Pours clear orange, diminishing white head. Sweet corriander, citrus, spice on the nose. Flavours of the same, quite bitter, slight hop, can taste the manuka slightly through the other flavours.

beautiful, well balanced flavoursome Beer!!nose like three boy’s wheat but as good a session ale as you would find pushed out by the likes of Harvey’s of Lewes or Fullers in the old country. This is without a doubt the best beer find I have made in 2008 and I may have to move to golden bay just so It would be my local, fantastic work guys!!

Draught at Galbraiths (Auckland), a cloudy light brown with a creamy off-white head. Strong ginger aroma, with some honey and lemon. Strong ginger flavours again, on a smooth palate with a gentle floral hop kick in the finish. A sap presence, and a little grainy as well. A little bit of a let down after the long wait.

Te-tasted 05/06/2008 at The Malthouse and dropped a flavour point and a couple of overall points. The hop flavour is a little too dominant for me, just taking away from the finer points of the beer (which could be really fine if they were allowed to shine through). Tasted 30/05/2008. From tap for afternoon tea at The Malthouse. Pours a pinkish-hued reddish amber, somewhere between murky and bright. I’m genuinely surprised at the sweet tropical NZ hops on the nose. There’s a big caramel base to this beer, which will please the average kiwi drinker but is a big overwhelming for me - it removes a little bit of the sessionability from the beer (though I may change my mind if I actually had a session on it!). The mild-medium bittereness and the slight tannin-like astringency are a good combination. Very pleasant lingering sprucey/piney/woody note from the manuka - assertively mild (it’s still there 10 minutes after the fact). Mildly carbonated. I tried this a few years ago at BrewNZ (under a diferent name, I think: "Swinelager"?) and thought it to be the best "Festive Brew" that year. I still feel the same, it is an excellent beer that just needs the slightest toning down in the caramel department. Definitely worth a retaste, or three, to confirm that theory before The Malthouse runs out. Full of flavour, and not a lot of alcohol.