You can't beat Wellington on a good day...

Wellington Beer Fest
Croucher Brewing hit Wellington last weekend for Capital's version of the Liquorland New Zealand Beer Festival. It was held on Saturday at Westpac Stadium, and it was a massive day. We totally sold out of beer 10 minutes before the bars closed - nothing worse than dragging full kegs home again!

A lot of fun was had, with the usual Croucher Brewing crew on deck along with Team Croucher Europe; namely Eva and Isabella from Austria and Thomas and Rupert from Bavaria. They kept punters entertained most of the day throwing ice at each other and posing for photo's at any opportunity.

Photo, courtesy of Michael Andrewartha, is Croucher's Nigel Gregory and Stu McKinley from Yeastie Boys.

Hayden Green from Public Address was there, and has written a smart summary of the days events - even listing Croucher Cherry Bock as his favorite beer of the day!! Kudos to us. Click here to read his report.

This festival consumed the last of our stocks of the 2009 batches of Vicar's Vice and Cherry Bock beers (although there may still be some Vicar's at Galbraith's in Auckland and Cherry Bock at The Malthouse in Wellington). Word from the inner sanctum of the brewery is that the Vicar's Vice may be back this winter, and possibly in bottles too.

Football Fever
A trip to Wellington last weekend would not have been complete without attending the Phoenix V Jets football match on Sunday, also at the Westpac Stadium. Neither of us had been to the stadium before and were well impressed. The highlight was the atmosphere created by the Phoenix Fans, the chanting and support was remarkable. In terms of beer, you may be surprised to hear that we passed on the Speights Traverse and whatever other mainstream beers they had on offer at the stadium. Rather, we pre-loaded at The Malthouse on the way to the match (from memory a Yeastie Boys PKB re-mix, an Epic Armageddon, and a couple of Three Boys IPA's between us).

Croucher Brewing in da HOUSE

Hamilton beer enthusiasts will shortly have good reason to raise their glasses and drink a hearty toast to a new city bar. Full story.

Croucher Pale Ale & Pilsner on fill-your-own at Regional Wines in Welly

Croucher Pale Ale & Pilsner are on fill-your-own at Regional Wines & Spirits in Wellington for the first time. Get in and grab a rigger or two.

The Auckland version of the Liquorland New Zealand Beer Festival took place at Ellerslie racecourse on Saturday. It was a great day, with a big crowd and a high level of interest in the craft breweries. There were a few teething problems with the festivals new payment system, but nothing a few delicious beers didn't remedy for most punters. We had a big day, with our Pilsner being the most popular of our beers. Also, our seasonal Vicar's Vice and Cherry Bock beers went down a treat with craft beer lovers!

It is Wellington's turn for the New Zealand Beer Festival on Saturday the 6th of March. Book your tickets here and NOW. It is at the Westpac Stadium, and should be a doosy.

Rotorua's own Carnaval... February 14, 15 & 16

Rotorua's own Latin American Carnaval takes place over three days starting this Sunday. Come along and enjoy some vibrant colour, entertainment, fantastic Sabroso food and local Croucher Beer.

 

Sunday 14th Feb 3pm - 10pm

Monday 15th Feb 5pm - 10pm

Tuesday 16th Feb 5pm - 10pm

 

Venue - outside Sabroso Restaurant, 1184 Haupapa Street, Rotorua.

 

Pick a day, get some friends together and come join in the fun!

 

See you there...

John & Sarah (Sabroso) & Paul & Nigel (Croucher Brewing)

 

P.S. This is a Rotorua community event, and a portion of every dollar spent goes to Rotorua Hospice, a local charity.

Croucher 'Vicar's Vice' on-tap from today at Galbraith's Alehouse, Auckland

Two kegs of the very limited Croucher Brewing 'Vicar's Vice' hit the taps at Galbraith's Alehouse from today.

Vicar's Vice is our big spicy, citrusy Belgian Strong Ale, brewed using a bucket load of citrus peel and crushed coriander seeds. It is a healthy 7% alc/vol, and is exceptionally smooth. Feedback has been fantastic from drinkers of this beer.

If you are in Auckland this week make sure you get it to sample it! Galbraith's is located at 2 Mt Eden Rd, Auckland City.
Thanks Galbraith's!

Croucher Pale Ale makes Superbowl Sunday's 'Top 10 Gourmet Beers'

New York based foodie website 'FriendsEat.com' has published their list of the Top 10 gourmet to enjoy on Superbowl Sunday. The list is made up of beers that originate outside the USA and right there at Number 9 is Croucher Brewing's flagship 'Pale Ale'. See the full list at friendseat.com.


So crank up the BBQ... here's what it said about our Pale Ale...

9. Croucher Pale Ale
A rich rose-gold hue pale ale. At the annual 2009 Beer Necessities Awards, The Croucher Brewing Company’s flagship Pale Ale beer was named in the Top 8 beers in New Zealand.  If you’ve got some grass feed steaks going on the BBQ before the game this is the perfect beer for the occasion.

Happy New Year!!

Hopefully you have had a wonderful Christmas and New Year. We've been busy at the brewery preparing ourselves for festival season. We had the Tairua Food & Wine festival last weekend, which was held on a beautiful Coromandel summers day.

On Thursday (14th Jan) we are at Blues, Brews & BBQ's at Mount Maunganui. If you are in the area you simply must attend. It is a great day of music, food and obviously fantastic beers. If you are coming along, make sure you come and say hi. We will be serving our Cherry Bock on Thursday. This is our most recent release, and is has been receiving rave reviews.

Our other recent release, the Vicar's Vice is on tap at Galbraith's in Auckland, Hashigo Zake in Wellington, The Underground Bar in Rotorua, as well as one or two locations in the South Island. It is a beautiful drop, so make sure you get to try it.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas, and all our best wishes for 2010.

Thanks for your support over 2009 - a year in which we installed a new brew house and bottling system, opened our own bar in Rotorua, sent our first beers to Australia, received some lovely acolades for our beers (the latest is The Hef being named Top Wheat Beer in Consumer Magazine), and launched some new seasonal beers (the Vicar's Vice and the Cherry Bock).

If you are looking for something to do in January, come and visit us at Tairua Food & Wine Festival (9th Jan) and Blues, Brews & BBQ's at The Mount (14th Jan).

If you are in Rotorua, then you must come and see us at The Underground Bar. We have both new seasonal beers on tap along with the rest of our range.

We wish you a safe, relaxing and enjoyable Christmas & New Year.

Cheers,

Nigel & Paul

Croucher Brewing Pale Ale named in Top 8 Beers In NZ

In the annual 2009 Beer Necessities Awards, run by Wellington's Capital Times, The Croucher Brewing Company's flagship Pale Ale beer has been named in the Top 8 beers in New Zealand.

 

Represented in the top eight are New Zealand’s largest brewer Lion Nathan, one of the country’s biggest independent craft brewers Emerson’s, a small craft brewer, Croucher Brewing, one of the new generation of contract brewing companies, 8 Wired and a tiny farmhouse brewer, Peak.

 

The beers were blind judged on their appearance, aroma and flavour with some thought given to their stylistic integrity. Here are the judges comments about Croucher Pale Ale:

 

Croucher Pale Ale pours a nice clear gold with a quickly dissipating head. Aroma features some fresh zesty perfumy citrus hop notes and a rich toffee note. In the mouth there is plenty of perfumy hop flavour with a big slightly early bitter finish. Good beer that could use a touch more malt balance.Croucher Brewing have been building up a reputation for their range of pale, complex, aromatic beers which they brew in Rotorua making them one of the few craft brewers to fly the flag for brewing in the North Island.

 

Brewer Paul Croucher responded to news of the award saying "We are over the moon, this is a great result for us. To be listed in the top beers in New Zealand is further reward for all the hard work of the past few years. The Pale Ale was the beer we launched the brewery with, so it has a special place in our hearts. Our Pale Ale has massive up front fruit aroma with strong freshly crushed grain. Passionfruit and lychees predominate with a stonefruit undertone - fruit salad on Weetbix. It is very smooth with a gorgeous lingering finish."

 

 

Beer Necessities Survey 2009 - The 8 Pack (highest rating beers this year):
Emerson’s - Pilsner 

Emerson’s - Bookbinder

Emerson’s - 1812 

Emerson’s - Old 95

Steinlager Pure
Croucher Brewing - Pale Ale
8 Wired - Hop Wired IPA
Peak Brewery - Great End ESB

 

 

Croucher Brewing is based in Rotorua and has been brewing for five years. It is owned and run by Paul Croucher and Nigel Gregory. The company produces three main beers; Croucher Pale Ale, Croucher Pilsner (a particularly hoppy lager) and Croucher Hef (a cloudy German style wheat beer). On top of these Croucher Brewing currently has two seasonal beers in limited availability; Vicar's Vice - a big flavoured Belgian style brewed using a bucket load of NZ cirtus peel and a kilo of crushed coriander seeds (7% alc); and a Cherry Bock - an extremely fruity dark lager style of beer brewed using a 60kg of Cherries and Raspberries (8% alc).

 

Croucher Brewing opened it's own craft beer bar in Rotorua in May 2009. The Underground Bar (underneath the Rendezvous Restaurant on Hinemoa Street, Rotorua) was set up to lead the revitalisation of beer in Rotorua one pint at a time. Craft beer has the charachteristics of being flavoursome, interesting, great matched with food and is a high quality beverage. The Underground Bar stocks the full range of Croucher beers on tap, as well as an ever changing selection of other fantastic New Zealand craft beers.

Croucher Brewing releases the Vicar's Vice...

The Vicar's Vice is the latest seasonal beer from the lads at Croucher Brewing. It is an homage to Hoegaarden's classic Verboden Vrucht, and was brewed using the peel from a bucket load of fresh New Zealand citrus (oranges, lemons, grapefruit) and a kilo of crushed coriander seeds.

Vicar's Vice is incredibly smooth on the palate, and has a delicious citrusy/spicy zing, reminiscent of the best Belgian classics.

We launched it at the UNDERGROUND bar here in Rotorua, and it has been enthusiastically embraced. It is a heavy hitter too, coming in at a healthy 7% alcohol by volume - needless to say we have shelved the pint glasses and are serving in a lovely 340ml stemmed beer glass. If you are in or around Rotorua, get in to the bar to enjoy this seasonal while it lasts.

It was just a little batch, but we have pre-sold a third of the batch to the South Island, and hope to get a keg or two to Auckland and Wellington as well. We'll let you know when and where it will be available.

Croucher beers in Oz, Craccum & something Fruity...

Beer drinking in Australia just got better!! Our good friend Craig Bowen from Beer NZ in Christchurch recently sent some Croucher beer to Carlisle Wine Bin in Perth & Purvis Wine Cellars in Melbourne. This is the first time our beers have been commercially exported, and while it is a modest start it's an exciting development for us.

Craccum Magazine, the University Of Auckland Student mag, has published a beer article focused on a tasting of Croucher Pils and Hef. Interestingly, they sampled the beers along with a selection of chocolate and the combination's seemed to work!! They enjoyed both beers, with a preference for the banana-ry delights of the Hef. We can confirm that this beer indeed works well with chocolate, in fact try matching a Perky Nana with the Hef for a double banana hit! Magic!!!

Our latest seasonal beer has been brewed, and is fermenting as we speak. We are keeping the identity of the beer to ourselves at the moment, but suffice to say that it is going to be darker rather than lighter and that there it might just be a fruity little number. Due to a double fermentation, it will be a while before it is ready to serve. It will be on tap at our bar (The Underground Bar) in Rotorua, and we'll also see if we can get it on as a guest beer at a bar or two around the country.

Talking of The Underground Bar, we have started a blog purely for the bar. If you live in Rotorua or are interested in what is happening at Rotorua's coolest drinking spot, please sign up for email updates HERE. We'd really love to have you on-board as a supporter.

Croucher Brewing - Beer, Beervana and Barvana...

August At The Brewery

> On Tap - Croucher beers are currently (or about to go) on tap in a few fine establishments around NZ. Some of these are guest appearances ( see the *), so get in quicksmart!

Auckland
Wine Cellar, Karangahape Rd (Pale Ale)
Brew On Quay, Quay St (Pilsner) *
Hallertau, Riverhead (Pilsner) *

Hamilton
Ruakura Campus Club (Pale Ale, Pilsner & Hef) *

Rotorua
the UNDERGROUND bar (Pale Ale, Pilsner, Hef & Belgian Blonde)
Abracadabra (Pilsner)
Rotorua Golf Club (Pilsner)
Distinction Hotel (Pilsner)

Wellington
The Malthouse, Courtney Place (Pale Ale) *

> Beervana - this is now an annual beer tasting extravaganza organised by the NZ Brewers Guild. It takes place in Wellington on the 28th and 29th of August at the Wellington Town Hall. Tickets can be booked here. Beervana is an opportunity to sample craft beers from around New Zealand, as well as a few especially flown in from Oz. As well as sampling, there are sessions on food matching - including some with chef Martin Bosley (last year he matched Croucher Pale Ale with a delicious grilled salmon dish... yum yum!). Paul will be representing Croucher Brewing at Beervana, so if you are lucky enough to be there, make sure you come and say hi... and sample a Croucher beer or two!

> Tis the Seasonal.... Paul is working on a recipe for our next seasonal beer, and expects to brew it in the coming few weeks. Shortly, we'll let you know more about it, as well as where you"ll be able to get your hands on some.


August at the UNDERGROUND bar
> the UNDERGROUND bar is our very own craft beer bar here in Rotorua. It is fast becoming a local treasure, and is the only bar in town focused on New Zealand craft beer, so please grab your friends and come in to support the beer revolution.

> Our guest bottled beers in August are Mata Feijoa, Epic Armageddon, Founders Long Black, Emerson's JP 2009, and Invercargill Boysenbeery. Quite the mix! On tap we have the full Croucher range, including the option of having the Pale Ale hand-drawn at room temperature - this beer is delicious cold and fizzy, but the warmth really highlights the aroma and flavours.