#234 Kaimai – Golden Rye Ale

Once again, a regrettable lack of flash.

Name: Golden Rye Ale
Brewery: Kaimai Brewing (Mt Manganui, NZ)
Style: Rye Ale
ABV: 5.5%
Source: Coco’s Cantina on K rd

Something tells me that purchasing a Golden Rye Ale might be a bit of a gamble.

If it is then think I did OK. Mine was good – sweet and tasting of honey, bread (or perhaps rye), and some citrus from the hops. It was clean and crisp, and cut through the amazing Parmesan-crusted polenta chips from Coco’s Cantina (s’cuse the plug) beautifully.

However. I’ve seen other reviews of this on ratebeer.com, and lots and lots of people said it was sour. One even said it was like a lambic.

Either the recipe has changed, my sour-buds have been permanently damaged by last weekend’s Kriek, or some bottles of the Kaimai Rye Ale have been infected, because mine wasn’t so much as a little bit tart.

That said, sour beer is almost impossible to come by in Auckland, so if there are some infected bottles floating around, perhaps I ought to try and seek them out?

#96 Kaimai – Pale Ale (NZ Cascade)

Name: New Zealand Cascade Hopped Pale Ale
Brewery: Kaimai Brewing (Mt Manganui, New Zealand)
Style: Pale Ale
ABV: 6.8%
Source: Waiheke Wines

I picked up this Kaimai Pale Ale at Waiheke Wines yesterday. I didn’t really want to buy it because I thought the label looked a bit nasty, but this was the only thing I hadn’t tried and besides, picking beer for it’s label hasn’t always worked out in the past.

It poured a deep orangey/copper colour, slightly cloudy, with a decent white head (it had shrunk significantly by the time I found the right lighting for the photo.)

When I sniffed it, the first thing that came to mind was purple wine gums. I guess you could call this berries or stonefruit or candied sugar… but I’m calling it purple wine gums. There was quite a bit of caramel sweetness as well, and a hint of vodka-like booze.

In the mouth it felt full – lots of biscuity malt and a little citrussy bitterness at the finish. The raw alcohol smell wasn’t noticeable in the taste, and overall I thought it was a pretty well-rounded, easy-to-drink beer. My description of wine gums and vodka probably doesn’t have anyone chomping at the bit to try it, but just ignore me (and the label) and try it anyway. It’s actually pretty nice.