Herevana – Renaissance – Unfiltered Series #4
A Five beer Series. A series simply 1-4 and a 15 year celebration beer. Obviously the place to start is at 1 and finish with the 15 year celebration beer. So 4. Two’s company, Three’s a crowd, and 4 is… well stand by
Renaissance Brewing make the Renaissance Unfiltered Series and they do that in🇳🇿 Blenheim, New Zealand.
The Unfiltered Series #4 is and IPA of 5.8% ABV and 12 IBU, or 2 standard drinks in NZ
The label promises beer that is at the very top of their scale of hoppy and citrus and at the much lighter end of the scale. What could go wrong?
I should be more excited about Kviek yeast I think.
This has a much more muted aroma on opening. It’s much lighter, and much more attractive looking, and the had is the same fulsome white airy fluffy affair that makes me smile, even if it is fleeting, the head, like my smile. I get what could be something like tangerine or orange as part of the aroma, It could of course be pineapple like the brewer says it should be.
This is much less bitter, and I momentarily though for that a much more accessible as a beer. But, and I don’t want to play it down, this really needed to kick on and be something. It doesn’t and it isn’t.
And so it’s back to earth on a full circle voyage of 4 similar/dis-similar beers to a point that I didn’t expect or want to be at. The 1-4 is not a sliding scale, it’s a numbering system.
I know that it’s not a never ending stairway of increasing bitterness (we know where that ends) or how ‘juicy’ you can make a beer (I don’t think we got there yet) but there is a place where you need to target a beer. #4 is a lovely decent low bitter low everything bitter beer that is saved somewhat by it’s lovey hazy colour, and it will appeal to a lot of drinkers as it’s not at all a challenge to the taste buds. It them stumbled into the ‘everyman’ beer category, which is, to be honest, where you’re making the money if you’re a brewer.
The Pdubyah-o-meter rates this as 7 on the arbitrary number scale. For me. it’s just not doing anything for the style, and not a lot by way of adding enjoyment or adventure into beer. It’s ok, it’s not offensive, or difficult, but there’s a lot of average beers that this competes against.
Similar to our Hazy East Coast IPA, this brew was created with a classic NEIPA malt bill, loads of wheat and oats and fermented with Kviek yeast – the point of difference is we left out the lactose creating a dryer mouthfeel.
Moutere, Pacifica and Sultana Hops (formerly experimental #06277) were used resulting in aromas of pineapple, grapefruit with a burst of citrus..
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 