Sunday 16 March 2008

Another Great Hoppy Beer!


I haven't really written much about Pictish Brewery of Rochdale, but I will sometime soon. Those in the know are already aware that it produces some of the best craft beer around.

On Friday night I had a few pints of Pictish Motueka - no I don't know how to pronounce it either. It was pale, bitter, tropical fruit edged, full bodied and hoppy. Another stunner from the brewer, Richard Sutton. What a great week for beer after a shaky start.

For those interested, Motueka is a fine New Zealand hop. More details here

10 comments:

Sat In A Pub said...

Yes,a great beer. We don't see as much of Pictish as we should. BTW, I pronounce it Mo-too-ka as in the NZ river, which I presume, the hop was named after.

Martin said...

I would pronounce it Mott-ewe-ay-ka, but I'm still a relatively new NZ immigrant so I haven't sorted out all the pronunciations yet!

The NZ hop growers are capitalising on the northern hemisphere hop shortage to really push their products, and very good products theyt are. Also look out for Riwaka and Nelson Sauvin hops in northern hemisphere beers. I know that Twickenham Fine Ales are using Riwaka in one of their beers.

Zak Avery said...

Nelson Sauvin is a cracker. Nicely used by Thornbridge Brewery in their Kipling ale. How should we feel about the air miles/carbon footprint though?

Tandleman said...

Given the world hop shortage - just fine in my view! Would it be air freighted anyway?

Anonymous said...

Pictish Porter is very tasty indeed.

Kieran Haslett-Moore said...

Martin is correct, Tyson is not.

You can beat yourself up about Carbon foot prints if you want , I almost only use English hops and I am not fazed.

Kieran Haslett-Moore said...

Oh and Motueka is a town where the hop fields of NZ are. It has a long history of tobacco and hop production.

The hops called Riwaka and Motueka were until recently called Saaz with a prefix at the end e.g. Saaz B . NZ hops decided to sex them up with Kiwi names.

Sat In A Pub said...

All you need to know about this hop at
www.nzhops.co.nz/varieties/motueka.html

Pronunciation would be easier (for us non NZ folks anyway) if the Maori "Motuweka" was used.

Tandleman said...

Indeed Tyson, as my link conveniently directs!

Kieran Haslett-Moore said...

Unfortunately Tyson in Maori that would be pronounced rather differently, like Motor Wrecker with the first 2 r's removed.

It illustrates my feelings that using Maori names for export is an odd move as no one will know how to say it.