APRIL 2012 - ISSUE 03 - Massive Magazine

COLUMNS
COLD BEER AND COLD NIGHTS DON’T MATCH…
BEER GUY
Daniel Hargreaves loves his
hops, barely and yeast, and
often writes blogs about the
subject he enjoys so much.
We tricked him into writing
about all things beer for
MASSIVE.
We may have had fine weather
in Welly lately but come 6pm the
cold air begins to creep through
windows and slightly open doors.
The fire goes on. Winters fingers
begin to close around its chilly
palm and eventually form into an
icy fist. The thing about ‘decent’
beer is that they can match any
occasion. Very few mass produced
beers of the generic lager theme,
can cajole feelings of warmth and
comfort come winter.
It’s simply my favourite time of
year for drinking; sure a couple of
cold ones on a hot summer’s day
are great, and often needed. However
to appreciate beer with food,
or to truly drink a beer on merit
over sheer refreshment value. The
colder months are definitely time
to indulge.
The trouble with darker beers
is that they are often the last style
drinkers new to craft beer get in
to. With Wellington’s all day dependence
on caffeine and the
wonderful coffee that is poured
daily around the city it constantly
surprises me that dark beer gets
the press it should. Every Man,
Woman and Child in this town
has a palate for roasted, chocolatley,
burnt toast, berry like flavours.
Why should these nuances
in beer put so many people off?
For me it’s back to global machismo
marketing, to the artificially
gloopy stouts you see the world
over, been consumed by old seadogs
with nicotine stained hair.
It’s time to drop this century old
attitude that stout or porter is for;
old men, ladies with anemia, or
Ena Sharples!
All this aside, dark beer can
take many forms. Look out for
the German inspired Schwarz
beers or dark lagers, Mussel Inn
Dark Horse and Hallertau Deception
are well worth checking out.
Something slightly more interesting
would be Croucher Patriot a
black IPA or my perennial favourite,
Yeastie Boys, Pot Kettle Black.
A beer that straddles the line between
a black IPA and a hoppy
porter. It tastes as good as ever at
the minute and if you try a glass
of this with a well-made chocolate
brownie you’ll never drink a latte
again!
So what’s to do? Wait for a cold
day, the wetter and more miserable
the better, source one of the
beers below, leave it out of the
fridge for an hour and indulge,
with a book or fine company It’s
sure to start an impromptu gathering
or moment to yourself that
you won’t regret.
8Wired Big Smoke: Does things
to you that beer Shouldn’t be allowed
to do. A NZ interpretation
on the Rauchbier style
Cassels and sons: Milk stout
currently pouring from a number
of handpulls around Welly, hard
to find but well worth it.
Renaissance Craftsman Chocolate
Stout: Surely there is another
batch due from the boys in Blenheim
when it hits the shelves it
will disappear, a must try.
FLAT FEEDS
Sam Bonney shows students
how to feed your flat for less
than $20
Search $20 Flat Feeds NZ
on Facebook for more cheap
recipes
CHINESE HONEY BEEF & PEPPER STIR-FRY
Serves 4, $8.90-ish
Ingredients:
• 400g tenderised beef steak:
$5.50 (This is the cheap steak
that has cuts all over it. It’s
extra chewy which I actually
quite like. Mine came premarinated
but if you can only
get it plain, soak the beef in a
bit of soy sauce and honey).
• Half a bunch of spring onions:
30c
• Half a red onion: 20c
• Half a yellow capsicum: 40c
(enjoy these now while they
are still cheapish! Winter is a
scarce capsicum time).
• Half thumb of ginger: 20c
• 2 cloves garlic: almost nothing
• ½ tsp of chilli flakes (opt): 20c
• Tsp soy sauce: 10c
• Tsp honey: 20c
• ¾ of 400g pack of wide
(10mm) rice noodles : $1.80
Steps:
If your meat isn’t already marinated
you should do that a couple of
hours beforehand and throw it in
the fridge.
Before you start on the other ingredients,
cover the rice noodles
with boiling water. When the rest
is ready they will be too. Stir-fry is
fast so you need to have all your
cooking stuff ready to go. I chop
from fastest to slowest and then
cook my way back.
Slice the spring onions, red onion
and the capsicum. Set aside.
Mince or finely chop the garlic.
Grate the ginger. Set aside.
Thinly slice the beef steak.
Add steak to a very hot frypan.
Stir frequently, but let it sit every
now and then to get a scorchy
brown in places.
When the meat is browned on
the outside, add garlic and ginger
(and chilli if using) to pan. Move
them around and then let them sit
while you add the soy sauce and
honey. Stir again.
Tip in the onion, capsicum and
spring onion. Keep it moving
until the spring onion greens just
start to wilt. You want stir-fry to
be reasonably crunchy. Remove
from the heat.
Drain the noodles. Divide into
bowls. Top with stir-fry mixture.
Season with salt and pepper if
desired. Boom – simple and fast.
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