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.