Beer #253 - Cargo / Vienna Lager

Beer #253 - W/C 30 December 2019

BREWERY // Cargo Brewery may be a new name to you but they are a big deal in Waitiri Creek where they have been pouring delicious beers and hosting concerts with artists like Fatboy Slim, Carl Cox and The Black Seeds for a few years. The brewery was started by Malcolm Blakey in 2015 who had fallen in love with the art and science of brewing at home and decided to level up by launching the Cargo brand. Malcolm hones the recipes on a small scale before they are contract brewed at a large brewery. Prior to starting the brewery he had spent over a decade in event management which was to come in handy. Their cellar door, restaurant and event space in Gibbston (near Queenstown) is housed in a beautiful 1894 building which formerly served as Wangaloa Presbyterian Church. They also have a hop garden with 100 bines and a small brewery for seasonal brews and test batches. We're looking forward to paying them a visit.

BEER // The Pilsner style originated in Pilsen, Bohemia in 1838 Franz Anton Dreher died in 1820 leaving his Vienna brewery, Klein-Schwechat Brewery, to his ten-year-old son Anton Dreher. Being too young to take over the operation, young Anton began a brewing apprenticeship before beginning a journeyman’s tour through Germany, Scotland and England where he witnessed the new malting process which was to change everything. Previously malted barley had been kilned directly over fire resulting in a dark, roasty, often smokey malt (and resultant beer). English developments using coke meant malt could be kilned using hot air which made for lighter, more delicate beer. Upon Anton's return to his family brewery, he partnered with his mother and made use of his wife's dowry to create and market a new kind of beer made with bottom fermenting lager yeast and light malt fermented at a cool temperature. This new Vienna Typ beer was released in 1840 and proved incredibly popular, rapidly making Anton a millionaire and setting the foundation for Schwechat Brewery to become the most productive in the world. Vienna Lagers are characterised by their rounded bread-y flavour and aroma with medium smooth body. Cargo's take on this wonderfully sessionable style has floral hop notes with a touch of bitterness and a clean, dry finish.