This Week's Beer

BREWERY // Mountain Culture got off to an astronomical start in 2019 when they opened as the first brewpub in Australia's Blue Mountains. They were received with great acclaim by drinkers and beer judges alike scooping up awards and upsetting beer fans by selling out as fast as they could brew. Originally from North Carolina, brewer DJ McReady had an excellent pedigree from brewing at Oskar Blues & Modus Operandi when he and his wife Harriet decided to convert an old Civic Video store into a community brewpub serving the sort of beers that captured the zeitgeist of the time. After 18 months hard slog on renovations they opened to a world of bush fires, biblical floods and Coronavirus. Luckily good beer will always find an audience and drinkers immediately started making a pilgrimage to the brewery and their webstore. Mountain Culture brewed as much as they could and upped the tanks several times but were constantly sold out. We've been chatting to them about NZ exports for a long time so were extremely happy when their new production brewery came on line, finally giving New Zealanders a chance to try their beers.

BEER // Behold! You hold in your hand a most marvellous half litre juicy tube of the very finest of Antipodean IPA. Hill People was one of the first NEIPAs Mountain Culture released and it has entered into their semi regular rotation as people can't get enough of the of dense fruity hop juice. Back in 2017 'oat cream' IPAs popped up on the radar of brewers worldwide after a Brooklyn brewery called Other Half started brewing them and seeing queues around the block with entire batches selling out instantly. The key to this magical elixir is something stouts have been doing forever - incorporating oats for big body and a silky mouthfeel as well as lactose in the boil for a creamy sweetness and velvety mouthfeel. This makes for a very solid platform to showcase aromatic hops that are added in frankly budget busting volumes. Hill People has a hefty amount of fresh Sabro hops to result in a fresh citrus and coconutty good time. 


BREWERY // Mountain Culture
BEER // Hill People
STYLE // Oat Cream NEIPA
ORIGIN // Katoomba, Australia
ABV // 6.8%
TEMPERATURE // Cool - 7-10C
FOOD MATCH // Fried chicken w/ honey mustard. Spicy shrimp & lobster roll. Vegetable Biriyani 
VESSEL // Shaker or Tulip Pint Glass