Garage Project Tap Invasion!
Garage Project Tap Invasion!
Wed 12th Dec 6pm-8pm
We’ve heard nothing but good things about Garage Project and they certainly tick all our Wheaty boxes; these guys brew experimental beers from small gear, love their hops hops hops and sponsor Wellington’s Richter City Roller Derby Team. And now we're set to grace our Taps with four of the Garage's finest…
“The Garage Project is Pete Gillespie and Jos Ruffell with help from Pete’s brother Ian Gillespie. We’ve been quietly plotting and planning the Garage Project for some time now, and we’re excited to begin sharing our progress with the Wellington, and New Zealand craft beer communities.
Why Garage Project? Garage because it started in a garage, but it’s more than that. It’s also about approaching things with a garage mentality. It’s about playing around, making do and thinking outside the box. The surroundings might be basic but this is no barrier to creativity. This is bière de garage – beer from the garage.
And why Project – because it’s ongoing, it’s a work in progress and we plan to keep it that way. For example, we don’t plan to come out with a fixed portfolio of beers – this is about experimenting, pushing boundaries, blurring the boundaries between styles - seeing what works. We love beer styles, but we want to take them somewhere, to reinterpret, not just reproduce them.”
We’ll be pouring:
1.Pernicious Weed - The arrival of hops to the brewing scene in England in the 1500’s led to a moral panic. Hops were condemned as a “wicked and pernicious weed”, one which would lead to the erosion of social and moral standards. Thank goodness they were right. Here’s hoping that our homage to the original pernicious weed continues this gradual decline. Organic Rakau and whole cone Nelson Sauvin go head to head in this strong, golden, hoppy brew. Bitter, yes. Intensely hoppy, absolutely. Too much, never!
2.Trip Hop - We love NZ Hops. How much? Here’s how much. Triple hopped with, Pacifica, Motueka and Riwaka hops in increasingly lavish quantities throughout the boil, Trip Hop’s bitter but (we hope) balanced on a malt base of pale, Carahelles, Vienna and Caraaroma. Rich amber red and redolent of the Nelson hop fields. Think easy drinking for resin heads and pucker up!
3.Red Rocks Reserve - When Jos suggested that we do a ‘stein’ version of the Red Rocks beer we originally brewed for the 24/24, I distinctly remember telling him to fuck off. ‘Steinning’ is an ancient brewing method dating back to a time when beer was brewed in wooden vessels. Instead of applying external heat (tricky with a wooden kettle), hot rocks would be thrown into the wort to create a rolling boil...And the flavour is there, unmistakably, in the beer – rich juicy toffee sweetness from all those caramelized sugars, layered with Red Rock’s distinctive lush hop aroma. We’ve been calling it a hopfen-stein bier. I don’t know if that really is a style but I do know it is definitely one of the most fun beers I’ve ever made; a rich ruby red ale with loads of chewy malt character. There wasn’t a lot of restraint shown in the hopping of this beer. We had a fair bit of whole cone Nelson Sauvin hops in the fridge and they all went in. The end result is a nice balance of malt sweetness and bitterness, with some assertive hop aroma and flavour.
4. Dark Art (Coffee Bock)…
On the night we’ll uphold the time honoured Thebarton Pub tradition of the ‘schlook’ raffle, whereby some lucky Punters will take home Garage Project beer and bling …
Kegs on for as long as they last.
Don’t drive the car!
