BREWERIES // Choice Bros sprung into life around 5 years ago as a small brewpub in a former boxing gym in central Wellington with a passion for David Bowie records and ignoring the Reinheitsgebot beer purity law. With their unique approach to flavour. Choice beers have been known to incorporate all manner of unusual ingredients including fennel, pinot noir must, rice noodles, galangal, yoghurt and many more. They took out the top 3 spots at Beervana last year with a series of milkshake inspired stouts. Head brewer Brayden recently relocated about 500m to brew at Fork & Brewer, handing the baton to the very talented Manaia and we're very excited to see what direction he will take the beers in.
Small Gods. Once upon a time, before they dreamt up Beer Jerk, founders Luke & Brent enthusiastically got into home brewing in their Auckland kitchens. They devoured books, blogs and videos to learn all they could about brewing and named their brewery (a few pots, bags and a copper coil) Small Gods in honour of the yeasts and Terry Pratchett. Today they rarely brew at home but the Beer Jerk team has grown to include a talented home brewer, Matt, and they spend a lot of time talking about recipe ideas. And fortunately they're friends with lots of real brewers, some of whom oblige to collaborate on brewing the experimental and not-commercially-viable styles they're interested it.
BEER // Sweet pastry stouts are pretty popular right now but they're generally on the very boozy side. When we came up with the idea of brewing a session version for summertime, Choice Bros. were the obvious choice to collaborate with. Their beer names are inspired by music and ours nod toward mythology and fantasy literature so we decided on the name Enter Sandman to embrace both and give us a starting point for a beer that would include lots of different sand-like ingredients including cocoa, milo, weetbix, brown sugar, dehydrated raspberries, lactose and maltodextrin. It's no mean feat brewing a flavour-packed yet light beer at just 3.5% so we worked with dark wheat and chocolate malt to give the beer some roundness and played with the water chemistry, adding calcium chloride for mouthfeel and calcium chloride to reduce harsh bitterness. The initial hit with lots of raspberries before you settle in to a dessert of a beer that's on the lighter side and somewhat reminiscent of English session stouts.
Be sure to check our social accounts tomorrow for photos and video from the brew day.
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BREWERIES // Choice Bros. & Small Gods
BEER // Enter Sandman
STYLE // Session Pastry Stout
ORIGIN // Wellington
ABV // 3.5%
TEMPERATURE // Cellar Temp - around 10-13C. About an hour out of the fridge
FOOD MATCH // Grilled Pork Cheeks & White Beans. Cacio e Pepe Gnocchi. Ginger Chocolate Cake. Malteasers
VESSEL // Dimpled Pint. Pewter Tankard