Being on the road again means more microbreweries to visit.  A few weeks ago I heard about Wanaka Beerworks, a brewery located in Wanaka, just north of Queenstown.  When it comes to beverages, the quality of water can make or break it.  Three words; Pure mountain water!  Anticipating our visit to sample the 3 different beers this small brewery creates I even emailed David Gillies, the Brew-master, while we were still working in Te Anau.

Wanaka Beerworks opens at 9am.  This seems a bit early for Justin and I to begin drinking beer.  We had an enjoyable morning drinking green tea while checking email, walking along Lake Wanaka and playing frisbee in Pembroke Park with  spectacular mountain views.  Feeling as though our morning had been rather productive, we decided it was late enough in the morning to justify drinking beer.  We pulled in around 10:15 and discovered, much to our dismay, that Wanka Beerworks was not open.  We were sad but… we decided to wait.  At this point, we were feeling a bit like alcoholics.  Fortunately, their was a guy visiting from Auckland that had showed up 5 minutes before our arrival. He was equally disappointed and this made us feel a bit better.  We waited patiently for the brewery to become open and active.  The longer we waited the more I felt like an alcoholic. (Every five minutes Justin would look longingly at the brewery and loudly moan, “BEEEEEEERRRRRRRRR!!!!”. This did not help).

Fortunately, Robin showed up around 11 am and saved the day.  She apologized, as it sounded like their was a mix up with her and Dave (the Brew-master/owner/operator).  Our tour was fun, especially since our buddy from Auckland also stayed until Beerworks opened so he could see the place.  Robin was very informative and we discovered that Wanaka Beerworks is a simple one-person operation – Dave does most of the work.  Amazing!  It causes me to reflect on the mass production that goes into so many of the big names in beer.  Budweiser just seems so less personal.

Before tasting the beer, I immediately fell in love with the cute tasting glasses, beer handle and all.  The handle allowed me to taste the beer without altering the temperature of the liquid from my warm hand against the glass.  Instead, by griping the handle, the beer remained as chilly as when it escaped the tap.

I was impressed by the crisp taste and well balanced sweet malty flavor of Brewski.  Although it is the lightest of the 3 beers they produce, Brewski is the most popular beer they distribute.

Justin and I both agreed we have never tasted anything like Cardrona Gold.  This beer offered an extremely unique malty flavor, similar to a malt lager, but it offered a clean hoppy finish that was smooth and delicious.  Cardrona Gold was definitely worth our wait.

The third and final beer we sampled was Tall Black.  This reminded me of our favorite coffee/beer combinations.  However, it wasn’t nearly dark enough to compare.  It’s most memorable quality is received upon smelling the beer, as it offers a distinct nutty/cocoa scent.  A rich chocolate flavor could be tasted as well.  Overall, both Justin and I were impressed by the personal touch and effort Dave puts into the beer he creates.

In addition to our beer tasting experience, Robin and I decided to run a little test with the Wanaka Recycling Center.  Wanaka Beerworks recycles their bottles.  Both businesses and personal households will return the glass bottles to be sanitized and reused.  Apparently, the Recycling Center will even drop off beer bottles sometimes.  By writing the date and a happy face with green permanent marker on one of the bottles, we hope to test how long the Recycling Center takes in returning these glass beer bottles.  On the way out of Wanaka, Justin and I dropped it in the “glass” container of the Recycling Center.  Robin will contact us with any results.  Who knows if we will ever see the bottle again?  We will wait and see!

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