Moa Five Hop Winter Ale
Friday, July 15th, 2011
Moa Five Hop Winter Ale – A Very Rare Beer From Aotearoa and indeed it is along with the bottle size.
The brainchild of Josh Scott is the Moa Brewing Company which was founded in 2003 after years of brewing experimentation. It is situated on New Zealand’s South Island in the town of Blenheim, Marlborough. In case you were wondering the word Aotearoa shown above and on the bottle’s label is Maori for New Zealand. This brew is a blend of five Malts and Nelson Hops and has an alcohol content of 6.2% per 375ml bottle which will cost you $6.50. Now 375ml bottles aren’t very common in the beer world, especially this one. It has an abnormally wide neck adorned by an extra wide cap that my BottleMate wouldn’t fit around – a tragedy I know……well not really.
This beer pours with a mammoth, thick, cream coloured head which was absolutely beautiful and similar in stature to one of my all-time favourites Duvel. It left random bits of lacing and was toffee like in appearance. The beer was so murky you could not see light through it. Its aroma was crisp, made up of citrus notes along with a big hop hit. Again there was a big earthy hop hit on the palette which was well balanced with sweet caramel tones. It was well carbonated and had a decent bitterness to it. This ale was an absolute pleasure to drink.
Again New Zealand has really impressed me especially considering these brews are all coming out of well-known wine making regions. Moa Five Hop Winter Ale is a must try but as the label states it’s A Very Rare Beer so much so that the Moa website doesn’t even show it for sale in Brisbane – I can vouch for the fact that is in indeed sold here but you may have to look high and low to find it, so go get hunting!
Rating (out of five):
Quick Facts: 6.2% alcohol – 375ml green bottle – Pop top
Category : Ale, Beer Reviews