Beer – #359 – Wigram – Captain Cook Spruce Beer

Riiight – Wigram Captain Cook Spruce Beer, Honestly this was picked a beer to serve Royals – http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/food-wine/drinks/9943919/What-beer-we-d-serve-Will-Kate –

It says

2) Wigram Spruce Beer – While The Mussel Inn’s Captain Cooker is arguably our most famous manuka beer, Wigram’s is said to be a closer match to the first beer brewed in New Zealand. Captain James Cook brewed an ale using molasses, manuka and rimu when he hit the shores of Aotearoa, and the Christchurch brewery does the same today. The unconventional ingredients create an aroma which screams of tramping through native bush, while the ginger flavour gives a spicy finish

Now the Captain Cooker is a shocker, really it is. So

Eyes left….. Selfie

Wigram Captain Cook Spruce Beer – Brewed by Wigram Brewing Company this then is in the style of a Spice/Herb/Vegetable and Wigram is in Shakey Christchurch, New Zealand

500 ml bottle with 150 calories and it’s a 5% ABV beer making it 1.97 standard drink units in NZ

Based on Captain Cook’s original recipe as first made in Dusky Sound, New Zealand, 1773. Flavoured with ’spruce’(rimu) and tea tree (manuka). Brewed for Heritage foods.

I don’t know what kind of people get to decide on this, those that should get out more often I suspect.

The aroma..like, er, pine, but really sweet, almost mint.

Pours a lot darker than you would thing, with a great fluffy head, and honestly a pretty nice aroma of sweet, spruce, and lemons. Looks great.

Oh goodness that’s not pleasant. Could be on our way to being a republic. Glass of pine needle in water sir?

You can smell, and taste the spruce / pine in this, I’ve gained another wrinkle though it’s a challenge.

It’s not sweet, sour, bitter or full. It’s an upfront full on punch in the face that leaves quickly, wherein you wonder what happened.

It’s a spiced beer for sure, and taken as that it’s a good beer. I was expecting something else, got something else, and then it was something else altogether.

The pdubyah-o-meter rates this as 7 a of its things from the thing. If I’d sailed half way around the world and they said drink your fill I’d give it a crack. However this is an interpretation and I imagine much less angry. Would I drink my fill of this, nope. Could I? Perhaps with a leg of Moa or something.

The double dip review

Am I enjoying it? I’m still smiling and frowning on this one
Would I have another? I doubt it, it’s more a ‘show off’ beer than a session
Would I share with a friend on a porch and set the world to rights?.. if it was some kind of banquet and there was other things in the wings then possibly, or we were dressed as pirates, could happen.

Musically – Get In! I then went to the Cure – and this – again I know some of the words – Just like heaven.

SPICE/HERB/VEGETABLE

Any ale or lager made with herbs, spices or vegetables. The additive should be distinctive in the aroma. See beer description for flavor. Body, color, hop character and strength vary depending on the type of spice, herb or vegetable used.