SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION is a theory put
forward in 1929 by Hungarian Frigyes Karinthy, He suggested that everybody and
everything is connected by up to six steps. So what's this to do with beer
? Well here goes.....
At a recent visit to the Cross Keys
in Washington, I noticed they were selling bottles of Monteiths
Southern Pale, from New Zealand . I tried some and it was
quite refreshing. So why an interest in this particular ale and how did it end
up there ?
Step 1
Drinking the beer reminded me of a
holiday down under we had in 2012. We visited North Island , New Zealand
for a few days and our first stop was Auckland. Now as luck would have it one
of the best places to have a beer is the Shakespeare Brewery and Hotel,
just around the corner from our hotel. Sheer coincidence honest! 
This
is a late Victorian building, with 3 bars and where New Zealand's first brewpub
was set up in 1986. Usually one of their beers is on sale at any one time, the
rest is made up of "guests".
Step 2
I immediately spotted in the restaurant bar one of the guest taps was called Monteiths Black. I’d not heard of the brewery or the beer and, I as I like dark beers, I ordered one. At 5.2%, this is brewed with 5 malts. My mouth was immediately full of biscuit, chocolate and coffee flavours which stayed on the palate long after I had finished. This turned out to be the best beer of the entire holiday.
Step 3
Doing
a bit of digging later, I discovered that Monteiths are based in the town of
Greymouth on the South Island. In the late 60's it was taken over by DB
Breweries, one of New Zealand's beer giants. In 2001 DB announced the
closure of the Monteith brewery, but such was the outcry, this decision was
quickly reversed. By quickly I mean 4 days later. One of the champions of this
campaign was the wonderfully named SOBA, the Society of Beer
Advocates. This is the NZ equivalent of CAMRA. Inspired by CAMRA,
they were formed after becoming fed up with fizzy yellow stuff dominating the
market. (see link below to SOBA website)
Step 4
Anyhow,
back to Monteiths. There is still no obvious connection yet with the Southern
Pale turning up in one of my locals. Well, in 2013 DB Breweries , by now part
of Asia Pacific Breweries ( I know, but stick with it, nearly there) were taken
over by Heineken.
Step 5
So
one guess who supplies the drinks for the Cross Keys? Correct.
Step 6
The
Cross Keys recently reintroduced real ale, hence my visit, otherwise would not
have seen and drank the Monteiths Southern Pale.
I
rest my case.
Read
more about Monteiths here:-
http://www.monteiths.co.nz/Beer-And-Cider
Also see link to a previous post:-
http://kensbeerblog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/breaking-news-new-real-ale-outlet-in.html
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