4.2

Appearance - 4 | Aroma - 3 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 4 | Overall - 5

The first New Zealand beer I had was Steinlager. It was late August 1993, at Fogg 'n Suds (which at the time was a well-respected beer bar chain in Vancouver). It was the Kitsilano location (probably the best neighbourhood on the planet), and it was the end of August, right before I went to university. That night, I had for the first time the long-departed but still missed Okanagan Old Munich (a rare dunkelweizen that I actually liked enough to buy on multiple occasions) amongst others. Anyway, they had a contest going that night involving playing Pole Position on a big screen. All these punks today with their Halo and games that have IA and everything - to hell with that I'll take the old school games that I used to play at Chuck E Cheese anyday. Give me Galaga,1984, Pac-Man...you're damn right. Anyway, although Grand Prix was my shit, I was decent enough at Pole Position to score third place, which was a pair of Sam Adams footed pilsner glasses. I had never heard of Sam Adams at the time. Exotic shit, that was. A year late, when I got to actually try a Sam Adams I was already geared up for it, and loved it. Now, one of those glasses didn't make it to see 2002, but the other one did. And that is what I used to pour my second ever New Zealand beer, nine freakin' years later, into. Yeah, it's a grassy pseudo-pils around 22 IBUs with some honey and grain husk notes and an off-dry finish, but more importantly, the drought is over and I can get on with those Kiwi beers at the Ratebeer Summer Party next week in peace.