Name: Conehead
Brewery: Tuatara (Waikanae, NZ)
Style: Wet-hopped Pale Ale
ABV: 5.5%
Source: Thorndon New World
You probably think I’m getting quite bored of beer – drinking and writing about it every day – right? You might suspect I’m like Ryan Seacrest hosting his 11th season of American Idol… All teeth and thumbs up on the outside but getting closer to a psychotic episode with every Stevie Wonder rendition he hears. (That’s how I see him anyway, I think the cracks are really starting to show).
I’m getting off on a bit of a tangent, but what I meant to say is that I’m not bored of beer yet (not most of the time anyway), because I’m still discovering new things to get enthused about. Wet-hopped beers for example! Two months ago I didn’t know what they were, yet this is the third one to appear on the blog since then. And isn’t she lovely? Isn’t she wonderful?
The Tuatara Conehead reminded me of the wet-hopped beer I had from Garage Project, Oldham’s Farm. They were quite different beers, but they both had this distinct, delicious, hard to pin down flavour which I’m guessing is a little “wet-hop magic”.
Obviously I’ve never come in contact with marijuana before, but if I had put my nose in a bag of sticky, fresh buds, I might tell you that this beer reminded me of it. I also smelled citrus and passionfruit, plus something kind of toasty or baked, like treacle tart or an anzac biscuit.
In the mouth it was zingy and fresh, with fruity and herbaceous hop flavours balanced perfectly with caramel malt. What was so impressive about it was how stunningly bright, clean and crisp it was – as if this beer would actually cure a hangover rather than give me one.
Way to go Tuatara, you did a really great job! *she said with a thumbs up and a maniacal grin.*