Food

Winter beers

Updated: 02 Jun 2007

Introduction

Our panel tasted 32 winter-warming beers, and found 6 to recommend.

We "blind tasted" a range of New Zealand and Australian beers readily available in supermarkets and bottle stores. The tasting included draughts, dark lagers, ales, porters and stouts.

We also included Guinness, to see how our down-under stouts stack up against the famous Irish favourite.

About our tasting

For our tasting we bought 32 New Zealand and Australian beers readily available in supermarkets and bottle stores. We also included Guinness, to see how our down-under stouts stack up against the famous Irish favourite.

The beers were grouped according to beer style, and were tasted "blind". Our panel scored them out of 20 for appearance, aroma, flavour and body, and overall impression.

Consumer tastings differ from industry beer tastings. We buy our beer from shops just like consumers do - most other tastings use beer chosen by the brewery. And our judges are a mix of professionals and experienced amateurs.

Our judges

Geoff Griggs: Beer writer and commentator.
Colin Paige: Head Brewer for Mac's Brewery. International beer judge. Will be judging the American Beer Awards 2008.
Kylie Hutchby: Brewer for DB Breweries. BrewNZ judge 2006.
Martin Craig: Freelance writer. Member of Society of Beer Advocates. Home brewer. Studying for International Beer Judge Certification.
Cherie Bulley: Sensory scientist. Beer enthusiast.

What we found

Draughts

There wasn't anything inspiring in the New Zealand draughts we tasted. Although Speight's Gold Medal Ale was the best of the bunch, it wasn't worthy of our top rating.

Dark lagers

The dark lagers had more success in tantalising our panel's tastebuds. Black Mac was the highest-scoring beer in our tasting. It had a silky mouthfeel and a great lingering after-taste dominated by dark malt. One of our panel commented he could drink a lot of this beer!

Small New Zealand breweries also made a good showing with their dark lagers. Moa Noir was a full-bodied beer with a nice dry hop finish. Wigram Brewing Co. Munchner Dunkel was balanced and complex, tasting of chocolate and hops. Founders Organic Long Black was rich and malty with a nice mocha aroma.

Ales

Emerson's Old 95 was the only ale that got the panel's seal of approval. It had a pleasant hoppy taste with a clean finish.

Porters

"Finally a real porter," said the panel when they tasted Speight's Porter - a well-balanced beer with a chocolate and coffee flavour. It was also the cheapest porter in our tasting.

By comparison, the other porters lacked intensity and didn't have enough malty flavours to impress.

Stouts

Stouts should be big and gutsy, but our panel wasn't particularly impressed with the Kiwi offerings. Cascade Stout from Australia was their pick. It was big and creamy with a smooth dark malt character.

Surprisingly, Guinness didn't rate highly. With one exception - and he drinks a lot of Guinness - our panel members thought it was bland, metallic and thin-bodied.

Tasting results

Guide to the table

Products listed according to score within "bottle" ratings.

Ratings

3 bottles = 14.5 points or more.
2 bottles = 12 - 14.4 points.
1 bottle = Under 12 points.

Price per glass based on what we paid per bottle.

We recommend

The Consumer six-pack

These beers scored highest in our tasting. From left to right:

Founders Organic Long Black
Emerson's Old 95
Wigram Brewing Co. Munchner Dunkel
Speight's Porter
Black Mac
Moa Noir.

Ales and lagers - what's the difference?

There are more than 80 styles of beer, with colours ranging from almost black (dark lagers, stouts and porters) to a very pale gold (pilseners, wheat beers and golden ales). Alcohol content stretches from 0.5 percent for low-alcohol beer to 12 percent or stronger for barley wine - which is beer, despite its name.

All beers are either lagers or ales, depending on the type of yeast and the brewing process.

Lagers are not always more pale than ales: some types of lager are very dark, and some ales are pale. In ales, the yeast fermentation process usually contributes more to the flavour of the beer; in lagers, yeasts have less to do with the taste. The type of hops and malts used also contribute to the taste and style of a beer.

Ales

Traditionally, ales were brewed in wide shallow vessels and their yeasts tended to rise to the top of the fermentation vessel.

Ale yeasts work faster than lager yeasts because they ferment at a warmer temperature.

Most porters and stouts are ales. Porters can be sweet and have a heavily malted and hoppy flavour. Black or chocolate malt gives modern porters their dark brown colour.

Stouts are made with roasted barley and a combination of malts. There are a number of recognised styles including drier oyster stout and sweeter oatmeal stout. Guinness is the most famous example of a dry stout. Oyster stouts may be made by putting a handful of oysters in the barrel.

Lagers

Lagers are traditionally fermented with yeasts that tend to sink to the bottom of fermentation vessels and work slowly at cool temperatures. Before packaging, lagers are stored cold for a few weeks to develop their flavours.

New Zealand "draughts" are essentially reddish brown in colour, and they tend to be sweet. Dark lager styles range from dark brown to almost black.

The distinction between a lager and an ale used to be straightforward. But modern technology is muddying this distinction. Many brewers, especially large commercial brewers where space is at a premium, have switched from shallow vessels to taller, narrower tanks. In these, the yeast tends to distribute itself more evenly throughout the tank, and so the traditional concepts of top (ale) and bottom (lager) fermentation aren't so clear-cut.

The handling of the yeast, the brewing environment, and the temperature at which the beer is fermented are what determine the final style. A lager yeast working at warm temperatures can produce ale-like characteristics.

The great beer debate

Speight's Gold Medal Ale and Tui East India Pale Ale are ales, right? Wrong. Both these beers are New Zealand draughts or "brown beers", which are essentially amber lagers.

Monteith's Original Ale, Speight's Old Dark 5 Malt Ale and Speight's Distinction Ale aren't genuine ales either. Confused? We're not surprised.

DB Breweries and Lion Nathan both stand by the labelling of their beers.

DB told us that brewing in New Zealand has evolved independently from other countries. With modern technology and high-quality ingredients it's possible to make both ale and lager styles with the same yeast strain.

Lion Nathan said overall taste, ingredients, colour, aroma and temperature all play important roles in differentiating styles. They told us they focus on taste when they name their beers.

The New Zealand Society of Beer Advocates (SOBA) has a different opinion. "SOBA recognises that not all beers will fit into a given classic style, but we deplore the practice of blatantly mislabelling beers as different styles simply because the marketing department thinks it will assist sales. This practice is damaging to brewers who correctly brew a style, and perpetuates the long-held myth that all beer tastes the same."

A beer should still taste like what it's claimed to be, regardless of how it's brewed. We think it's time the industry labelled their products true to style.

Beer and cheese

You're more likely to have gone to a wine and cheese evening than a beer and cheese evening. But some foodies believe wine and cheese isn't a good match because wine is too acidic and overpowers the flavours in cheese.

Beer and cheese go way back. During the Middle Ages in Belgium, monasteries were known for their exceptional beers and cheeses. Both cheese and beer are fermented and aged.

There's no real right and wrong when it comes to matching beer and cheese.

Give these combinations a go:

Wheat beers go well with feta or goat's cheeses.
Pilseners and pale ales are more bitter than wheat beer, so they're great for teaming with a sharp cheddar.
Hoppy pale ales are good with creamy cheeses like brie and camembert.
Gruyere and Swiss cheese will go down a treat with dark lagers.
If you're a fan of soft-ripened blues, team them with a porter or a stout.
Up for a taste explosion? Experiment with stinky roquefort or stilton and a strong barley wine.
And - for those who prefer dessert to cheese - you can't go past a chunk of dark chocolate or a rich chocolate pudding with a creamy porter or stout.

Our advice

Beer tasting is a personal experience. The best beer is the one you like the most, whatever its rating. Try our top six beers - but also give some of the other beers in our tasting a go.
Brewers ought to label their beers true to style, rather than passing them off as something else that has a better marketing ring.
We tasted beers that are commonly stocked in supermarkets. But we didn't survey which particular beers were available at which supermarkets. Try your local supermarket or bottle store if you're looking for something different. If it's not there, ask them if they can order it.
Look for specials - beer is often discounted. But make sure you check the best-before date. With a few exceptions (such as some Belgian-style ales), beer doesn't improve with age.
Beer is sensitive to heat and light. So if you're buying it in clear or light-coloured bottles, take care. Don't buy beer from glass-fronted fridges or from under fluorescent lights - go to the cool room or back of the fridge and take the freshest product you can find.
When you get your beer home, keep it cool and in the dark. With the exception of bottle-conditioned beers, you can keep your beer in the fridge.

More information

Society of Beer Advocates: www.soba.org.nz

Other Consumer taste tests

Report by Belinda Allan.