the ablution block

29 December 2006

October Beer of the Month: Twisted Hop Golding Bitter

October's beer of the month - Twisted Hop Golding Bitter - was initially tasted in September, from a bottle entered at BrewNZ. It was far from showstopping, on that first taste, but it ended up being my beer of choice on the annual Cellar-Vate crew's brewery trip (this year we hit Christchurch). That trip ended up revolving around The Twisted Hop, a brewpub which ended up being my beer highlight of 2006. Fantastic location, beautiful beer, great staff and a most generous owner in Martin Bennett.

Here's my RateBeer thoughts on Golding Bitter:

October 27/28. At the Twisted Hop. Beer engine, with and without sparkler, pint after pint. Light vibrant gold, with a creamy and persistent white head, and a lovely natural haze. Citrus and illegal-like resiny notes dominate the pungently hoppy nose. Might be a little intimidating for the uninitiated, if anything. Full creamy mouthfeel delivers a nice juicy sweet malt flavour, more of that pungent resinous hop flavour, with a subtle, fruity, lingering bitterness. Super fresh. So easy to drink that I had one too many. A touch cool from the handpump but it was good enough to never let warm up. My pick of all the beers tasted in Christchuch. Re-rated and upped from an original 2.8 out of the bottle, where and unpleasant hot astingency and lack of freshness didn’t let the beer show it’s special lively self. Forget that original comment and get down to the brewpub. (4.1/5.0)

There's more gushing about The Twisted Hop at Not PC.

Little else of note in October, where two weeks in Australia saw me tasting some of the least inspiring beers in the last few years. The only other beers of real notes were also from The Twisted Hop - the Rasbierry Lambic being an exquisitely balanced fruit lambic and the Plum Duff being a dark brown ale with nice tannic plum skin notes (neither rated at RateBeer).

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