During the tour I learned, about the history of beer, how to make beer, stories of Speights, and a beer tasting of course! I am going to recall the details (meaning most of the interesting stories) of the trip as closely as possible.
We began with the coopers. They made seven sizes of barrels, the largest of which held about a 2tons of beer! The smallest was known as the coopers barrel. As part of the Brewery's work policy they received one of these barrels a day. They discovered when breaking down these barrells that they had thinned than normal slats and thus were able to hold more beer!
| The cooper's barrel is just covered b the speaker's hand- as you can see, that's a lot of beer! |
According to these hieroglyphics people had drinking problems even back then!
Beer is a key part of NZ's culture. When it was first discovered by Captain Cook, he laid ground and brewed beer using some plants (I think they were reed-like), and thus staved off scurvy and was able to finish the trip around the world- well his crew anyway.
It was pretty awesome that our tour guide's great grandfather was one of the 3 original founders of speights.
We also learned about origin of a particular tower in the brewery- it is topped by a barrel, apparently it was added on the drafts as a prank and Mr Speight enjoyed it so much that he kept it.
Our tour guide also told us this great story about the Horses who carted the beer to the various pubs. Apparently they dressed up quite nice so a couple wanted to use them for their wedding. As it finished the groom snapped the rein and off went the horses. these horses had a good memory, so they went from pub to pub to pub. Making their honeymoon a pub crawl!
We also learned about the basics, of making beer. I now understand why it is so expensive, a lot of time, ingredients, and expertise goes into brewing a pint.
I finally learned what hops are/ They are flowers that grow on a vine. The next closest plant in this family is cannabis. The guide told us that apparently some monks mized the two up once and brewed a particualarly interested batch!
We also learned about the brewery's water, which comes straight from a spring, (just like Schell brewery in New Ulm!) The water is so good that they have a tap for the public just outside the brewerey. One time the paper had an article that the brewerey had done some plumbing and the beer line went straight to this tap. The lines the next day were incredible. Can you guess which day this was? --thats right--APRIL FOOLS!
The brewery also had kats to protect the barely from rats- the cats inevitably had kittens, and it being a brewery they raised them on beer! The cats that were given away refused to drink anything else!
The last bit of the tour was the tasting portion. I first learned how to pour a glass from a tap
1. angle the glass beneath the tap.
2. Pull the tap all the way out- that is unless you want foam
3. Fill, and place tap in original position.
I also learned about how to taste a beer. The first step is to hold it up to the light and look at it. Next take a sniff- a good a long one. Following that take a sip- let is swirl around your mouth, expecually underneath your tongue, finally swallow it.
I tasted a 6 flavors of beer.
I began with Speights Gold Medal Ale- it is the most basic and common type of beer- is a mainstreem NZ brown beer, and has a full flavour of malt and hops.
Next came the Summit a lager with all naturual ingredients
Followed by Old Dark- porter an interesting beer, it tastes of coffee and chocolate- not bad, a slightly bitter aftertaste though.
I also had the Pilsner-
Next came the Distinction- I quite liked it, its to say the least-distinct. This is due to "traditional full flavoured malt ale with hints of caramel, malt and butterscotch flavours. Five malts have been blended to create a full malty bitterness that sets it apart from other beers."
I finished with the Cider- it very much tastes like apple cider, quite good.
With the tasting finished we made our way home well satisfied and now educated about beer.
