Tap Takeovers

28-10-2011

From day one of 8 Wired Brewing, we have struggled to keep up with the demand for tap beers. When we first started we owned no kegs but were lucky enough that our friends at Renaissance and BeerNZ could lend us a few.  With the growing demand we have now bought a whole heap and should be able to supply the domestic demand for a while. We also have a stack of single use, recyclable plastic kegs in the pipeline. They should arrive in the new year and enable us to send more beer overseas. A direct result of our growing number of kegs is December’s ”8 Wired Tap Makeover” at The Local Taphouse in Melbourne and Sydney. We shipped 24 kegs for this today, so enjoy Australia. In November there will be more special tap beer as we will be brewing the first batch of a new wheat beer. As was the case with our last keg release, Black Dwarf (a hoppy, Belgian coffee sweet stout) it will be a bit of a mongrel of styles: Half German weissbier, half American pale ale, fermented with a British ale strain. Trials I’ve done in the garage have been very promising. It’s quaffable, complex and refreshing. Just what one needs for summer! Finally, in November I’m heading to Galbraith’s to brew a special cask conditioned version of The Big Smoke. I’ve been wanting to make a cask version of this ever since I started brewing it, so when Galbraith’s invited me to take part of their guest brewer scheme, I instantly knew what I wanted to brew. This beer should be ready in January, but you have to go to Auckland to try it. Tomorrow I’m off to Christchurch judge the SOBA National Homebrew Competition with 11 other judges. It will be 2 long days, no doubt, but also a lot of fun and maybe I will pick up some inspiration from the grassroots of the NZ brewing scene.  There is no doubt that homebrewers are the most creative breed of brewers. More on that next time.