Thursday 17 January 2013

Media Sensationalism

Thanks for the sensationalism TV3, but I'm fairly certain that this teenager's death, caused by drinking two litres of home-brewed spirits in ten minutes, doesn't "put he spotlight on the growing home brew industry".

I'm reasonably sure that drinking 2 litres of top quality, shop-bought vodka in 10 minutes would still have the same effect.  

If anything, it puts the spotlight on New Zealand's binge drinking culture.

Wednesday 16 January 2013

Beer Bottles

I just contacted a New Zealand based bottle company about getting a quote for a couple hundred 500ml brown glass beer bottles.  Turns out you can only buy them in a minimum quantity of 44506 bottles!  No wonder there's hardly any beer bottles for sale in New Zealand.

Tuesday 15 January 2013

Fresh Wort


If you're in Auckland and interested in getting into home brewing, but want to ease into it, then this looks like a good place to start.

You can turn up at Deep Creek Brewery on the 29th January with an empty fermenter, pay $60, and they'll fill it up with 23 litres of unfermented beer (wort).

All you have to do is leave it to ferment for a week or two, and then bottle it.  You'll end up with 23 litres of Deep Creek Brewery American IPA.

That's pretty good value for 20 odd litres of craft brew.  I'm tempted to give it a go myself.


Monday 14 January 2013

Certificate In The Craft Of Beer


I see that The Brewers Guild of New Zealand is introducing a 'Certificate In The Craft Of Beer' - a one day educational beer workshop. It consists of 3 NZQA unit standards, and covers knowledge of beer, beer heritage, styles, flavours, and matching beer with food.

It looks like it's aimed at those in the hospitality industry (i.e. bar staff) rather than craft/home brewers, but it still looks extremely interesting none the less.

Details can be found here.


Monday 7 January 2013

Welcome to Highetbrau Country

Well then, this is the new Highetbrau blog.  Much like the brewing process itself, I only have a limited idea of what I'm doing.