Renaissance Brewing Voyager

Renaissance Brewing Voyager
Style: India Pale Ale

Alcohol Content: 6%

From: Blenheim, New Zealand

Purchased From: Purchased from: A birthday gift

http://www.renaissancebrewing.co.nz/

Renaissance brewing was founded in 2005 by Andy Deuchars and Brian Thiel. Andy and Brian, both natives of Southern California, decided to produce stunning beer in a region more renowned for wine, Marlborough New Zealand. After purchasing the lease on the historic Grove Mill in Blenheim and suffering a few teething problems (such as a delayed dispatch of their bottling machine due to Italy winning the World Cup in 2006), the brewery has grown into something of cult status in New Zealand. Scoping multiple awards over the past 9 years (including the prestigious champion New Zealand brewery in 2013), the brewery now produces a core range of 12 beers at their 400,000 litre bottling plant in Blenheim.

Colour: Pours a murky light brown with a dusting of foam which unfortunately does not linger around for very long in the glass (somewhat similar to the Brewdog Old World India Pale Ale I reviewed back in May). Not the best looking IPA, but looks can be deceiving.

Aroma: As soon as you pop the cap, a rich sweetness of honey will flood your nostrils. This only dissipates slightly once in the glass to help reveal notes of brown bread and perhaps sweet kiwi/mango/lychee (it's pretty hard to work out what it actually could be).

Body: The honey like sweetness also translates into the body of this beer. Unlike it's starship namesake, Voyager is not a drink to enjoy at "warp speed". The sticky body coats your tongue and your mouth so much you could be mistaken in thinking you are drinking a pint of honey. If slightly more carbonation was added to this beer, it would be a pleasure to drink, but quite frankly, I found this pint extremely hard work.

Taste: Very, very sweet for an IPA. The sweet honey dominates the palate with very subtle hints of mangos and kiwis lurking in the background. As the drink warms, the honey flavour dulls slightly allowing very delicate notes of burnt toffee to appear. With not a hint of bitterness in sight, I feel extremely let down by this IPA. It's sickly sweet and really lacks any depth of the flavour. At least I did not waste my own money on this beer.

Similar to: http://beefsbrewery.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/brewdog-old-world-india-pale-ale.html

Different to: http://beefsbrewery.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/sierra-nevada-brewing-narwhal-imperial.html

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Moa Brewery Blanc

Moa Brewery Blanc

Style: Kristallweizen

Alcohol Content: 5%

From: Marlborough, New Zealand

Purchased From: A wine shop in the Brighton (the name escapes me)
http://www.moabeer.com/

When the Moa Brewery was built it was plonked between the vines in the world famous winemaking region of Marlborough, New Zealand, which isn’t surprising considering the founder of Moa, Josh Scott, is a winemaker and according to him, “It takes a lot of beer to make a good wine”. Conveniently, it’s quite a nice place to live and provides the perfect environment for brewing. The brewery opened in 2003 and this year celebrated its tenth anniversary.

The name “Moa” (New Zealand’s giant dinosaur bird) also derives from the region, as in the early days Josh hand delivered brews to archaeologists working a Moa bone dig near the brewery. Even half-cut they found some Moa bones, so archaeology can’t be that hard. In case your interested this is what a Moa actually looks like.
                                      

What a big boy hey? Lets see if there beer can match the bird. For this review we will be looking at the Moa Blanc which i came across in Brighton, tucked away at the back of a wine shop. Thanks to the beautiful Emma for helping pick this one out.

Beautifully simple label

Colour: A beautiful sunshine yellow with a majestic thick white head on the pour. It looks like a very good German Kristallweizen (the filtered alternative to unfiltered Hefeweizen Weiss beer). The head will die down to a low foam after a few sips which is a real shame. I always enjoy a nice lingering head on a Weiss beer.

Aroma: As with most Kristallweizen beers, the filtering has slightly dulled down the aromas of this beer. Taking a deep sniff I can smell faint hints of grass and oranges, lemons and limes. Hop aromas are very minimal from this beer.

Body: Rather light for a wheat beer. The mouth feel is very smooth and not sticky at all. The minimal hopping of this beer helps to create a very crisp finish which is very strange for a Weiss beer. All credit to Moa for trying something a bit different when creating a Weiss beer.

Taste: I took my beer out of the fridge for a 15 minutes before drinking it. On hindsight, I would of kept it out of the fridge for a lot longer before sampling this brew. To be honest, this is not the flavorsome Weiss beer I have ever had. In the mouth you can pick out hints of wheat and very faint hints of bananas. Really trying to pick out flavors I drank very slowly swilling the beer from taste bud to taste bud. Luckily, I could also pick out notes of lemon and limes which is complimented by hints of grass. There is a slight phenolic finish which helps to clean your mouth out after every sip.

Something Similar: http://beefsbrewery.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/duvel.html
Something Different: http://beefsbrewery.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/flying-dog-doggie-style-pale-ale.html

For the latest news on reviews follow me on twitter @beefsbrewery