Although it is dressed up to look like a premium beer, at least the makers have the decency not to call it a beer because it seems they might have merely poured water over malt extract and put bubbles into it.
I feel sorry for non-Islamic visitors to or workers in Islamic Middle East countries which prohibit the sale or consumption of beer, or any alcoholic beverage (and pork) for that matter.
Dubai-based Aujan Industries has produced Barbican for nearly 30 years, mainly for the Middle East. New World has not only the malt but also raspberry, strawberry and apple-flavoured malt.
Aujan also produces it with lemon, peach and pineapple flavours. Alcohol is available in Dubai, but only in hotels and private clubs.
Liquor licences are issued only to non-Muslims. Alcohol is available to non-Muslims in nearby Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, unlike Iran (where it is, however, legal for non-Muslims to home-brew for their own consumption).
The best non-alcoholic beer (about 0.1% although the label, for legal reasons, states 0.5%) remains the German-made Clausthaler.
Harvest time
Monteith's is releasing, for the second year, its First Harvest Autumn Ale which has spicy, fruity and soft malt flavours and a hop aroma. The ale will be on tap in just over a week at Craft (Dunedin), Monteith's Brewery Bar (Alexandra), Monty's (Queenstown) and The Kiln (Invercargill).
Brewery upgrade
A decade after DB reversed a decision to close its Monteith's brewery in Greymouth, it is to upgrade it. Redevelopment will start in July and take until February. Production will move to the company's Timaru brewery in the interim.
Meanwhile, Lion Brewery's Christchurch plant is still cordoned off and therefore still idle. The earthquake damage is still being assessed.
Meanwhile, Speight's brewery in Dunedin and Lion's new brewery in Auckland have increased production.
Pedalling on
The long-running argument between DB and Green Man brewery over calling beer Radler (meaning cyclist in German) will come to a head in May when the Intellectual Property Office will hear an application to allow the Dunedin brewery to use the name.
DB, which produces Monteith's Radler, claims exclusive use of the name and Green Man has been calling its Radler shandy "Cyclist" while awaiting a decision.
DB threatened legal action if Green Man did not desist. The small brewery could not afford the legal costs of fighting for the right in court.
That would have been similar to Champagne wine producers about 20 years ago seeking (successfully) a New Zealand High Court declaration that only they could call sparkling wine Champagne.
Any other bottled-fermented sparkling wine made or sold here has since been called methode champenoise (made the Champagne way).
Instead of defending Green Man in the courts, the Society of Beer Advocates and a law firm offered to challenge, on the brewery's behalf, DB's right to the Radler trademark which was issued by the Intellectual Property Office.
