Macs Copperhop Ale

Formerly brewed at Macs Brewery
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Wellington, New Zealand

Serve in Shaker, Tulip

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fabulous smooth creamy malty flavor - has re-invigorated the IPA market. Whilst like most other IPAs it features a crisp bitter aftertaste, the full bodied flavor lacks the trtiness of many other IPAs available (such as James Squire). This brew is a perfect example of how less is more - fewer hops leads to a more balanced taste. It’s the understated subtleties that stand this head and shoulders above any malt shovel ’brew the living daylights out of it’ variety. True craft brew IPA.

UPDATED: DEC 30, 2005 Served far too cold at Lambs Go Bar. Uh, copper colour, clear, OK head. Aroma is surprisingly like the Cuvee d’Ermesinde I’d had a couple of hours earlier. Weird. Allspice, fresh mint, coriander seed and nice tropical fruit. Nice solid biscuity malt flavour followed by quite a big rough bitterness, though it’s all a little plain. I really enjoyed this at AIBA a couple of years back - it’s not quite that good this time but nice stuff nonetheless. (3.3)
RR: Managed to find a few bottles in a Vintage Cellars of all places, and yes, this stuff is good. I often find NZ hops a bit ugly and offensive but in this they’re done really well - very gingery, with pepper and tangerine and quite a piney, woody thing in there. The aroma is a lot bigger than it tastes, and the light body is a bit of a letdown, but it’s still good. I recall thinking "if this wasn’t from NZ it would be British" but now that seems like a stupid thing to say. The fresh biscuity malt certainly seemed British, at least, but the use of hops is certainly more American. Whatever, I like this stuff a lot.

Good copper colour with a big off-white head. Big hoppy aroma and flavours medium body with a long sweetish finish. Nice one.

Treacle / dark orange appearance. Sweet pineapple aromas. Good bitter sweet balance. Consistant frothy head and bubbles with a medium body. I personally didn’t think it was bitter enough for an IPA, but a great bevvy anyways.

Clear copper, small head. Loads of floral hops on the nose and palate, a little spice, all balanced with some caramel malt on the palate and a nice dry finish. Very nice.

330 ml bottle. Orange-copper coloured beer with a thin white head. Arom ais slightly malty with fruity and juicy hops (mango, papaya, juicy fruit). A touch of spiciness. The hops mingle perfectly with the sweet bready caramel malts. Flavour is semi-sweet with plenty of juicy hop flavour and moderate bitterness. Not like any IPA I’ve had before, but still very good.

Very spicy hop aroma. Light orange-copper colour. Spicy hop flavour with a strong malt backbone. Finish is lingering and sweet. The yeast flavours remind me of Otter Creek’s Copper Ale.

UPDATED: JUN 7, 2006 A good amber colour and refreshing tettnanger hop nose. The mouthfeel is quite good and the beer finishes dry on the back palate. The balance of this beer is good and is sustained by a good malty presence. Re-Rate 8/6/6: This has been on special lately in the local grog shop and so I have been buying the odd case. I think this is actually improving with time and it has an edge over some of the other antipodean IPAs. A very good beer even though it is still timid in comparison to the northern varieties.

UPDATED: OCT 24, 2005 Re-tasted 24/10/2005. 330ml bottle at The Office, Newtown. Only tried this because the tap beers were awful. Hazy, orangey-copper with a fluffy white head that doesn’t linger very long (nice to see a mainstream beer that’s not afraid to show some haze). Lovely, tropical fruit hop punch on the nose with a touch of grassiness. Good sweet chewy malts, with fruit-driven hop flavour that has a slight spice hint at the back. A little short in the finish but I don’t really see that as a weakness, just a feature. Good weight and carbonation in the mouth, obviously plenty of residual sugars. The last time I tried this it was bordering on awful, so this a is nice surprise. No wonder this won medals and got loads of good press.

Amber in colour, small head. Hoppy aroma and tatse. Kiwi version of English Bitter.