Beer – #76 – Mussel Inn – Captain Cooker Manuka Beer
Mussel Inn Captain Cooker Manuka Beer, then. MrsPdubyah is watching the teevee and this seems like a distraction. Its a pretty pink label and it holds within a 330ml portion of a 5% ABV beer, but wait…
This is brewed by the world Famous Mussel Inn in the syle of a Spice/ Herb/ Vegetable beer and they’re world famous in Onekaka, New Zealand
I’m going to expect all this “A red brown beer flavoured with the freshly picked tips of the Manuka tree. A very distinctive beer with proven medicinal qualities. The only one out of 240 New Zealand beers to rate 10 out of 10 in Keith Stewarts book ‘The complete guide to New Zealand Beer‘. Also featured in ‘Best – a New Zealand compendium’. Compiled by Ella Griffiths, published by Awa Press. Also available on tap at Hopgood’s in Trafalgar St. Nelson, The Abbey at Appleby and Jester House in Tasman”
Medicinal beer. Proven. (puts Skeptical hat to one side), perhaps this is the beer that is a cure for a hangover….
On the aroma I get a bit of honey…. I’d struggle to say this was a “red” on the pour. There is a bunch of other things going on in the aroma, none of which I get but I’m reaching for.
There is honey and I get Turkish Delight on the palate. Turkish Delight! I’m making things up, but no that’s what I have – you might think roses or rose water, I have a sweet tooth. It’s not over hopped, and the sweetness undernotes are not that bad.
The carbonation is good, there’s an sense that this is a solid predictable beer , and that the next one would be the same, a confidence, for something a bit edgy that’s a big thing.
I still get a candy floss, turkish delight or rose water thing, and I think that’s by design. The carbonation is a bit annoying too, that’s something I could do without to be honest. I might be looking for more a honey sweetness if I was going to have a bash at this for an evening, As a once-er or a round-table for a consensus this isn’t such bad thing.
Lets get to the gritty, Keith Stewart is a plank to suggest this is a 10/10, Ella Griffiths also needs to get out more. This isn’t a 10/10 or a best of anything ever, not even ow!. I’d hate to have to make a top 10 though, but I do know this isn’t close by a mile.
It’s not bad but at the arbitrary pdubyah-o-meter this isn’t more than 6 arbitrary things from 10 other arbitrary things. Look hey if you brought me a 6 pack over I’d admire you and we’d chew the fat, but there are thicker and longer beers than this, not that this is thin, it’s just not a stayer, and barely a starter. I think you’d tire of the roses pretty smartish, I’ve got the end of this and I’m glad it was 330ml and not 500ml.
If you’re going to show off something that it somehow a unique New Zealand thing, the Manuka, the honey then fill your boots. If it’s something a little more than a beer for a diplomat or your mother in law that you’re looking for then this might not be the beer for you.
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