Thursday, September 5, 2013

September 5, 2013

May Or Rill Candidates Debate... Degustation Dinners... Ramen Returns... On Tap Now or Soon... Finally...

May Or Rill Candidates Debate

Save the date - September 18. At the office worker-friendly time of 5:30pm, Wellington's mayoral candidates and the city's best informed voters will squeeze into our lounge to listen and watch as a few truths about those candidates are systematically exposed. That is all the mayoral candidates except the one to whom invitations seem as ephemeral and inconsequential as the "autumn leaves" that his left-arm orthodox spin used to be known as.

We've appointed (well, begged) journalists Hadyn Green and Megan Whelan to be moderators for the debate. They'll pass on questions from readers of this email (yes, that's an invitation to submit questions), ruthlessly stamp out obfuscation, pivoting and bridging, keep candidates on topic and expose all the vital differences in their platforms.

So we're doing our best to make it easy for voters to actually participate in what passes for democracy. Please don't write local body politics off as unimportant and consider submitting questions and coming along on the 18th.

Degustation Dinners

Just a few tickets remain for next week's collaborative dinner with Big Bad Wolf. So there's little point elaborating.

Slightly more remain for next month's event at Tatsushi. The previous season of this dinner was an enormous success. This time the meal and drinks will be similar but a little different. Wellington's foremost expert in the art of matching beer with Japanese food will be running proceedings. (That's our Shiggy for those who don't realise.) Tickets are on sale now at the Cult Beer Store.

Ramen Returns

Another different but special opportunity to eat Japanese food is making a return. The Ramen Shop - popup ramen restaurant - returns to our kitchen this Friday lunchtime. That would be tomorrow - or if you were away today, last week.

When the Ramen Shop came along a few weeks ago they brought limited supplies and ran out of food within about an hour of kick-off, which was at noon. They'll be bringing double the supplies this time, but again it will pay to get in quick.

On Tap Now or Soon

It's time to get some iconic American IPAs back on tap. So look out for our old friend Big Eye from Ballast Point some time in the next few days. Likewise Southern Tier IPA. Oh, and Green Flash West Coast IPA is on tap right now.

From Wellington breweries, we'll be pouring Garage Project's Trip Hop and Pils 'n Thrills, ParrotDog's Dead Canary (on now) and Panhead's Port Road Pils. Oh and Garage Project's Extraordinary Ordinary will be back on the hand pump.

Having drained a two year old keg from the first ever batch of 8 Wired iStout we now have a more recent keg of the same beer.

It's time we dipped into our recent shipment of kegs from Adelaide's Lobethal, so it's going to be great to welcome back their amazing Chocolate Stout - which incidentally has absolutely no cocoa added, just some really carefully chosen malts. Speaking of Lobethal, see below!

Lastly... *Cult Beer Alert* Invercargill Smoking Bishop is on tap now!

New Release Tuesday

Last month's Lobethal shipment included a couple of new (to us) beers, including the brewery's Pale Ale. As Yeastie Boys will attest, Lobethal is one of the great unsung heroes of Australian brewing. Their consistency is amazing but for the most part they quietly plug away in their Adelaide Hills retreat, making great beer that's mostly consumed at their own bar (and at Adelaide's Wheatsheaf Hotel).

As a consequence of Yeastie Boys' collaboration with Lobethal, we got the chance to bring an order of kegged Lobethal beer across the Tasman.

Lobethal Pale Ale goes on tap at 5pm on Tuesday.

Finally

Is there much significance in a fourth birthday? Perhaps - if you were given a life expectancy of a few months. So for anyone who worries about these things, we turn four on Tuesday. We'll wait another year to really make a song and dance.

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