Time to change gears and check out this NZ beauty!

How good is the New Zilund craft beer scene right now? There are so many cool craft breweries producing fantastic, imaginative, and most of all, top quality beers. Brewers like Tuatara, Moa, Croucher, Garage Project, Parrot Dog, 8 Wired and this weeks subject, Panhead, are just smashing it and introducing beer lovers to some really great brews. Last count on the Brewers Guild of New Zealand website showed 82 breweries. For a country with only 4 ½ million people (Less that the West of Sydney!), that’s amazing!

I won’t re-visit my love of New Zealand, think I have covered that enough in previous posts where I have had a beer-crush on various NZ beers…let’s just get into the beer, hey?

I had this beer a while ago, and after drinking my way through a couple of 4-packs of Panhead’s XPA over Christmas, I thought I would re-visit this one for two reasons:

I bloody love American Pale Ales; and

I bloody love the Panhead brews!

Panhead Chief Brewer is Mike Nielsen, he used to brew for Tuatara which I think is a pretty damn good brewery to do your apprenticeship. The Tuatara APA (where A actually stands for AOTEAROA) is my favourite beer of theirs…I wonder how much inspiration that beer gave Mike for producing his Panhead APA?

Side note: on further inspection, the Tuatara and Panhead brews do not share one like hop ingredient, so I guess I was way off the mark!!

So, the beer…as usual I poured it into a nice glass to ensure that I get all the hoppy goodness floating up my big old nose as I inhale…a tulip glass was my glass of choice this time. Poured like a typical American Pale ale, you know the colour, that kind of burnt orange, amber…with a nice creamy head on top. I can’t stress enough the importance of pouring a beer vigorously into a glass, it just awakens all of the aromas and the beer comes alive in the glass…try it!

Another side note: If you are interested in the science behind he pouring of a beer to create foam, check out the Pope Of Foam as he explains the science behind the pour. Cue forward to the 1:50 mark to see him pour a beer with a fantastic foamy head!

Speaking of being alive in the glass, the Supercharger was certainly up and about after being poured (vigorously)! Straight away, you are hit with beautiful zesty hop aromas of citrus and some slight piney characters thanks to the hop bill that includes classic American Pale Ale hops Citra (One of my faves), Simcoe (I like that too) and Centennial (3 from 3!). I was so keen to get a big blast of the citrus aroma form this beer that I ended up with froth all over my nose – remember the vigorous pour.

Not happy with just sitting around sniffing into my tulip beer glass, I of course took the step to second base and took a sip and got some sweet toffee malt flavours and more of the fruitiness with a solid bitterness hit at the end that was slightly resinous. The mtoufeel was nice and the beer was not overly carbonated. A pretty solid beer, coming in at 5.7%, so maybe not one you could enjoy too many of before you start to jibber jabber, but I could see myself firing up the bbq and sipping on a few of these as I prepare a meal for my family. I do like drinking a beer while I am barbecuing, it just goes together for me like peas and corn…I find it quite relaxing.

The food match

The feedback on my Xmas Beer Reviews with food matches was positive, so I will keep recommending a match that I would like to pair with these beers…but remember, to each their own, and you don’t have to like my suggestions…would love to hear yours as well!

With its toffee malt flavours and solid bitterness, you probably have heaps of options with this one. Seeing as I am already at the bbq, I may as well think along those lines and I think I would like to try this beer with some chilli basted chicken skewers. I think the combination of the bitterness with the chilli will work well with the hop aromas and slight char grill on the chicken…it should really open up your taste buds to a blast of flavour…give it a try and let me know what you think.

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Cheers to Great Beers!