“Red Rocks is a rich ruby red ale with loads of chewy malt character. There wasn’t a lot of restraint shown in the hopping of this beer. We had a fair bit of whole cone Nelson Sauvin hops in the fridge and they all went in. The end result is a nice balance of malt sweetness and bitterness, with some assertive hop aroma and flavour. Red Rocks Reserve is fast becoming one of our most anticipated annual releases. A base red ale is brewed and then with a nod to an ancient brewing technique known as ‘Stein Bier’, the beer is passed through a giant hop back containing rocks, super heated in a hard Manuka wood fire to over 500c. Finally, the beer is given an additional pass through a hop back stuffed full of whole cone Nelson Sauvin”.
A decent couple of Kiwi gypsy micro-brewers here that brew out of the kegs of the better-known Tuatara brewery. Served in a shaker glass the copper red pour produced a fingers worth of beige head that retains and laces well. The aroma offers a really refreshing marriage of vinous hops, zesty citrus, nuts, caramel, pine resins and biscuit malts. In the mouth it’s quite light on and has a smooth caramelized feel to it. Upfront the flavour consists of sweet malts and toffee that slowly develop into a slightly assertive hoppy mid-palate that’s delivering a pleasant dryness that accentuates the 7% ABV on the tongue. The finish mellows into a sweet and sugary, almost herbal finish with lingering nutty notes on the back end. Essentially a very well balanced beer that we would definitely recommend to any craft beer enthusiast. Big ups to the boys across the ditch.