NZ Lager

by Fez Broadbent
(Beer Delegate, New Zealand)

NZ Lager: has it ever been seen in NZ? wonders Fez

NZ Lager

Like most New Zealanders do during the winter, a group of friends and I got the hell out of the country and headed north to the pacific islands.

This is common practice because as surprising as it is, our country does get cold and what is there to do in the pacific islands? Well nothing really, and we like it that way. So no sooner had we checked into our hotel had we asked directions to the nearest liquor store and set about sampling the local beer.

As there were three of us we each got something different. I purchased a 24 pack of NZ Lager. This was a lager apparently from NZ, but the likes of which has never been seen in New Zealand and probably never will.

My friend's brother purchased a further 24 of Raro Lager (I'll review this another time) which can highly recommended by the jolly store owner.

The third was a conservative choice in Victoria Bitter, but we wont talk about that because it's a dirty Australian beer.

Apparently I was wrong about it never being seen in New Zealand, because according to this website it has a loyal following. Having lived in Auckland for 23 years of my life, I can only assume it has a loyal following of Oompa Lompas or perhaps some other magical creature.

As for the beer, it wasn’t anything fancy. The taste at first was something I had to get used to. I have to admit I did make a beer face upon first sip and wondered with 23 more cans to go just what I had gotten myself into.

But as the favourable climate began to take me in its arms, I began to appreciate NZ Lager's very sweet tang. It really is a beer suited to a sub-tropical climate. It also goes well with salt water, as I found when taking it scuba diving by accident.

Self described as a golden-blond lager with a well balanced finish, I feel it can be best summed up as "Export Gold with a very sweet aftertaste."

I'll tell you what I thought of Raro Lager next time.