stout, in Blenheim, New Zealand

Expecting dark, Expecting Chocolate, and hoping that it pours with head.

500Ml of a 4.9% ABV  beer in a bottle that says pint, and there I was thinking I was making it up, and that 568ml is a pint. Brewers privilege.

It pours like a thick liquid, definitely dark pitch black, and I was kidding myself if I expected a head. I really have to figure this out.

There is no aroma that I can resolve, but the taste is all there. A complete range of chocolate, coffee, a little burnt stuff, lots of bubbles.  Quite subtle, and full of intrigue. There isn’t a long taste to this though, it’s all on the palate and then it’s all gone. Mind you each mouthful is it’s own reward and I’ve got no problem with that.

Arbitrarily though this is about 8 from 10 arbitrary things from an equally arbitrary number. It’s ok, it’s very ok, but it’s sort of muddled in the taste but I’m not going to turn this away it you’re buying. Of it’s kind it’s a winner, if only I could pour it with a head I could have arbitrarily given it higher marks.

Aug 29 2012

Sporting your life vicariously – the last Tournament


Next week my daughter will be playing for her College team at the 2012 Federation Cup Secondary School Tournament in Carterton. It will be for her, and many others, the final schools tournament they get to play in. Of course there is always faint hope of age grade representative teams, and other honours, but this one is a final hurrah before she embarks into the real world!

Rangitoto College are this year seeded #6 based on the 2011 tournament results. The Federation Cup is for the top schools Hockey teams, and is pretty mercenary, the bottom 4 teams drop out of the tournament the following year, and the top four teams from the  Marie Fry Trophy Secondary School Tournament are added, this year: St Hilda’s Collegiate , Craighead Diocesan, Christchurch Girls High, and Gisborne Girls High. The Schools that now play in the tournament below -The Marie Fry Trophy Secondary School Tournament –  are : Westlake Girls High, Hillcrest High School, Tauranga Girls College,  and Nelson College for Girls, and they go in as the top 4 seeds for that.

The Federation Cup  is played in a tournament format of 16 Team 4 teams per pool, and then Quarter Finals, Semi Finals and Finals.

In recent years, since they qualified after the 2007 Marie Fry Trophy Tournament,  Rangitoto College have finished 8th (2008), 4th (2009), 2nd (2010), and 6th (2011).

This year then the seeding and pools look like this

Pool A Pool B Pool C Pool D
Wairarapa College Diocesan School St Cuthbert’s College St Matthew’s Collegiate
Whangarei Girls’ High St Margarets’ College Rangitoto College Rangi Ruru Girls
Epsom Girls Grammar Kristin School Villa Maria College Palmerston North Girls
Gisborne Girls High Christchurch Girls High Craighead Diocesan St Hilda’s Collegiate

And seedings

Team Division Seeding
Wairarapa College 1
Diocesan School 2
St Cuthbert’s College 3
St Matthew’s Collegiate 4
Rangi Ruru Girls 5
Rangitoto College 6
St Margaret’s College 7
Whangarei Girls’ High 8
Epsom Girls Grammar 9
Kristin School 10
Villa Maria College 11
Palmerston North Girls 12
St Hilda’s Collegiate 13
Craighead Diocesan 14
Christchurch Girls High 15
Gisborne Girls High 16

And for me? A Few days in Carterton where there is plenty of Wine to drink ! oh and I’m urged to consider these activities whilst there, inbetween games:

  • Paua World, a terrific paua factory and store
  • The Parkvale Mushroom Factory
  • Vineyards at Gladstone
  • Stonehenge Aotearoa
  • Country gardens – like Daysh Country Garden at Clareville and Assisi Gardens high in the Gladstone hills
  • and as a bonus
  • For an outdoor adventure hike in the Tararua Forest Park and the Waiohine Gorge, which has an brilliant swing bridge.

All of which could happen.

Aug 28 2012

Beer – #48 – Epic – Message in a Bottle


Epic – Message in a Bottle. a 7.5% ABV beer in a 500ml bottle. Brewed at Steam Brewing Company In the style of an India Pale Ale (IPA), in Auckland.

When Kiwis first started brewing their own beer in the late 19th century, it was modelled on the IPAs imported from the Motherland by ship. This is what we used to drink before industrialisation, prohibition-pleasing law reform and rationalisation turned beer into a one-dimensional mass-produced commodity. At the dawn of the 21st century a brave new age of brewing is bringing back flavour and rediscovering the popular beers that time forgot. Whatls old is new again. Enjoy it like it was your first time.

Two things, My pictures are getting worse, not a pretty man this one looks like I’ve developed a badger stipe! Anyway Right then, an IPA, so expecting a bit hoppy, bit coppery, and it’s all that, a burnt caramel, bittery nice and roasty.

Nice one EPIC, Lovely colour, lovely aroma. top stuff, except for the feeling of over-carbonation.

The pdubyah-o-meter cranks upto an 8 on this, out of 10 arbitrary things. It’s pleasant, flavourful, colourful but in the end not character-full enough to be great.

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Aug 28 2012

Happy Families – the one with the recap #2


Anyways we crack on ….  There are many more things to tell

If you remember we had an aunt Peggy  - it turns out that she was not a relation at all. This came to light when Peggy needed proof of identity for her pension rights. Seems our nan took her in. Mum only said she was very upset and angry.

but a footnote clears it up somewhat:  Peggy is a relation, that’s your Mum’s “sister” on her birth cert. The father is named as your granddad ( Eva’s dad ), but the mother isn’t Harriet (grandmother), but is in fact your Grandads sister.  We presume that whilst married – the mother who’s name evades us at present – and with her husband is  at war (or dead) she’s become pregnant. Our Grandparents have taken Peggy as their own, hence Grandads name on the birth certificate, so Peggy was your Mums cousin and her “parents” we’re her Aunt & Uncle.

In other stories

The bishop of Fulham is a relative! He came to visit us once.

Granddad had a  brother who lived just yards away they never spoke.

Took mum to see Albert SCRIVEN  -  he being a cousin –  his brother was a boxer and actually spared with the late Sir Henry Cooper, we have a letter from him telling us that.

Granddads father fell of the back of a horse and cart and died. He was born in Crewkerne  - that’s Somerset.

granddad  served in WW I -  according to mum he was a stretcher bearer.  Had a finger knuckle shot off Clive may remember that twisted finger.

Uncle George who lived at the same house got shrapnel wounds in the back we have a photo of him in uniform with a military motorbike. Sadly he jumped in front of a train at Hither Green. There was a short story in the newspaper at the time. I talked to the head of British Railways about this but they don’t keep records.

Then there is Uncle Jim. Uncle Jim took everything,  but he died a pauper at Bury St Edmunds.  The council cremated him, and put his ashes on nans grave.

The only relation alive is by marriage, and  is Uncle George’s wife.  Mums brother, George was in the SAS.

Our older cousins are passing away,  cousin Tarn died , Cousin Sam (Clive will remember him he has cancer) is living in  somewhere like Thailand  -  sold his house to provide for himself as money goes further.

We have a relation there who as done much ancestry work,  I met him on the family tree. There is a soldier with the surname “Hicks” –  a war memorial statue, more than one, who posed for the sculpture  – we have a photo,  It’s also the memorial statue near us, anyway we’re sure there are more.

Our family tree goes back to 1604 I think but only on mums side.

We have relations in South NZ – Waimate. Might as well put this a relative played for the all blacks. a long time ago.

and Finally….

Uncle Syd was a  boxer –  using the name “Pat Crowley” in Ireland.  Not a good idea to be an Englishman with “the troubles” then. A record of 99 fights undefeated. The information came from a boxing historian who was very excited when we told him who Pat Crowley was. Also spoke to the owner of boxing magazine about George SCRIVEN, grandads son, he was an Olympic hopeful but liked women and a beer he’s the one who sparred with Henry Cooper.

Aug 28 2012

Happy Families – the one with the recap


I mentioned yesterday how strangely a family that doesn’t really communicate that well suddenly gets a burst of enthusiasm for each other. Today I have the recollections of  the #2 Child, my older brother (there are 3 sisters in between us though). Let us begin….

Lots of photo are missing the oldest ones were taken when dad was a misplaced person after the war.

The reason, for his being a misplaced person, is, I believe, dad,  along with many others were rounded up after the Warsaw uprising.

He probably knew Pope John Paul  - who evaded capture.  That could explain why we got Christmas cards and holy bread, and that we also a photo of the pope on the wall. (signed by the pope himself I remember)

This is important  - dad was a slave worker for the nazis , I think he must have been liberated by the Canadian forces so ending up in Canada, where his listed occupation was a barber.

After release dad joined the Royal Engineers.

Mum saw him visiting a friend in London (near her home address in Beacon Road and said “I will marry him” –  and she did  - at Lockerbie in Scotland.

Dad like many other war veterans did not talk about the past.

Dad first went back to Poland in 1964 in an Austin A40 car a red one.  He took to Poland things that were rare like coffee, plasters , chocolate, warm clothes  - including socks and underwear. When he came back home all he was wearing was a top and trousers and a pair of sandals he had given everything away.

The photo you are referring to is at a place called krakow  (possibly Zakopane),  you have been there along with Lesley ,Andy, Stewart also Shirley.  You all went in a Austin 1100.

That was 1966.

I remember going to Poland, indeed in a red Morris 1100 there were 4 asleep on the back seat, top to tail, and mum and dad in the front. It would have been an overnight drive. I don’t recall Stewart being there, since he was born in 1967 it would be unlikely :-)  OS just myself, my older sisters Shirley and Lesley and my younger brother Andrew.  There are a few vivid memories – I was after all only 5) Sitting on mum’s lap as we drove through the night – having a night watchman looking after the car – a bit of a rarity in Poland at the time – a private car – the Trams and the Ice Creams. 

Aug 27 2012

Happy Families, the one with the lost photographs


Among the many best things about re-uniting with family post the stress of the death of the mother is that there is more acceptance and sharing of things.

This time the photographs. None of which contain me (in this batch) but worth sharing for the sharing.

My father at work, bales of cloth in the background are lining material for coats.
Aug 25 2012

Beer – #47 – The Moa Methode


The time has come the walrus said…. to get into this 1.5Litre bottle of Moa Methode. It’s 5.5%ABV and that makes the whole mission about 6 standard drinks and a stagger.

This then is as brewed by the Moa Brewing Company, in the style of a Pilsener, and hails from Blenheim, New Zealand

A German Pilsner – expecting Citrus and Hops. Might have bitten off more than I can chew, but who can resist a bottle that is bigger than you arm!

And frankly this has been in the fridge for far too long and I could make a million reasons I haven’t drunk it year and all that but today is the day

And I poured myself an ice-cream! a Half and half. So I found a beer that I can pour with a head. At least it settles down with a fine lacing.

I’m sure If I could hold the bottle and glass I could pour a beer with a more acceptable head, as the bottle gets lighter I might get better, however the trade off might be that I get less steady of the hand.

So did I get the citrus hops? Yes I did. I also got a hazy golden pour of beer, with is pleasing to my little eye.

The taste is somewhat coloured by the hops, it has that rasp that you’d expect at a low end of the scale, some people might be put off by it, and I do get an earthy aroma, mostly from the fluffy white head which is still there despite my efforts to drink through it.

I had this with some of  the “Over the Moon – Triple Cream Brie” (which I just notices has a per Kg price of $76.00, I’m in the wrong industry), and I’m pretty much enjoying myself. I should write about the cheese, which is about as close to perfect. I’d sway towards a Camembert normally but challenged myself to a Brie. And you know what, pay a little more for the cheese and enjoy it a lot more.

The pdubyah-o-meter is needed to provide the usual arbitrariness of things, and on the scale this is about 8.5 from 10 arbitrary things. This isn’t an offensive beer, it’s not a front runner beer, it’s a very fine pilsner beer. It carries itself well and it’s consistent in it’s taste. Of all their fine beers If you can find it I recommend the Moa St Josephs, which surprise to no-one is a Belgium style Tripel

I’ve not a lot to compare this too, from my very unreliable memory there are more pale ale and wheat beer types of beer than pilsner beers in the list so far, which is not to say that I’ve never had reason to talk about them, just not here.

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