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.