Herevana – McLeods – Highland Fest Festbier Lager
McLeod’s Highland Fest Festbier Lager – a surprise beer, as I had no idea, which I put down to either arrogance or ignorance, more the latter. I mean I keep up with the 802’s, the Kereru specials, the Garage Project monthly (although I miss most of them) and some of the Behemoth output. But to find a festival beer, what a perfect beer for Herevana! .
Of course McLeod’s Brewery make the McLeod’s Highland Fest Festbier Lager, in they do that in 🇳🇿 Waipu, New Zealand, and it could be a lager or it could be a Pilsener / Pils / Pilsner style at a 5.8% ABV, this is 2.4 standard drinks of a beer.
A darker moodier orange golden pour of a beer that has a head and then no head.
Aroma is quite dull, the taste is a a bit of a surprise though. There’s this whole outrageous generosity of everything that you get in Lager but larger, more of that malt, more of that bite, more of that fruit skip, just more of everything.
It is a Diailed up lager, and you have to calm your farm ,as it isn’t a Pilsner, it isn’t a IPL, it’s just a proper straight up lager done to full spec.
When you remember that, and then things and compare to the green-bottle 12 pack you shared with a mate, you begin to realise what am economical choice they make in their production. Yes this is more, it’s more of everything , and yes it’s more of your coins, but you get back a beer like you’re supposed to be getting, not a shadow of, a beer that’s just bulk over substance.
The Pdubyah-o-meter rates this as 8 on the arbitrary number scale, a lovely beer for the Herevana, a reminder that plain old Lager can be plain old good if you do it properly, and I think they’ve done it properly.
Akin to a true Pilsner with a more restrained hop character, Highland fest is a strong lager brewed with NZ Pilsner & Vienna malts then hopped with Hort 9099, a new experimental variety from NZ Plant & Research. A New Zealand version of a noble hop, it adds smooth bitterness & a soft herbal aroma. Refreshing & crisp, it’s easy drinking
Herevana beers are those I drink at home, I’m not at some beer festival, like, for instance, Beervana, but am just in my kitchen, usually, dining room table, sometimes, or outside, occasionally, where I can take an average picture and write in real time about the beer that I’ve invested in, both in a monetary and emotional way.
Philip himself.
A life just as ordinary 