Macs Hop Rocker

Brewed by Macs Brewery
Style: Pilsener
Wellington, New Zealand

Serve in Flute, Footed Pilsner

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From a 330ml bottle on 17/4/2010. Note - my bottle listed the ABV as 4.8% not 5%. Has a nice floral, fruity aroma. This actually tastes more like an APA than a pils. It’s got a lovely, subtle and quite sweet honeyed flavour with some fruity notes, which is balanced by some nice hop action. Quite impressive.

330ml bottle. Pours clean and sparkling and very well carbonated, maybe a little too much. Large voluminous creamy white head and a golden straw colour. Grain and malt aroma that is clean and crisp with no hidden surprises. Clean taste with a nice balance and lasting aftertaste with some citrus background flavours. Light in the mouth and overall quite good with good lacing left on the glass.

Bottle. Pours a crystal clear light golden with smallish white coloured head. Great hop aromas with plenty of pine resin, citrus and certainly some of those wine type aromas that come with the nelson sauvin hops. Great hop aromas. Offset somewhat by light caramel malt sweetness. Taste is very clean upfront. Some hop bitterness comes through on the finish. Unfortunately flavours dont really match the aroma. Nice easy to drink beer all the same.

A big well held fluffy head and citrus aromas. Very nicely balanced but full on hoppy flavour, with some good saltiness at the end. A good but different form of pils.

Another of the light, fruity pilseners that the Kiwis do so well. It’s certainly not as "big" as the name suggests - more of a crooner than a rocker. Lucid gold with a dollop of foam. Classic NZ tropical fruit aroma - bit soapy, bit green, with strong passionfruit and gooseberry. Couldn’t smell the crystal malt, which I’d take as a positive with this style. Soft mouthfeel. Lovely restrained tropical fruit flavours, with the hops working in harmony with the malts, rather than competing for attention. Perhaps a little crude and grainy but redeemed by those lovely NZ hops. Moderate bitterness for a bright, refreshing finish. This is very sessionable and perfect summer drinking. The best of the few Macs I’ve had to date but that may change with a trip to NZ in a month or two. I liked this a lot. (330ml bottle from Vintage Cellars, Clovelly. BB 1/2/08)

Transparent gold, thin white wispy surface head. Really husky lemon-cracker nose. Creamy milk/cracker flavor, light hop bitterness in the finish. Pleasant, balanced, nice stuff, if a bit straightforward.

330mL. Pours a clear straw with a giant, white, rocky head with massive sheety lace. Aroma is grassy hops, lemon, fresh flowers, tropical notes from the Nelson Sauvin, lilac. Taste is just a bit too doughy and grainy for a pils but is rich, fresh, fairly sharp, moving to full nutty to tree sappy bitter. Dry palate.

33cl bottle. Pours watery orange/straw colour with no real head to speak of. Aroma is subtle tropical fruit, lots of grassiness, some cereal and grainy notes. Taste has a fairly sharp (near-metallic) citric bitterness that mellows into softer light tropical notes. Again, cereal and grain come to the fore with some earthy, spicy hops (all fairly subtle). A touch astringent in the finish. Mouthfeel fairly thin. A tasty take on a pilsner; had a sixer of this at a BBQ last summer and it really hit the spot - a proper summer's day sessioner.

I’m liking this wee be beverage. It’s fresh tasty and light. You can drink this beer down fast on a hot day be refreshed and it’s done it’s job. Then you can take 10-15 minutes and enjoy each sip. Finding those nelson hops interesting they compliment the lighter clearer beers like a pilsner so well!

A god send for uni students, This is a great example of easy-drinking Pilsener. Pours light golden straw with a tight little white head. Mild Hops and fruity aroma. A permanent resident in my fridge at home over summer, solid packaging to boot. Affordable as hinted above.