United Nations of Beer

Croucher Brewing Pale ale

by Fez Broadbent
(Beer Delegate, New Zealand)

Croucher Brewing Pale ale

I first heard about these guys from the esteemed editor of this very webzine.

He had mailed my colleague and I about doing a piece on their business that he had come across: an announcement they had made about an offer for a lifetime supply of beer for whomever could return their stolen laptop of valuable company information.

I saw they were a fledgling small business and the idea of an underdog brewery immediately appealed to me. I drafted up a written interview and mailed it off to them, my spirits high and confident that "Hey they're the little guys, they'd love to answer your questions."

But alas I got no reply. Then to follow it up I get a Christmas mailing list email from them where, in the first few paragraphs, they call my favourite beer "cheap" and "on special at the supermarket".

Who do Croucher Brewing think they are? Elitist beer brewers from Rotorua? I'm sure that is a brilliant marketing strategy, it will be interesting to see how it pans out.

So it is perhaps with a little predisposed bias that I begin the first of two reviews on their beer.

During the whole "laptop stolen maybe I'll get a written interview with them" period, I went out and bought two of their beers from one of the few liquor stores that had them in stock, with the intention of tacking the review onto the interview. Of course this would have worked had they actually responded to my email.

Croucher Brewing Pale ale caught my eye because as you may know, I am a fan of them and fittingly they "dissed" my favourite variety. It took naught but five seconds for me to utter "WOAH" after taking my first sip.

The tagline on the bottle of "Aromatic, Rich, Bold" does not lie. It's definitely a combination of all three of those, a taste not to be found in any "mainstream", "cheap", "supermarket" beer. I feel almost as though by drinking this that I am wiping my working class sneakers on its sheepskin rug, where previously only Italian designer boat shoes were allowed.


Interestingly the closest beer I can compare it to is possibly one such elitist drop that perhaps they are aspiring to become. Despite being a lager, Stella Artois is the closest I can come to in taste when trying to think of something similar.

Perhaps it's the bias again, but I never did like the taste of Stella. To me it tastes much the same as Rotorua smells.

The bottle also boasts a "Gorgeous Lingering Finish" in flowery generic 'handwritten' font on its front. It's true, the taste does linger, but I have to question the use of "gorgeous". The last time I heard that used was by an overly camp gentleman describing a fashion show on the E-Channel. The aftertaste of this beer? Not quite a line of scantily clad women walking down a catwalk.

So maybe I was a little harsh in this review, if I could go back in time and not get my hopes up about an interview than maybe this review may have been different. Then again after taking another sip, even if I had gotten the interview from them I'm pretty sure I would not have liked this beer.

For one the taste is just not for me. I can see a traditionalist beer drinker or perhaps my host father in Canada enjoying its overly hoppy rich flavour, but for someone of my generation, brought up on "cheap", "supermarket", "student", "lower class" beers, Croucher Brewing Pale ale is just not that enjoyable.