It's clear Seeker are firing on all four cylinders, with four recent limiteds on offer last time I popped into their Unanderra brewery. Their Sapphire Coast Wet Hop Hazy pours opaque and straw-coloured: almost like lemon curd and cream. Aromas are strong with passionfruit, grapefruit and pineapple, the taste spiked with bitter citrus, backed up by a creamy body with a hint of salt and bubblegum. Promises on the lemon curd and cream appearance are met, with a sweetness that puts it in the more subtle and approachable end of wet hopped beers. Great to share with friends who will tolerate your spiel about how such beers come into being.
Moving on to Land of the Long White Cloud Oat Cream IPA featuring an all-NZ hop lineup of Nelson Sauvin, Motueka, Kohia Nelson and the concentrated lupulin product SubZero Hop Kief courtesy of Freestyle Hops. The appearance is the colour of grapefruit skin, pineapple juice and drying sand. The aromas are a mixture of pine, royal icing and stone fruit. The taste is sweet fairy bread buttered with miso paste, with a side of pineapple with the rind still on, while oats and lactose pleasantly coat your tongue.
Seeker officially celebrated their first birthday with Double Mystic NEIIPA, a beefed-up hit of their Mystic NEIPA, itself a fantastic beer. Double Mystic pours opaque with a pale straw colour reminiscent of a witbier. The aromas are an explosion: incredibly fragrant, almost nauseatingly heady, with pear, pine and a tingle of wasabi peas. Oh boy. The tropical fruit juice flavours wave past before being driven off the road by an almost overwhelming luscious body of those same flavours, just dialled up. This is courtesy of the Sabro Cryo and Zamba hops as well as the extra wheat and oats. As the initial shock fades, an almost savoury, saturated pine note clings to your mouth, helped along by the generous 8.2 percent ABV.
I finished our tasting on the Dougie’s Chocolate Porter named after the chocolate Labrador that clears the brewery floor from the tyranny of dropped pizza. The appearance is one of choc and cola with a petite tan head that holds aromas of biscuits, deep dark malts and midnight dark chocolate. A bittersweet body hides a lovely tingling carbonation that allows new pangs of dark chocolate to be discovered as you click your tongue after a very welcome sip. Lovers of dark chocolate will love this approachable and sessionable porter; they just need to make an alc-free version for Dougie.
Benedict Kennedy-Cox
Published April 29, 2023 2023-04-29 00:00:00