Category Archives: Garage Project

3 - Indifferent (might buy, probably drink), Beer Reviews, English Golden Ale, Garage Project, New Zealand

Garage Project Hāpi Daze

Saturday, 26 March 2016 kitch Leave a comment

Brewery: Garage Project
Country: New Zealand
ABV: 4.6%
Style: English Golden Ale
Other Notes: Hops – Motueka, Wai-iti, Riwaka and Nelson Sauvin.

Brewer Description: (from can) Hāpi the Maori word for hop, inspires this truly Pacific pale ale. Brewed with New Zealand barley and the best of the Kiwi hop harvest, Motueka, Wai-iti, Riwaka and Nelson Sauvin. Assertively hoppy – exceptionally drinkable.

My rating: 3
My beeradvocate.com rating: 3.87
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.7

Intro: A 330ml can with a best before date of 30th October 2016 and poured into a Duvel tulip glass.
Appearance: It poured a clear dark golden slightly copper colour with a two finger off white head that doesn’t stick around much but left nice stringy lacing.
Aroma: Strong tropical fruits of mango, pineapple, kiwi, guava, papaya and honeydew melon.
Taste: Bitter start with some stone fruit mango followed by a light bready grainy malt.
Mouthfeel: Light to medium bodied with medium carbonation.
Overall: A nice refreshing light beer with interesting tropical notes. However unfortunately the taste doesn’t follow the impressive aroma as I prefer less malt character and I think a higher carbonation will go well with the lightness.

3 - Indifferent (might buy, probably drink), Beer Reviews, Garage Project, New Zealand, Porter - Imperial

Garage Project Cherry Bomb

Wednesday, 16 March 2016 kitch Leave a comment

Brewery: Garage Project
Country: New Zealand
ABV: 9%
Style: American Imperial Porter
Other Notes: Brewed with tart cherry and cacao nibs.

Brewer Description: (from bottle) Hello world, it’s Cherry Bomb imperial porter, a complex, decadent desert beer, spiked with sour cherries and cacao nibs. The finished beer has a rich ebony hue with a pronounced, bitter-sweet, dark chocolate and ripe tart cherry character.

My rating: 3
My beeradvocate.com rating: 3.51
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.5

Intro: A 650ml bottle with a best before date of 15th April 2016 and poured into a Moonzen teku glass.
Appearance: It poured a dark dark brown colour with a one finger tanned head that did not stick around too long but left some sparse spotty lacing.
Aroma: Strong dark chocolate with some tart cherry. Coffee is also there but in the background.
Taste: Bittersweet chocolate at the start but the finish is tart sourish cherry with hints of vanilla.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with low carbonation.
Overall: Normally I’d say that chocolate and cherry goes well together. However in this case, it didn’t quite mix together too well. I’m thinking something like sweet milk chocolate would go better with cherry than the bitterness of dark chocolate. Having said that, it’s not bad, and its much more drinkable than the 9% would suggest.

3 - Indifferent (might buy, probably drink), American Double IPA, Beer Reviews, Garage Project, New Zealand

Garage Project Pernicious Weed

Thursday, 11 February 2016 kitch Leave a comment

Brewery: Garage Project
Country: New Zealand
ABV: 8%
Style: American Double IPA
Other Notes: Hops – Nelson Sauvin and Rakau.

Brewer Description: (from can) Humulus Lupulus, the original “wicked and pernicious weed”. Nelson Sauvin and Rakau hops go head to head in this strong golden brew, for an intense citrus grapefruit character. Bitter, yes. Intensely hoppy? Absolutely. Too much? Never.

My rating: 3
My beeradvocate.com rating: 3.81
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.7

Intro: A 330ml can with a best before date of 8th March 2016 and poured into a Spiegelau IPA glass.
Appearance: It poured a slightly hazy golden orange with a two finger off white head that dissipated fairly quickly leaving some nice lacing.
Aroma: Strong tropical fruity mango and pineapple with pine, grapefruit and grassy notes.
Taste: Bitter citrus grapefruit, pine and grass with some light malt sweetness. However, at times, the alcohol booze seemed to creep out.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with medium carbonation.
Overall: This was a pretty good DIPA, but as a DIPA, I’d prefer if it was able to completely hide the alcohol taste, but other than that, it was nice and bitter.

2 - Maybe (likely wouldn't buy, might drink), American IPA, Beer Reviews, Garage Project, New Zealand

Garage Project Trip Hop

Sunday, 6 December 2015 kitch Leave a comment

Brewery: Garage Project
Country: New Zealand
ABV: 5.6%
Style: American IPA
Other Notes: Malts – Carahelles, Vienna and Caraaroma. Hops – Pacifica, Motueka and Riwaka.

Brewer Description: (from bottle) We love NZ hops. How much? Here’s how much. Triple hopped with, Pacifica, Motueka and Riwaka hops in increasingly lavish quantities throughout the boil, Trip Hop’s bitter but balanced on a generous malt base. Rich amber red and redolent of the Nelson hop fields. Think easy drinking for resin heads and pucker up.

My rating: 2
My beeradvocate.com rating: 3.15
My ratebeer.com rating: 3

Intro: A 650ml bottle with a best before date of 9th January 2016, poured into a Spiegelau IPA glass.
Appearance: It poured a slightly hazy copper amber colour with a two finger cream coloured head that dissipated slowly leaving lots of stringy lacing.
Aroma: Citrusy orange and lemon, bready malts, grapefruit. There’s also some pine and flowery hops.
Taste: Taste is malty, bready, light caramel and sweet-ish before the hops kick in and gives a lasting bitterness.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with light crisp carbonation.
Overall: More malty and less hoppy than I expected considering its triple hopped. A little disappointing but GP have a lot of other good offerings and for IPAs, I prefer their Garagista IPA.

4 - Good (buy), American IPA, Beer Reviews, Garage Project, New Zealand

Garage Project Garagista IPA

Friday, 4 December 2015 kitch Leave a comment

Brewery: Garage Project
Country: New Zealand
ABV: 5.8%
Style: American IPA

Brewer Description: (from can) Embrace the Garagista spirit – ignore convention, experiment, test the limits, and look at things a little differently. Brewed and double dry hopped with New Zealand, Australian and US hops. Great things can come from the garage.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.01
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.9

Intro: A 330ml can with a best before date of 23rd December 2015 and poured into a Spiegelau IPA glass.
Appearance: Poured a slightly hazy orangey amber colour with a one finger white head that dissipated fairly quickly leaving good amounts of lacing.
Aroma: Mainly a fruity tropical and citrus mix. There’s tropical passionfruit and pineapple along with citrus orange and grapefruit. There’s also a hint of grass.
Taste: Light mango and passionfruit followed by some strong grapefruit bitterness, pine, grass and a hint of sweet malts.
Mouthfeel: Medium to full bodied with medium carbonation.
Overall: A solid IPA from Garage Project. Although this is my first GP review, I have quite a few other bottles of their beers that I look forward to trying.

words of another dreamy traveller