The "southern man" is lapping up Dunedin brewer Emerson's big hoppy beers.
Emerson's is producing a series of hop-dominated IPAs (Indian pale ales) for its Brewer's Reserve brews, which are supposed to last up to six weeks.
But the first, Hoppiest Indian, lasted barely a month, so a second has gone on tap early.
Oreti Red is slightly stronger (6%) and has more malt in it to try to compete with the hop.
But the lads have also put more hop in.
Drink it at garage, or even room temperature, to allow the malt aroma and flavour to come through.
A third pilot brew is fermenting and it promises to be even darker than the first two.
The working title for this brew (because it promises to be "dark, talented and a touch of mystery") is Grace Jones - after the Jamaican-born cross-dressing model, singer and actress.
The reserve series is available on tap at a few bars around Dunedin and in 1.25 litre plastic (this one is $9.78) at the Wickliffe St brewery.
Wild finalists
Two southern eateries are among 27 regional finalists in Monteith's Wild Food Challenge.
They are Queenstown's Bathhouse Tapas Bar and Restaurant and Wanaka's Uncle Mike's BBQ.
They were among dozens around the country which, for several weeks, matched a Monteith's beer with a dish made from meat not usually raised on a farm.
The finalists will continue to serve their dishes for another 10 days, during which time judges will visit their place to choose five national finalists to go into a cook-off towards the end of next month when a winner will be announced.
Octoberfest
Bavarian beer, food and music will be on at the Wanaka Town Hall on September 11.
Tickets are available through www.ticketfest.co.nz or at the information centre at Wanaka.
In low gear
Dunedin brewer Green Man looks like missing another summer for its radler beer - now called "cyclist" after DB Breweries claimed it owned the name for its Monteith's Radler.
The Society of Beer Advocates (Soba) some months ago applied to the Intellectual Property Office (Iponz) to lift DB's trademark of "radler" ("cyclist" in German) to allow Green Man to resume using the name for its lemonade and beer shandy.
Soba argues that the word is "generic" and therefore cannot be owned by anyone.
DB has responded, saying the term was not known in New Zealand before its Monteith's brew was released and therefore has no other meaning here other than to its beer.
Both have more evidence to present before Iponz determines the issue.
Meanwhile, DB rival Lion Nathan (owner of New Zealand Breweries) is having its own radler problem across the Tasman: it has lost the third, and final, court case in a bid to keep its Barefoot Radler label.
A Californian winery claimed copyright to "Barefoot" so Lion has now changed the beer's name to "Bare Cove Radler".
It does not sell its radler over here, so there's no problem.
