From notes. Draft at the source courtesy of nate2g, thanks! Hazy variegated amber brown color, tan head. Nice fruity pine aroma with light coffee. Taste has soft roast and light citrus. Light body. Very tasty and easy drinking.

My first (and likely last) commissioned beer from New Zealand, made for a pub there and referring to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, which was filmed there. Comes from a 50 cl bottle with a green and yellow label in a style very much reminding me of Irish beers but probably intended to evoke Tolkien’s fantasy world. Warm coppery amber colour, slightly hazy with quiet fizz but completely cloudy with deposit, with dark dead yeast particles at the bottom, under a coarse, fairly ’large-bubbled’ and irregular, initially frothy and decently lacing, off-white head losing volume after a while and eventually breaking open, but still retaining well on the edges, looking ’natural’. Unusual, sweetly perfumed but otherwise rather straightforward aroma of strawberry ice cream, potpourri, candied cherries and candied orange, limoncello, apple sauce, rose hip tea, honey, home made caramel, almond, biscuit, baked banana, some cookie dough, autumn leaves, hazelnuts. Sweetish onset, rather ’clean’ (i.e. not too estery), a bit honeyish, some banana and strawberries, lightly sourish, sharp carbonation (and in fact a lot sharper than expected, perhaps even overcarbonated), toasted malts dominate the middle, a bit caramelly, nutty, finishing in herbal, leafy hops providing some bitter balance for the initial sweetness; there is an oily mouthfeel too, maybe the effect of spices added which I assume also provide the strange sweet odour, though I cannot begin to guess which spices they could be (potpourri, perhaps?). In all this remains a straightforward ’malts forward’ beer, and in that sense a decent example of an American-style amber ale, albeit less hoppy and with a kind of old-fashioned ’English ale’ feel to it - in fact, hadn’t it been for the strangely sweet candied fruits bouquet, I’d regard this as a true English-style pale ale. I guess it can be classified as a spiced pale ale, if that even means anything at all. Not bad, a decent and enjoyable thirst quencher, I’d say, though it took me a while to get used to the sweet perfume in the nose, which is usually not my cup of tea. I owe big thanks to Joy for bringing this to Belgium all the way from litterally the other side of the world, and to Marie for bringing it to the office for me to take home to my tasting table... Where its long journey has now finally ended.

Pale yellow with a white head. Powerful dry hopped aroma. Strong hop notes backed up with sweet apple. Has a light tartness. This was a big surprise at Beervana. Very good.

On tap at Sport Grill Auckland, August 2014. Clear light amber with a small head. Dominated by malt, also some fruit and light caramel. Some bitterness in the finish. The aftertaste was fairly dry. An ok one.

Draft at Beervana. Hazy golden yellow color, small white head. Aroma of citrus and subtle rising white bread dough. Taste is straw and light citrus.

Draft at the source courtesy of nate2g, thanks! Clear deep amber color, tan head, solid lacing. Aroma of chocolate biscuit. Taste is bittersweet caramel with an edge of toast. Slightly boozy but nice.

Draft at the dource. Very dark maroon color, thick beige head with good retention and solid lacing. Aroma of burnt espresso, bitter chocolate. Taste is smooth milk chocolate, coffee. Light body. Tasty.