8 Wired Super Conductor Double IPA

Oho, what have we here.. a DIPA based on the excellent Hopwired? Count me in.

It's certainly a seductive nose, with the hopwired heritage very much evident. I've said before I don't think NZ hops alone can generally carry a good IPA / DIPA, so it's mouthwatering to pick out the green lushness of NZ here mixed in with the sharper citric notes of their USA cousins. It's the perfect combination as far as I'm concerned.

Taste-wise this is just as bitter as you'd hope, but it's rounded thanks to the above and evolves through the mouthful to stay exciting and delicious throughout. Malts are just right - not lacking in any way, but not too obtrusive either, just a backing canvas to slash hop juice all over.

This one's obviously that bit bigger than its IPA counterpart, but still exudes that brilliant balance key to the style. Looks great, smells great, tastes great. Truly excellent - just need to try it side by side with Hopwired to see which one is better. Buy it. 9.0

8 Wired Fresh Hopwired

Given the success of the normal hopwired I was mad keen to hook into some of this, the fresh hop variant.

Good dark amber pour, visible aeration, low sudsy head. Nose is dominated by sweet malt and earthy NZ hops. Not quite as punchy as I would have expected but nice and lush regardless. Not sure it has the same swampy (in a good way) character as the original.

Mouthfeel is good, beer itself is really deep dank and earthy with a punch of muted bitterness coming along for the ride. It´s a pretty powerful beer this in its way but sticks to the low and middle notes with nothing really rising above that chorus. Feels a bit less balanced than the other and as a result slightly hard work as opposed to the massively moreish character of the superb normal drop. Slight bit of booze on both the nose and the flavour.

It turns out this beer was made in two batches as it were, to catch the fresh hop characters of the Motueka and Nelson Sauvin strains which must be harvested at different times. The beers were then mixed together to form this final product. I am not sure how much this mixing would influence the beer but this progeny seems really quite markedly different to its predecessor.

This is a good beer and in isolation would rate very well indeed. In this context though I actually like the original better, and by a distance too. It's just that saying that feels kind of like the sporting upset of the season.. 8.0

8 Wired Saison Sauvin

So, a big Saison loaded up with Nelson Sauvin hops? Sign me up.

Lovely powdery steep head as you can see atop a nice amber body. Sour slightly winelike notes on the nose, plus belgian saison yeast, I don't get a lot of Nelson Sauvin from the aroma at this stage.

Taste wise is where the hops shine - the mouthful starts with that sour note but then mellows through that soothing vanilla quality these hops produce, before a sweet yeasty finish. I love when beers have such a nice range of development as you drink them, this stays interesting and engaging every sip you have. Delicious.

My thought is this could be another wine-drinker-converter sort of a beer. All I know is I enjoyed it immensely and find myself thinking about it constantly since. Pretty high mark here so requires further testing. For validation purposes only of course.

I can't wait. 9.0

8 Wired Rewired Brown Ale

First consumed with the staff of the St Kilda Local Taphouse at around 2am in the morning, after a night on many fine premium craft beers, but for some reason I just don't have a great recollection of the properties of this drop from that time. Weird.

The bottle goes on about brown ales being a style that's been both neglected, and used by "the mass brewing companies .. for their most unattractive products". The first point I agree with, the second .. well a quick search of my memory banks at least yields only UK macro producers even attempting this style at all. Brown ales to Aus producers at least are as untouched as barley wines.. perhaps there's a good reason for that.
Lovely pour this - initially gives the impression the head might be a bit fleeting but instead it hangs around nicely, lacing stickily to the side of the glass. It's the colour of dark mahogany, with a tan top.

Yum. This beer's just 5.7% but it's a good strong mouthful of flavour. It's bitter up front for a brown, but this wash of bitterness is soon overtaken by smooth nuttiness from the midsection. Bit of toffee here too before it washes away with a little lingering bitterness.

What's not to love? Really well balanced, interesting, and above all compelling beer that should be appealing to all, brown ale fan or not. Delicious. 8.5

[Nøgne Ø / 8 Wired / Renaissance] Ø for Awesome Imperial Amber Ale

Well, it's certainly wrapped up the longest title on the record for a start.

First impressions are great too - the dull bone head and brown, amber tinged ale body heighten expectation of something special here. Nose is slightly hot but otherwise more or less what it says on the tin: dark imperial amber malts and muted fruit backing.

Initial reaction on tasting is that it comes across like a cross between a barleywine and a solid fruity brown ale. A bit of caramel develops in the mid body as it warms before it delivers a quite strong bitter fruit finish. There's a constant and competent backing bassline of malting and alc throughout.

This beer is intensely flavoursome and interesting, but somehow just a little spiky in places which limits it from either drinking with great glee, or in great amounts. I get the feeling this was close to utter brilliance - not a great surprise given the quality of the brewers involved. 7.5

8 Wired Batch 31 Imperial Stout

Fresh from the successes of Batch 18 we strolled into #31 expecting good things.

This too is an imperial, but scaled down a little at 11% abv and in fact quite different to the previous release. It's a smokier nose and far smokier taste than before, without the plum pudding / christmas cake characteristics that were dominant in Batch 18 and many other imperials. Bitterness is held in check here.

This is a quality beer and easy, enjoyable drinking. I preferred the previous edition of this particular line however for its deeper content and less bacon like tendencies. 8.0

8 Wired Batch 18 Barrel Aged Imperial Stout

Special batches (yum) of imperial stout (yum) from 8 Wired (yum)? Well, if you insist, I guess.

12.5% ABV and 4.9 standard drinks to the bottle puts it squarely in the big leagues, and it's got a red tinged angry head on it too which soon subsides.

Has a big and slightly worrying nose, a bit like Basil Zempilas. There's plum pudding there, dark fruit, with a bit of chocolate and alcohol in the background, and just a slight tinge of coffee.

Bang, the taste on this is pretty immense, and it unfurls a big covering bitterness from about halfway through. The alcohol is warming throughout but not bitey. It's a drink for smooth jazz sipping over a good long time with some contemplative thoughts and possibly, just possibly, a cigar.

It does have a bit of an oaky barrel finish to it too which sets it all off just nicely. I'm glad it wasn't a bourbon barrel or this thing would just be insane. All in all, a fine beer indeed. Shame there aren't more. Yet. 9.0

8 Wired iStout

Finally the big day where we could crack this big bottle of expensive expectations.

Pours flat, disappointing lack of head. Jet black except the edges where you can see just a bit of light. It's 10%.. but there's not too much alcohol apparent in the aroma or the taste. The roasty coffee taste is long and lasting after a real full mouth experience from this one.

The bottle suggests putting this over vanilla ice cream. My word that sounds amazing. But at the same time it's like watering down a high quality spirit .. bit of a waste.

I want more of this. 9.0

- edit -
Another try of this yields a bit more soy and salty flavours than I'd like. Bumping it down to a still excellent 8.5

8 Wired Haywired

Hooray, 8 Wired finally on tap. Our bartender at Sail and Anchor says he specifically lined up his holidays so he could come in (to work) to get blasted while they had 8 Wired. Sensible bloke.

All sorts of fruits here throughout the aroma and the beer itself, a veritable medley of plum, peach, melno, passionfruit, pineapple at turns. Very unlike any wheat based effort I've tried before. There's not much malt in the mid body, but it's all replaced by a nice uncompromisingly bitter finish that prevents it all from cloying.

I suppose it's a little heavy in the mouth for its ABV. But when it's so flavoursome it's hard to really care. Lovely stuff. 8.0

8 Wired Tall Poppy India Red Ale

Must have missed this before but have since had it a couple times on tap also, for research purposes only of course.

India means it's hopped. Red means it's malty. Ale means I like it.

It's hard not to compare this to our lord and saviour Hopwired while drinking and in a direct one on one battle it cannot win. On its own though this is a very good drop and a fine example of a well-made, big, bold malty ale.

Can't understand why politicians and public figures are so against this beer. 8.0

8 Wired The Big Smoke Smoked Porter

Salivating at the thought of another product from our new found 'zealand heroes, 8 wired.

Ignore Dave, it was his birthday. Which isn't as wrong as it sounds. Perhaps we should nickname him 'big smoke' from now on?

.. anyway,

Quite effervescent out of the bottle this - it's fizzy, which seems a little odd for a porter. I didn't find it too troubling in terms of mouthfeel though. Black as nero, develops from an initial smoky flavour through some hop characters to a dark chocolate finish. Pretty lovely on the whole.

I like the balance of this beer. It seems reasonably easy to make a beer that tastes like ham ham and more ham - and I suppose that's something in its own right too. But you generally tire of it pretty quickly too - this seems more drinkable in the long run but perhaps compromises itself to those wanting a straight line version of either a smoked beer, or a porter.

Good but not great. 8.0

8 Wired Hopwired IPA

Heard some good things about NZ hoppage of late, there's some sort of revolution going on there.

And so to 8 Wired's Hopwired IPA. When we were at the bottle-o recently these things were flying out the door as they were a lovely fresh bottled batch. No strangers to peer pressure we grabbed one too and wow, good choice.

Pours quite dark with a creamy white head.. the rivery look of it kind of matched my initial impression of the nose also. Hoppy, sure, but kind of grassy agricultural also. Denmark river ?

Great mouthful of beer this, develops beautifully as you progress through. Little bit of fairy floss in there with the hops and grass. Bit of gooseberry or sweet grapefruit lingers. Satisfying 7.3% like a good power IPA should be.

What more to say. It's fucking lovely bru.

9.0 pending further investigation at the very first chance possible. I feel like this may well rise ..

edit 22 feb
Yeah.. after some further research on this one it's upped to a 9.5 .. and only because we as a committee want there to be something better.

Hard to think of much to improve on. Absolutely sensational. It's not cheap but buy it anyway (provided it's fresh and not an old bottle); worth every cent.