Tuatara APA Launched in Bottles on Friday

There are a lot of websites out there which let drinkers, both expert and amateur, put up ratings and comments about the beers they have tasted. The one which has really taken off – and which has a vocal Kiwi contingent – is Ratebeer. In a post-Beervana moment, we thought it would be useful to see what the Ratebeer crew had to say about our new Tuatara American Pale Ale (APA):

Reviewer Sdriessen (with a respectable 310 ratings) said “Solid malt, fruity hops. I could drink a lot of this. Very nice from Tuatara.” The aptly named TheGrandMaster (a staggering 2048 ratings) wrote “Plenty of bitterness with this, and that hop flavour really comes through. This will please the hop lovers.” Praise from Caesar indeed!

Mr Winewanker (with just 59 ratings) is of course well known to Tuatara and he described our APA thusly: “Lovely rich malty layers with fresh, zesty grapefruit and grassy hop notes. Probably a bit rich to be a true APA - more like an American IPA.” We at Tuatara can probably handle being called ‘too rich’ in this context. It certainly doesn’t happen very often.

Despite the unusual nom-de-plume, Donfardz64 (519 ratings) has a more than decent palate and noted “Pours amber, white head. Aroma is slightly lemony, grassy. Those American hops don’t really come through here. Bam! In the flavour you’re hit with an assertive grapefruity bitterness, backed up by a rich malt. Probably my favourite Tuatara beer so far. Quaffable and hoppy.” The second batch, pouring now, certainly has a lot more hops on the nose so we might get a second “Bam!” if there is a re-review.

The latest review was from KapitiCritique (119 rating) who seems to hail from our part of the world. They ended their review saying the APA was “evidently not out in bottles yet” but they “would love to see this on local shelves.”

And now they can. In fact, everyone can. From Friday 10 September Tuatara APA will be available in 500ml bottles at a limited range of outlets including Regional Wines and selected New World supermarkets. There are only 360 dozen bottles in total for this batch.

To celebrate, we are throwing a party at Regional Wines and Spirits (by the Basin Reserve in Wellington) from 4:30pm to 7pm this Friday 10 September. The brewers will be pouring samples of the beer, we will cook up some spicy food matches and there will be some classic Americana music courtesy of DJ Shady from Radio Active. It is free of charge and everyone is invited. Tell your friends.

Cheers from the team at Tuatara