Non-Pacific

It's chapter three of Random Finnish Beers in Lidl. I'm glad they're spacing these out so I get a new post from each one. Today Pyynikin has a Pacific Pale Ale for us, a 5.5%-er.

For a start, it doesn't look very pale, being the amber colour of old-school American pale ales, with their heavy charge of crystal malt. They did that, presumably, because they based their beers on English bitter, and this has a gentle lemon-tea aroma which put me in a pub beer garden more than on a Polynesian beach. The crystal comes roaring out in the flavour: a huge, sweet, caramel and toffee effect in the foretaste. We've moved indoors from the beer garden and switched from a light and hoppy bitter to a dark and comforting one. The tannins are still there but they aren't strong enough to balance the heavy sugar, and there's also a little of the soap and metal that are the bane of English-hopped beers, even though this probably isn't one.

Pyynikin has really missed the mark on "Pacific" here. There's not an iota of tropicality about this, and nothing American either. Maybe it's a Finnish take on New Zealand's ubiquitous Canterbury Draught, because that's about the only way it makes sense. As beer in its own right it's inoffensive, and might even be enjoyable as a dark-evening sipper. I couldn't deal with the surprise, however, and resented it for the rest of the glassful. Adjust your expectations accordingly.

The Down Under fundamentals

Back from my travels with much to report. After Singapore the rest of my time was spent in New Zealand. I was quite surprised that it has a wide and varied brewing culture very unlike its larger neighbour across the Tasman Sea. Small breweries abound, and the variety of product is impressive. I think I scratched the surface by trying seventy different beers, so it'll take me a few posts to get through them all. This one is about the basics.

What struck me most of all is that the basic beer style, the one that almost everyone makes whether they're a mega-corporation or a small brewpub, is not a lager but a light amber ale. The biggest brewery in the country is Auckland's Lion Nathan and they make Lion Red. It's rather plain, light and unchallenging. Tui is another common brand, and one step up, I think, being drier and more interesting than Lion. (Like Tui, lots of kiwi beers are named after local fauna - before the end of this we'll have had tuataras, moas and a black shag). Waikato Draught is an odd example of this type of beer. It claims on the label to be "Bitter Beer" but is in fact very sweet, almost sugary. It's pleasant for all that though and goes down very easy.

Moving away from the industrial end of the market, Speight's Gold Medal Ale is ubiquitous in the South Island especially and is pretty decent if a little unexciting. Though it is definitely an ale it's light enough to remind me of Carlsberg more than anything else. Monteith's is the other small South Island brewery punching above its weight. It's Original is also quite plain and easy drinking. Cardrona Gold from the Wanaka Beerworks is probably the best of this lot - leaning away from the pale ale towards the more flavoursome IPA. It is dry and zesty as well as pleasantly light. There will be more from these three breweries in later posts.

Of course, basic lager is inevitable everywhere. Steinlager is probably the commonest in NZ. It's in the bitter German style, reminiscent of Beck's in taste as well as the label. Export Gold is a rather more non-descript fizzy lager, as is the rarer Canterbury Draught. Neither are recommended, given the many alternatives in every bar.

That will do for a taster. I promise more interesting beers to come.