Sailors Grave return to their Jerra Ngia – Story You, Story Me – series that focuses on storytelling and takes cues from the local landscape, with another collaboration between the brewers and Jerra Ngia. Signals is a gose brewed with native ginger root and foraged cinnamon myrtle that first catches the eye with its colour: if you've become accustomed to gose being of the paler sort (unless loaded with fruits of one kind or another), the copper colour will come as something of a surprise.
It serves as sensory preparation for what's to come, with Signals not far off a classic ginger nut biscuit in a can, the richness of the ingredients responsible for its colour counteracting the salinity and sourness you might expect to instead showcase the beer's spice and herb inclusions.
Southern Red is a rather more straightforward affair: a red ale hopped with NZ Cascade and Simcoe that leans more towards the dry (very much so) and toasty end of the red ale spectrum. Pouring a murky, deep bloody amberm there's a touch of orange rind poking through too.
James Smith
Published April 29, 2024 2024-04-29 00:00:00
