Balter NZ Mouth Holiday: Garage Project NZ Pilsner

Style
NZ Pilsner
ABV
5.4%

Another Balter Mouth Holiday collab, another opportunity for Scotty Hargrave to take a trip on the company dollar. This time he skipped across to New Zealand and met up with Garage Project co-founder and head brewer Pete Gillespie, who I’m 80 percent sure is just Gerard Butler in a not very good disguise.

Together, Scotty and Pete went hop hunting. The pair visited Freestyle Hops and its sister farm Nelson Lakes Hops, which Pete says is “probably the most beautiful hop farm in the entire world,” and which channels its intense climate into intensely flavoured hops. They selected new variety Peacharine, as well as some punchy Motueka and Riwaka hops, and a few months later threw all of these into…

…a lager. What an age we live in!

They labelled the resulting beer “NZ Pilsner”, though it’s clear they’d both put it in the category of West Coast pilsner, with hops aplenty and drinkability by the boatload. Pungent stonefruit and lime stank rise from a beautiful head of foam; the hops in this beer are supported by pale malt made from the “Rolls Royce” of barley from the high altitude Royalburn Station, and this protein-rich malt makes for bangin’ froth. In the mouth, the formidable hop character tidies up into sherbetty citrus and peachy wine spritzer* - flavoursome yet super downable.

If you’re interested, Balter put together a mini-documentary in three parts to capture Scotty and Pete’s jaunt, in which Pete does some Riwaka bashing, Scotty throws all of his powers of pronunciation into the word “terroir”, and the two of them literally skip through hop fields holding hands. And that’s just episode one.

Mick Wüst

* I almost said “West Coast Cooler” since that’s what I remember my mum and sister drinking back in the day, but I figured that name might get tangled up with West Coast pilsner. Though now I’m just wondering if Balter’s next collab will be West Coast Cooler Pilsner…

Published August 27, 2024

Name
Balter Brewing (CUB/Asahi)
Address

14 Traders Way
Currumbin
QLD 4220

Phone
(07) 5525 6916
Open Hours

Friday: 3pm to 7pm
Sat & Sun: midday to 6pm

Fermentis Academy 2024 B2
Bintani Abstrax B

More from Balter Brewing (CUB/Asahi)

Balter Brewing Loftus Express Pacific Northwest Pale Ale
American Pale Ale
5.8%
Balter USA Mouth Holiday: Craft Coast West Coast IPA
West Coast IPA
7.0%
Balter Brewing Figueroa Mountain West Coast Pilsner
West Coast Pilsner
7.0%
Balter USA Mouth Holiday: Green Cheek California IPA
California IPA
7.0%
Balter x Cloudburst Hazy IPA
Hazy IPA
7.0%
Balter Brewing Hazy Pale Ale
Hazy Pale
6.0%
Balter Brewing x Mountain Culture Bucket Full Of Nothin'
Hazy IIPA
7.5%
Balter Brewing NZ Hazy
NZ Hazy Pale Ale
6.0%
Balter Brewing NZ IPA
IPA
7.0%
Balter Brewing NZ Pils
NZ Pilsner
5.4%
Balter Brewing Hazy Wonderland
Hazy IPA
6.5%
Balter Brewing Eazy Hazy
Hazy Pale
4.0%
Balter Brewing Electric Wonderland
West Coast IPA
7.0%
Balter Brewing CryoHaze
Hazy IPA
6.5%
Balter Brewing Cryomofo West Coast IPA
West Coast IPA
7.0%
Balter Brewing IIPA '20
Imperial IPA
8.0%
Balter Brewing Bunker Buster
Session Ale
4.5%
Balter Brewing Dimples West Coast IPA
West Coast IPA
7.0%
Balter & Garage Project Dry Haze
Hazy IPA
6.0%
Balter Brewing Hazy/DC
Hazy IPA
6.0%