Yeastie Boys in the house
This New Zealand duo crafts beers with unusual flavours and pop-culture monikers.
"Why can't you get it through your head/Now is the golden age of bloodshed.''
The words are black. The guitar work of Roland S. Howard on his 2009 song Golden Age of Bloodshed is blacker, a slow keening to accompany a wrenching tale of loss.
New Zealand brewer Stu McKinlay heard the song released on Howard's second solo album Pop Crimes and somehow drew a connection. With beetroot.
''I'm always thinking about beer recipes,'' says McKinlay, who, with fellow beer nut Sam Possenniskie, brews under the name the Yeastie Boys.
''Things just go around and around in my mind all the time. The name of a beer comes from a pop-culture reference or music reference and then it's just generating the formulation of the end idea.''
And besides, he adds, beetroot isn't such an uncommon ingredient for a beer. Home brewers use it a fair bit.
His personal beetroot epiphany was drinking beetroot juice; the exact reason why or under what circumstances isn't clear, but he fell madly for the colour. The result of what followed, a beetroot-style beer, follows the flavour profile of a light, crisp blond ale.
The Golden Age of Bloodshed was made for the upcoming Australasian Great Beer SpecTAPular in Melbourne, May 24-26, as a tribute to its trans-Tasman setting, hence the reference to a song by a Melbourne musician. Last year for the SpecTAPular it was the Paul Kelly song Gunnamatta that proved the inspiration for an amazingly floral India pale ale using Earl Grey blue flower tea instead of hops. It went on to win the People's Choice award at the SpecTAPular and is now the boys' second biggest selling beer.
Is it a case of anything goes with the Yeastie Boys? ''Totally,'' McKinlay says, laughing.
''We have no rules really, which is the opposite of where I started,'' he says. ''I started loving beer and German beer purity was the be-all and end-all; you know, like you should only use the main four ingredients of malt, water, hops and yeast. Now I've totally changed my mind.''
The Yeastie Boys are known in beer circles as ''gypsy brewers''. They don't have a home to brew in so tend to move around from brewery to brewery. A well-known Melbourne-based brewer doesn't hold much with the term. ''They're contract brewers,'' he says. ''Gypsy brewers just sounds better.''
McKinlay agrees, acknowledging that while it is a marketing tool it has done good by the Yeastie Boys.
He and Possenniskie collaborate on a recipe with breweries but he stresses ''it's their beer in the end''. ''They provide the ingredients, the money and the environment. We just put our name to it.''
In New Zealand, the boys brew mostly out of Invercargill (where they do provide the ingredients for their beers and hence, make some money). In Melbourne they brew with friends at Moon Dog and later this year they'll be in the Adelaide Hills at the Lobethal Bierhaus.
''If we end up with our own brewery here in Wellington those guys will probably come back and brew with us at some stage.''
Founding their own brewery is something they are thinking about seriously.
McKinlay started brewing about five years ago, a hobby at first just for friends. Then he got serious. ''It was taking up all of my weekends and I thought I might as well charge them for it.'' He joined with Possenniskie and their first commercial release, Pot Kettle Black, a generous, malty porter, went on to take out champion beer at the 2012 Asia Beer Awards.
McKinlay continues to work five days a week as a business and data analyst but is about to go part-time to concentrate on Yeastie Boys, while Possenniskie continues to work full-time in the banking industry.
For their Melbourne Beer SpecTAPular gig, McKinlay promises to bring a small range of Yeastie Boys brews as well as the usual big range of colourful pants, his hallmark. ''There's more pressure on what pants I wear to a tasting than what beers I bring,'' he quips.
Among the brews he'll bring is possibly the most divisive brew in all of Australasia, the Rex Attitude ale (the boys call it ''strong golden ale'' for emphasis), claimed as the world's first heavily peated single malt ale (as in whisky malt) and also possibly the smokiest.
McKinlay regularly receives hate mail on the beer. He's not going to stop making it; it's his favourite beer and it probably best represents the iconoclastic Yeastie Boys philosophy.
''I actually believe there's possibly a genetic disposition as to whether you can enjoy it or not,'' McKinlay says.
A dash of Scottish blood might help.
Roll up, roll up
The Great Australasian Beer SpecTAPular (GABS) is on May 24-26 at the Royal Exhibition Building, Carlton. Look out for:
Matilda Bay Craft Beer College: This is the educational part and it's free with Pete ''Professor Pilsner'' Mitcham presenting 45-minute seminars with a beer theme. It might be cooking with beer, brewers talking about the beers they made for the event or beer and food matching. Get there early, numbers are limited.
Dan Murphy's Beer Market: A new event with breweries conducting tastings and sales from their own stands. Meet the brewers from as far afield as New Zealand (including Epic, 8 Wired, Croucher, Parrot Dog, the Local Taphouse); Western Australia (Feral, Little Creatures); Queensland (Burleigh Brewing, Blue Sky) and closer to home with Hawthorn Brewing, Thunder Road, Red Island, White Rabbit, O'Brien and more.
Festival beers: Many brewers make a special beer just for the SpecTAPular. This year organisers have increased the number of taps from 60 to about 100 so more could get involved. The full list of the special brews can be found at gabsfestival.com.au.
Traditional pub games: Ye olde English pub games, possibly with a glass in hand as well. Think quoits, darts and maybe even skittles.