Welcome to Pomeroy's Old Brewery Inn
Pomeroy's Old Bewery Inn is a comfortable and traditional English style pub that offers patrons an unsurpassed range of hand- picked beers, with a focus on offering the best of New Zealand's boutique and craft breweries complemented by some of our imported favourites. We even have our own craft beer on tap, and offer many seasonal and limited run varieties, meaning that each trip to Poms offers something new for the senses!
Pomeroys is family owned and operated, and we pride ourselves on being a real community-based pub. There's always someone to chat to, and always something going on with our jazz, folk, blues, and acoustic music nights, not to mention our quiz nights and regular events.
Housed in the historic Wards Brewery and always warm and inviting with pint glass in hand, your host Steve Pomeroy invites you to come and enjoy the unique Pom's experience and take the time to relax, unwind, meet friends whilst sampling a range of the best beers you'll find at one location.
How to brew, bro (& talk like a pro)
Beer is magic! It starts with photosynthesis and the adult barley storing carbohydrates in its seed to nourish the next generation. Spring comes and starts a process whereby the growing barley embryo can tap into this stored energy, as enzymes turn starch to sugar.
The ‘malting’ process imitates Spring. Dried grain is moistened and warmed and as it germinates, the starch becomes soluble and turns into malt sugar—the key to fermentation. Malting requires a steady process of turning and spreading to ensure even germination. The tricky part is to stop it at the right time or the plant will consume all of its sugar. At the crucial point the barley is roasted in kilns to kill the seed and stop the malting. The grain only has to be processed part way. The starch is converting to sugar, the husk has softened and the roast has given it warm, toasty flavours. This is malt —the ‘soul of beer’.
At this point the grain can be stored. These days malting is mostly done by malting companies who supply brewers worldwide with a universal choice of malts, selecting types of grain for characters & flavours required for specific beers.
Next comes ‘mashing’—grinding the malt just right and mixing with water. Of course all the trace elements and minerals found in water influence regional beer styles too. The mash is then heated to continue the conversion of starch to sugar. Once this lot has been steeped and drained, or decocted, the sweet liquid left is called ‘wort’. The alcoholic outcome depends on the amount sugar in the wort and the brewer should achieve Original Gravity somewhere between 3.5%–8% alcohol by volume (abv).
Hops! Barley and hops! Wedded bliss! From hops we get wonderful aromas and the all-important bitterness to balance the sweet, biscuity ripeness of the malt. Hops also act as a preservative, encourage yeast fermentation and help to clarify the wort.
Wort and hops are now boiled together, killing bacteria and extracting flavours and phenolics from the hops. Some of the best aspects of hops may be lost with the heat but more can be added after the boil. As you would expect, the many, various types of hops, where they grow, and how they are handled in the process have a huge influence on the outcome.
Now we’re ready for fermentation. Different yeasts impart their personalities as they gorge on the sugars and excrete alcohol and carbon dioxide (similar to some people). Try to control yeasts as the brewer may, they are wild and untamed beasts—even the laboratory strains—and luck plays it’s part. As we near the end, the yeast is happy, the sugar all eaten and we have… beer. No, you can’t touch it! It has to be ‘conditioned’; a settling process to develop texture and balance that could take weeks or months and can be done in bottles, casks or tanks.
Now you can drink up. Not bad for a glass of barley, hops, water and yeast!
[Read ‘The Complete Guide to New Zealand Beer’ by Keith Stewart]
Craig's beers of the month
June:
Helles Lager 5%, Tuatara Brewing Co, Wellington
Normally we try to select beers to suit the season so a lager in June, here in Christchurch, probably isn’t the best choice. However, when the country’s best brewery (as voted at BrewNZ Awards last year) makes a new beer I think we must take a look at it ASAP. The sample I had was luscious. Very juicy, a German-style lager, but with tropical fruit notes and arrowroot biscuits, finishing soft and dry. We’ll definitely get this back when the temperature’s a bit warmer.
July:
Dick’s Dark 4.5% or Classic Stout 5%, Lighthouse Brewery, Nelson
From NZ’s smallest commercial brewery, brewing legend Dick Tout makes 200 litres at a time - and only when golf doesn’t get in the way (i.e. never on Tuesdays!). We could see either the Dark, the Stout or both. The Dark is a Mild style, lighter bodied with hints of white coffee, whereas the Stout is bigger, bolder—full-on dark chocolate, coffee and rich, toasted malts.
August:
Roulette 5.2%, 666 Brewing, Blenheim
This beer is a unique take on two different styles, a cross between an American Amber Ale & an Extra Special Bitter (ESB) but with generous New Zealand hops to give a passionfruit and orange flavour to the caramel and toffee malt base.
October 2009