Harringtons

Thanks to the generosity of Harrington’s Breweries I recently received a box full of beer for reviewing purposes. This of course filled me with great excitement, just as any self respecting student would be given the prospect of anything free. Even more exciting was the fact that I could happily expect the brews to be of decent quality, and thankfully I was not disappointed.

The four beers that were to be reviewed were the Rogue Hop (a pilsner), the Classy Red (an ESB), the Clydesdale (a stout) and the Wobbly Boot (a porter). Astute readers will note from last week that I enjoyed a Classy Red at the beer festival.

The Rogue Hop was maltier than many New Zealand Pilsners, bucking the trend for highly hopped pilsners. One friend noted this by commenting that it’s called the Rogue Hop because you’re left searching for that rogue hop, but personally I found it to be a refreshing take on the style, perhaps a little closer to the original pilsner (Pilsner Urquell) than most New Zealand pilsners.

The Clydesdale I found to be very true to style, with some nice chocolatey flavours with a touch of burnt malt. It went down very smoothly, and was perhaps my favourite of the four beers in question. It was also the favourite of my better half, so extra kudos there as deserved.

The Classy Red was also very true to style for an ESB (extra special bitter). This was interesting, as some friends of mine had sampled it believing it to be an American Pale Ale along with some other American Pale Ales, and for that category they rated it quite poorly. However, as an ESB, both they and I thought it to actually be rather good. It also went rather nicely with a creamy ham, mushroom and olive lasagne.

  2 May 2011