Recent, current, and upcoming casks

I’ve recently embarked on a program of really small-run beers - one to two casks only, or up to four in a series with small variations. This approach is highly experimental (meaning that not everything is going to work out as expected) and aims to keep products changing over regularly to keep things interesting. 

We recently ran an event at the taproom called ’Stout Season’ that involved four stouts, two of them served from our hand pumps. The cask stouts  - Long Nights - were both made from the same ‘base’ beer, with one featuring coffee beans from local roaster Dancing Goats and the other featuring Daintree Estates cocoa nibs and Archie Rose stringybark smoked single malt whisky. 

They were interesting beers - intensely flavoured, and both surprisingly fruit-forward. Both coffee and cocoa undergo fermentation prior to being roasted for consumption, and those fruity notes shone through brightly. The whisky was present but subtle, and not as smoky as I was expecting. It was an interesting experiment in terms of how much of these types of adjuncts are required in a mere 41 litres of beer. Probably a bit heavy-handed on this first attempt.

Right now, we’ve got two new casks on: Sunday Morning #2/2 and Long Nights #3/4. The second of two Sunday Morning casks is a hazy rye IPA conditioned with a dry hop of NZ Riwaka ‘Amplifire’ oil. The first edition used Nelson Sauvin oil, and I definitely think #2 is the winner. The flavours of Riwaka are softer and work better with the other hops in the beer (Azure and Galaxy), it’s like drinking pillowy soft citrus and peach. The third instalment of Long Nights has been conditioned with a dry hop of NZ Cascade hop oil. I thought the Cascade would be more prominent - the citrusy-floral hop notes with the chocolatey stout can create quite a nice jaffa flavour, but instead it’s quite a subtle top note on the nose. Very pleasant to drink nevertheless, with a lovely texture coming through the hand pump.

Next up when those ones are done, we’ll finish off the Long Nights series with the Motueka dry hop edition, plus a very special cask I tucked away last year - 12 month aged St Kilian’s Draught Stout. The latter (formerly know as Dark Road) is normally on our nitro (think Guinness) tap, so I’m excited to see how it has held up and what it’s like on the hand pump. Might be no good, might be life-changing. We’ll know soon enough.