Speights Summer Harvest

by Fez Broadbent
(Beer Delegate, New Zealand)

Speights Summer Harvest: you may have died and gone to heaven, or perhaps you just like this beer

I'll start this review by saying that the only thing that is bad about Speights Summer Harvest is that it is limited release.

That aside if ever I go through life having never found a woman to spend the rest of my life with and through some crazy set of coincidences the government sporadically legalizes marriage to inanimate objects, then I would become the first man to marry a beer.

That’s right, this beer is that good that you would want to drop 25k on a diamond ring and throw your lifesavings into a picket fence house in the suburbs.

Let me tell you how we first met.

It was a cold day in Dunedin; I was there with my hockey team touring the south island to promote the sport. Having spent most of our time in ice rinks we jumped at the chance to attend the Speights Brewery tour (another time another article) to warm our bellies with some sweet sweet beer.

At the end of the tour there is the mandatory “tasting” or “free drinks” as we like to refer to it as. That’s when I saw it. After trying several of the other teasers and not being impressed, I almost melted to the floor when I took my first sip.

The apricot nectar of the gods that gently caressed my tongue and that flowery aroma that spoke of worlds not yet visited. I could have stayed there all night but the friendly tour guide ushered us out not more than twenty minutes later and I never saw it again.

I thought it wasn’t meant to be until this summer. I was perusing the supermarket in Waihi, a town near where my parents have a bach when I found a beer that looked good to review. “Speights Summer Harvest, hmm looks good, I'll try that one.”

It wasn’t until I got home and took a sip that I experienced all those same feelings that I felt those years ago in Dunedin. It was like stumbling upon a forbidden relationship long forgot. So good yet painfully aware of the fact that it could not last. The beer was only limited release.

In all seriousness this beer is one of the best I have ever tasted. I have a fondness for Monteith's Radler, but this beer beats the Radler hands down in all categories. For one it's not as rich as the Radler, its more “beer” tasting. A wheat beer with a dry finish reminiscent of the Central Otago summer... harvest as it would be.

The brewers skilfully combined malted wheat and barley to give Speights Summer Harvest the syrupy finish that follows its initial apricot taste. It's so simple yet so perfect I don’t know why others haven’t tried something similar in mass production.

You can drink it in copious amounts or you can have it as a treat, it doesn’t matter. It’s a little pricey due to its boutique nature and you probably wont find it on too many bar-taps, excepting of course your local Speights Ale-House, but I definitely recommend picking this one up if only so you can say you have experienced love at first taste.