Jamie from England enjoys an evening at Pomeroy's, a...
Pomeroy's Old Brewery Inn
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 Taste A Beer
Drinking beer is easy. Really easy. Mmmm, beer.
You may have your favourite—just the one. But why stop at one when there’s a whole world of beer out there to be explored, ranging from light, crisp, citrusy lagers, pils & wheat beers to dark, creamy, spicy porters and stouts. So much beer, so little time. Tasting is about taking a moment to examine the look, aroma and flavour of a beer. Broaden your scope, try a variety of different styles and brands and, before you know it, you’ll have your own beer blog!
Get started. Firstly, it’s important to chill the beer to the recommended temperature. If it’s too cold, you’ll miss out on aromas and flavours. These will change as the beer warms up. Always pour beer into a clean glass—drinking from a bottle or can means you’ll miss out on aromas and flavours again. Also pour carefully as the size and appearance of the head are characteristic to each beer. Ze Germans call a good beer head a “beautiful flower”, an all-malt beer should retain half it’s head for a minute and then leave “Brussels lace” on the side of the glass as it falls.
Next, before you taste, take a moment to observe and smell. What is the colour? How does the carbonation appear? Is it clear or cloudy? The cloudiness of beer is known as ‘turbidity’. Bottle-conditioned beers should be cloudy, but if your beer has been filtered and has ‘floaters’ in it, it’s a good sign something has gone horribly wrong. How does it smell? At first it may be quite hard to pick different aromas but you’ll improve with practice. Malts and grains often give beer nutty, sweet, grainy, malty and earthy aromas, while different types of hops lend herbal, pine, floral, resin and spicy notes.
You’ll be thirsty by now. Take a sip and roll it around in your mouth. Different parts of your tongue are receptive to different flavours—the tip picks up sweetness, the front and sides taste salt, the back and sides taste sourness and acidity (why you ‘pucker’) and the back of the tongue and throat tastes bitterness.
Let the beer flow around your mouth and you’ll notice various flavours appear in different places. Do you detect any sweet, sour, dry, spice, herb, citrus, caramel, coffee, chocolate, bread, banana, smoke or raspberry flavours? Or something else you just thought of? You’ll probably want to do that again!
If you want to taste several beers it’s a good idea to go from lighter styles to darker, heavier styles. Many aficionados maintain that beer is a more versatile food match than wine—but that’s in the next issue.
Meanwhile, keep up the good work with the wide range of New Zealand boutique and craft beers and international brews on tap at Pomeroy’s.
Craig's beers of the month
September:
'Let's Get Native' Mixed Bag
After the excitement of Beervana, this is a real mixed bag following in the footsteps of the “Let’s Get Native’ Festive category at the BeerNZ Awards. This could get wild—pineapple lumps? kumara?—keep your eyes peeled and senses honed for an extraordinary variety.
October:
Deception 5.1%, Hallertau, Auckland
Located in Riverhead, just north out of Auckland, Hallertau Brewbar & Restaurant is worth a trip if you’re up there. Dedicated to both food and beer, Steve and Hayley Plowman want to share their love of brewing with everyone. ••This German-style black beer is a real balancing act. On the one hand the chocolate aromas are sweet and fruity, yet there’s also the bitterness of roasted coffee and spicy hop. In the end, this dark beer is deceptively light.
November:
Munich Lager 5.5%, Galbraith Alehouse, Auckland
Looky here—another Auckland brewery and a very popular alehouse at that, situated in the old Grafton Library. Yet another excuse to visit Auckland! Munich lager is brewed in the Bavarian style from imported Moravian malt and German noble hops. Pale and malt accented, it’s cold conditioned for 12 weeks prior to bottling. Try this bright gold classic European lager with aromas of spicy hops, rich malt in the mouth and a crisp, clean hoppy finish.
