#170 Inzane Brewing – Weetbix

Name: Weetbix
Brewery:  Inzane Brewing (Christchurch, New Zealand)
Style: ‘Dark & hoppy session ale’
ABV: 3%
Source: Zane himself

First of all – sorry for the hiatus on posting these last few days. I’ve been away at a wedding and also swamped with writing work from my real job, and other such excuses which are almost definitely nothing to do with laziness.

The first of the five or so beers I have to write about tonight is this Weetbix. The Weetbix is a remix of a Weemix, and the Weemix is a remix of a Pot Kettle Black. Capisce?

No, I didn’t think so.

This is Zane (of Red Dwarf and Caspa fame)’s homebrew version of the Yeastie Boys Weemix, which in turn is their lower strength version (2011 remix) of the incredibly wonderful Pot Kettle Black.

Being a remix of a remix, I’d expected this to be pretty far removed from the original, but in fact it retained much of the same characteristics.

Like the PKB, which is essentially a hopped-up porter, it has loads of roasty, treacley malt, a slight smokiness, and fresh citrussy bitterness from the hops. The Weetbix (and Weemix) are nowhere near as intense as the PKB, but that’s just fine because you can drink much more of it. Hooray!

The other great thing about the Weetbix was that – unlike some midstrength beers I’ve had in the past – it didn’t have a watery, empty mouthfeel. Each sip felt full and satisfying, to the extent where I was wondering if it really really was only 3%.

One final thing of note is label, which shows a bottle of beer being poured all over a bowl of Weet-Bix. I’ve seen people put some weeeird shit on Weet-bix (cottage cheese and orange slices anyone? My boyfriend did it last week), but that is just so wrong. Or is it really right? Someone try it and let me know.

PS – I would like to take this opportunity to thank another Christchurch homebrewer – Douglas the Lie-in King – who kindly emailed me to tell me how to flip my Photo Booth photos around. The days of holding a mirror to the computer screen are over!

 

#110 Inzane Brewing – Red Dwarf

Name:  Red Dwarf
Brewery: Inzane Brewing (Christchurch, New Zealand)
Style: Aotearoan Amber Ale
ABV: 6.1%
Source: Inzane Brewing

Its cold outside, there’s no kind of atmosphere,
I’m all alone, more or less,
Let me fly, far away from here,
Fun, fun, fun, In the sun, sun, suuuun..

Sorry. Any mention of Red Dwarf and BAM – that theme song is in my head for two weeks. What a great show though eh?! And what a great name for an Amber Ale. Zane gets 10 points immediately for that and for having a photo of Rimmer looking like a prat on the label.

Of course, Zane has been getting points from others too recently – real points from real beer judges that actually mean something. When I saw on Twitter yesterday that Zane had been crowned Champion Brewer at the National Homebrewing Competition, I immediately rushed to put one of his beers in the fridge. It’s called keeping your finger on the pulse!

Zane probably would have preferred me to drink this a little earlier (he sent it to me a couple of months ago I think), but if it had suffered at all from it’s time in my cupboard then I couldn’t tell. The initial smell was of fresh juicy hops – like sticking my nose straight into the bag – then of a treacley malt, then of a whole  lot of other stuff that I couldn’t put my finger on. I did write down ‘pineapple, citrus, white pepper, fizzy lollies, golden syrup’ – but you can probably assume I’m wrong about all of these. Basically it was malty and hoppy and yum. The finish was bitter (but not overly dry) and the taste lingered after it was gone, like the Red Dwarf theme song.

I think I saw on Twitter that Zane has only been brewing for 6 months, which is pretty impressive and also probably pretty annoying if you’ve been brewing for ages and haven’t ever been crowned Champion. He’s nice enough to share his secrets though – and you can follow his brewing adventures (and get a run down of his NHC wins) on his blog here.

And because I don’t want to be the only one singing this for the next two weeks, I leave you with…

#85 Inzane Brewing – Caspa

Name: Caspa
Brewery: Inzane Brewing
Style: Aotearoa Pale Ale (Christchurch, New Zealand)
ABV: 4.1%
Source: Zane himself

Today’s post is a very special one for Beer For a Year, as it’s the first (of what I hope will be many!) homebrews to appear on the blog.

This beer  -with it’s awesome Ghostbusters label – was sent to me by reader Zane (Inzane, geddit?) along with two other brews and a letter explaining what they were. It was quite literally the most exciting piece of mail I have received since the ‘care packages’ of my university days.

I know I’m going to sound like an ignoramus here, but I had never actually tasted good homebrew before. I realise there have been some amazing advances in the availability of homebrew products in recent years, and that Zane would likely be a better brewer than whatever stoned high school friend made the last stuff I tried, but still I was pretty gobsmacked at how nice it actually was.

Caspa poured a slightly cloudy amber colour with a large creamy head (even at this point I was amazed – it looked just like a bought one!) and smelled great – of those distinctly Kiwi, fruity hops, with some citrus and passionfruit at the forefront.

In the mouth those fresh, fruity hops came through with a bit of cut grass, softy malty sweetness and a dry – but not overly bitter – finish. It was on the lighter side at just 4.1%, which meant it was easy to drink and very ‘sessionable’ as they say. (In other words – if I was Zane and I had 20 or so litres of this in my house I’d be in trouble.)

I was so impressed/astounded that homebrew could taste this good that I made the others in the room try it too. One said “this would be great to drink after mowing the lawns”, the other called it “a quaffer” – and I think they’re both right.

Thanks very much Zane for sharing your lovely homebrew with me, it’s made me all sorts of excited about my own Pale Ale which is currently fermenting away in Greytown, and it’s got me keen to make my next batch using New Zealand hops instead.

On that note… If there are any other homebrewers (or indeed, commercial brewers!) out there that would like to help me out with this project, and in return get a whole 300 or so words about your beer on the internet, I am not one of those bloggers who proudly claim aversion to recieving free beer. I can’t promise to say that I like it – but I do promise to use a clean glass.

And hey, maybe I can even send you some of my beer in return? (Don’t laugh, it’s going to be delicious!)