Dunedin brewer Emerson's latest offering is an English summer ale called Tally Ho!
English summer ales are traditionally low in everything: alcohol (2.9%-4%), sweetness, bitterness and body but relatively high in fizz. This produces a light, but refreshing, beverage.
Here, however, brewers tend to look for thirst-quenching properties like spices (ginger in Monteith's Summer Ale) or producing citric flavours with, for example, lemongrass (Mac's Sun Dance Summer Ale, available only in Mac's brew bars) or, my favourite, Harrington's Lazy Sunday (tangelos, coriander and crushed root ginger).
Or, increasingly, they are joining the trend to refreshing ciders, fermenting apples or pears instead of malted barley for beer.
Emerson's summer ale (4.9%) has none of these relying, rather, on English hops to give a slightly herbaceous and citrus flavour.
It is typically effervescent but tasty rather than light.
Why Tally Ho? This is another in the brewer's reserve series which pays tribute to the Flying Nun record label which has done so much to promote Dunedin music.
Tally Ho! - by Dunedin rock band The Clean, formed in 1978 - was released in 1981 and reached No 19 on the singles chart, giving the record company its first hit.
The Tally Ho! summer golden ale is available at the Wickliffe St brewery ($8.95 for a 1.25-litre plastic bottle) or on tap at a few bars in Dunedin.
It should be around until early March.
Fruit-dominated
Berry fruit-infused beer is another popular summer thirst-quencher.
Invercargill Brewery's Boysenbeery is an example.
Another, Taranaki brewery mike's (sic) Strawberry Blonde, has sold out and summer is not over yet.
A new one, with blackcurrant and boysenberry juice added just before bottling of a wheat beer, is the tart and refreshing Pink Maiden, which is due to reach shelves in the next week or so.
It is part of a series of Beltane Maiden girly beers from Vicki Purple (partner of Green Man Brewery founder Tom Jones) aimed at women's palates.
Jones, through Crafty Beers, distributes small-brewery beers (like Beltane Maiden and mike's) and cider (the delicious Camla Farm, rated by Richard Till, who promotes Countdown supermarkets on television, as the best cider in New Zealand).
Look for them in New World (City Centre), Fresh Choice (Roslyn) Moyles SuperValue, Castle MacAdam, Liquorland in Dunedin and Invercargill; New World in Cromwell; Wild Walnut in Lawrence and Mainholm Lodge in Tapanui.
More accessible
Monteith's Single Source lager is about to become more widely available.
Since its release in mid-November, it has been only in Monteith's concept bars (Craft, Dunedin; Monty's, Queenstown; Monteith's Brewery Bar, Alexandra; The Kiln, Invercargill), but from next week can be found in Liqourland ($35 a dozen) as well.
Single Source replaced Monteith's New Zealand Lager and is so named because the hops come from only one garden and the malt from only one farm.
The malt is a new variety which helps to keep the beer fresher for longer.