Hopful Thinking

Welcome, intrepid visitor, to the home of the Hopful Thinkers.

Who are the Hopful Thinkers?  We are a motley assortment of “Craft Beer Enthusiasts” – and good mates.  We get together every Wednesday, and drink, and discuss, and think about Beer.  And whatever else comes to mind.  We blog about beer, brewing, breweries, brewers, and other related beer-type subjects and we are “all up in that social media” – whatever the hell that means.

So of course, we are going to be at the NZ Beer Festival.  Come have a drink with us – we are wearing black polos, with our catch cry emblazoned on the back:

I DRINK, THEREFORE I AM.

We’ll be putting up some bits here and on twitter… to help you find the best stuff at the Beer Festival as we do.

In the meantime, here are some tips from a seasoned NZ Beer Fester to help make your NZ Beer Fest 2012 a successful one…

• DO NOT MISS the Brewery Britomart, they are new in town and have some sensational beers, and can be found at stall zero.  We reckon they will sell out for sure so get there early.
• Get along to Epic and seek out Luke… ask to try some Zythos (not even released yet)
• Think carefully about what you want to taste – there’s 70 beers here and you can’t get through them all…
• Drink in order; don’t go for anything with too much flavour or alcohol early on because you will ruin your palate for anything more subtle.  Try starting with Pale Ales or Lagers and work your way up from there.  Or skip the weak beers altogether…
• Safety first – try to avoid having too much of anything with “Imperial” “Double” “Tripel” or “Quadrupel” in the title too early in the day… these are synonyms for “rocket fuel”.  There are two major reasons for this – one, you’ll peak too soon – we don’t want to be stepping over bodies and puddles of vomit – and more importantly, you will barely taste anything else afterwards.  Pace yourself!!
• Most importantly though, seek out beers you haven’t tried, or maybe even heard of before, and give them a shot.  You never know, you might leave with a new favourite.

Wishing you an enjoyable and safe day at the NZ Beer Festival — and hope to see you around!

Cheers,

Dan (of the Hopful Thinkers)

Nestled in the natural beauty that is the Coromandel Peninsula, just a few short hours drive from Auckland, there is a brewery known simply as the Coromandel Brewing Company. Neil Vowles has been brewing beer since his student days.  In the 80’s good beer in the UK was hard to come by; this combined with a student budget made brewing his own an attractive option.  His passion for brewing carried on as a hobby until moving to the Coromandel in 2008, and finding a lack of craft beers in the area.  The solution was obvious – start a small brewery and fill the void!

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