Beer Fridge

Alright, I'm a big fan of beer. I don't preach about craft beer. Good beer is good beer to me. Below you can follow my beer journey from the last twelve years. My love for beer started much earlier than that, but around this time is when things started getting interesting in Aotearoa.

In my younger years, your choice of beer was limited, it was either the local draft in cans or stubbies, or Euro lager long necks. Once independent brewers started popping up again, and I was around people who were into it, I started trying as many styles as possible. I quickly refined my taste and knew exactly what I wanted to drink. The most painful thing about trying new beer was spending $11 to $15 on a 440ml can or 500ml bottle, only to pour it down the sink after one sip because it was nothing like what you'd expected.

This was common early on with the independent breweries. There was very little quality control between batches, even with the good stuff. One week it could be a top-tier beer, the next it'd taste like crap. That was one thing the mainstream breweries had going for them: they could make the same tasting beer, over and over, at scale, with precise quality control.

I also had a problem with dark beer, or anything that wasn't a standard amber colour. I soon settled on Pale Ales, American Pale Ales, and India Pale Ales — and all the variants. Stouts, Porters, Wheat, Bitter… sure, I tried them, but they just weren't for me. These days I'm happy with a solid APA, IPA, Bright APA, or a kick-your-teeth-in WCIPA.

At the end of the day, I love a good beer, even a mainstream beer has its place for the right occasion. Looking back over the last twelve years, it's crazy to see which breweries and beers no longer exist, which ones still do, and which have changed entirely. No matter what, I'm a sucker for cracking open a cold one, sitting back, and listening to some music.

Enjoy the fridge.