Dunedin brewer Emerson's has launched a new series of brewer's reserve beers, paying tribute to a music label which has done much to foster Dunedin bands.
Amber Wit is the first of four limited production beers under the Flying Nun label, the first two of which are wheat beers.
Flying Nun was formed in Christchurch in 1981, but quickly championed emerging music from Dunedin.
It is owned by founder Roger Shepherd and three partners, including Neil Finn of Crowded House and Split Enz fame.
Wheat beers traditionally have at least 50% of malted wheat with the usual malted barley.
They are known as white beers because they are usually pale and yeast particles in unfiltered versions turn a hazy white when chilled.
They come in a variety of flavours.
German weiss (white) beers usually have a banana (Christchurch brewery Harrington's weiss, for example) or bubblegum flavour, Belgian wit beers often contain coriander (and sometimes orange peel, like the Hoegaarden brand which is widely available here) or are faintly vanilla.
But not all wheat beers are white - they can be dark and malty.
If a label contains the words "wit" or "weiss" it is a wheat beer.
But it can be called hefeweizen ("hefe" meaning yeast) which is unfiltered, or kristallweizen ("kristall" meaning crystal) which is the same beer but filtered.
Dunkelweizen is dark and malty, while weizenbock is a higher-strength brew.
Emerson's bottled weiss beer is true to the German style, with a banana character.
But its Amber Wit is something else.
It is so malty (even with a hint of coriander to spice the aftertaste) its wheat base is greatly disguised.
It is available at the brewery in Wickliffe St (about $9 in a 1.25-litre plastic bottle) and will be available for several weeks.
Summer returns
Monteith's Summer Ale (5%) is back for its 11th summer.
It is, to all intents, a ginger ale - but with subtle sweetness from rata honey from the South Island's West Coast.
The spice of the ginger is tempered, to varying degrees, from year to year by seasonal differences in the honey.
It is refreshing on its own, or goes well with seafood or barbecued meat. (It costs about $15 a six-pack or $26 a dozen.)
Export creator
DB Breweries has been running a television commercial to promote the re-creation of DB Export (see column October 20).
The commercial tells the story of how Export was first made in 1960 by Morton Coutts, whose grandfather began a family brewing empire in Otago.
Bavarian-born Joseph Kuhtze was shipwrecked near Napier in 1869, started brewing in Alexandra in 1870 before taking over the Swan Brewery in Cromwell in 1973.
He then operated several breweries in Dunedin before locating to Napier.
His son and Morton's father, William Coutts, founded the Waitemata brewery in South Auckland in 1930 - within months merging with Henry Kelliher's bottling company to form Dominion Breweries.
The brewery, much changed, is still DB's headquarters.
