Croucher Brewing: Brew Day, Seasonal Beers & a visit from the femALEist...

Brew Day
It is another brew day here in the brewery, as I'm writing this update the sweet aroma of grain and water is wafting enticingly into the office. Today we are brewing The Hef, our German-styled wheat beer. Brew day is a long day and we got off to a late start!

Vicar's Vice 2010
Paul has been brewing up a storm recently, as we look to recover from summer and get ahead of the game. The 2010 Vicar's Vice is conditioning at the moment, and is due to be released in a few weeks. A list of tap outlets will be released closer to the time.We can confirm that there will be 3 kegs of Vicar's Vice heading to Melbourne for a Kiwi craft beer expose in late May. Paul will be accompanying the beer to run tastings and generally talk it up to the Aussies.

We are very pleased where each of our beers are at, but we aren't resting on our laurels. We are set to brew our next seasonal release, which we are VERY excited about. But lets wait until it is in the can before we go making any bold statements talking it up.

femALEist

We had a visit recently to the brewery from three West Coasters (USA) on a jaunt around New Zealand. And shock horror they were all women!! And they love craft beer. We had an awesome time sampling our beers, and then they returned the favour by sharing a couple of Pliny The Elder's and a Jolly Pumpkin 'Maracaibo Especial' (a sour special brown ale). Both are wonderful beers!!

Tiila writes a blog and seems to be very active in the San Fran beer community encouraging other women to join try craft beer. Here is her post on her visit to Croucher Brewing.

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.

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.