Beer #167 - Mike's / Geisha Coffee

Beer #167 - W/C 7 May 2018

BREWERY // In 1989, after taking redundancy from a career working on oil rigs Mike Johnson took his life savings and opened a brewery in Urenui producing beer commercially in Taranaki for the first time in a generation. It took until 2000 to secure a consistent supply of organic malt and hops when Johnson achieved his goal of making mike's Mild the first accredited organic beer from the North Island. When brewer Ron Trigg and his family bought the brewery in 2007, only two beers were in production- mike's Mild and an organic lager. That didn't last for long as Ron rapidly added to the core range and also began releasing seasonal beers throughout the year. The brewery has seen a lot of changes over the past few years, not least with rebuilding from voluntary liquidation in 2016. Mike's are growing steadily and currently on the move from Urenui to New Plymouth.


BEER // Brown Ales have been made in England since the late 17th Century. There is much debate as to whether the category even exists with many disparate beers sharing a name and colour but little with regard to recipe or flavour profile. The most popular traditional examples, such as Manns and Samuel Smith's, are light bodied, easy drinking beers of moderate strength (3-5%) with rounded nutty, bread-y malt flavours and low bitterness. Although it is an extremely unpopular style among New Zealand brewers, it is obvious to see why the team at mike's thought a Brown Ale the clear choice to match some very special coffee beans. Geisha beans are grown in Panama and so highly regarded, they are the most expensive in the world. The brewers had delicate and aromatic cold brew coffee in mind when creating the recipe and we think they hit it exactly.

BREWERY // mike's
BEER // Geisha
STYLE // Coffee Brown Ale
ORIGIN // Urenui, Taranaki
ABV // 4%
TEMPERATURE // Cellar temperature - 8-10C
FOOD MATCH // Ploughman's Lunch. Chicken & Sausage Gumbo. Vanilla Bean Iced Chocolate Cupcake.
GLASS // Dimpled Glass. China Mug