Beer Friday! - Tuatara Aotearoa Pale Ale

Good morning/afternoon/evening/night (choose at your discretion) dear readers, and welcome to another edition of Beer Friday!, the only bit of writing that is keeping this blog above water. I realize the last three posts have been Beer Friday! in nature, and I do sincerely apologize for this. I was thinking today that, when I started this blog, perhaps I overestimated the amount of interesting stuff I would be doing, and that I should have stretched out my recap posts a little longer. But, alas, I didn't do that, and here we are. I will say, however, that hopefully things will turn around soon. After all, the All Blacks v South Africa rugby test is a mere two weeks away, and I depart for an Australian adventure in under a month. So things might be getting spicier in the near future (I also understand that I've been saying that for a few weeks now. Bear with me).


Anywhooooo, the beer that I chose this week, Aotearoa Pale Ale, comes from the wonderful Tuatara Brewing Co. Based out of Reikorangi (outside of Wellington), Tuatara gets its name from an awesome dinosaur lizard that prowls the New Zealand countryside. Yes, the Tuatara is so old that it is not technically even considered a lizard, and is more or less the only living equivalent to the dinosaurs.

The mythical Tuatara, kind enough to pose for a portrait to be
displayed on the side of a hostel in Invercargill.

Much like it's namesake, Tuatara Brewing is also something truly special. It is one of the pre-eminent craft breweries in NZ (brewing over 1 million litres per year, which I assume is a lot), and puts out some absolutely wonderful beers. Bonus points as well for upholding the Rheinheisgebot (for the unitiated: the Bavarian Purity Law of 1516, stating that beers can only have four ingredients - water, hops, yeast and malt).

Narrowing down now to the brewery's Aotearoa Pale Ale (Aotearoa = Land of the Long White Cloud, the Maori name for NZ) is something of a uniquely Kiwi creation. As the gentleman at Castle MacAdam Wines so kindly explained, the APA evolved from an earlier predecessor: Tuatara's American Pale Ale. One of the brewey's favourite offerings, Tuatara was forced to stop brewing it due to a shortage of of American hops. Not to be deterred, however, the folks at Tuatara showed some classic Kiwi ingenuity and adapted their recipe to include local hops instead, and thus Aotearoa Pale Ale was born. And, I must say, thank goodness for their sticktuitiveness (is that a word???). The APA is absolutely delightful, and danced around my palette like Chad Johnson Ochocinco Johnson used to dance around the endzone in his halcyon, non-self parody days. A bright, citrusy nose blends wonderfully with a strong, hoppy flavour characteristic of pale ales, making for a wonderful drinking experience. Aotearoa Pale Ale certianly deserves its heady reputation, and I can see why it remains a favourite of beer drinkers across NZ. Based on this brew, I'm keen as mustard to test out the rest of the Tuatara range.

And thus the curtains close on yet another week here at Upside Down Dave. I hope you're all enjoying the posts, and, like I've said, there should be more in the near future.

ALSO, before I sign off, I'd like to thank, from the bottom of my heart, all the readers of the blog, wherever you are. This week the blog went over 1000 page views, about 998 more than I ever expected. You're all just CHOICE AS, BREW.

Dave