BREWERY // 8 Wired began on Christmas day when Søren Eriksen's future wife, Monique, gave him the gift of a Coopers malt extract brew kit. A few successful home-brews later, he decided to jack in his career in biochemistry and landed a job at at a brewery. A few years later they created a brewery of their own in beautiful Warkwork. A wide range of traditional and innovative styles are being constantly released by 8 Wired and their barrel ageing programme is one of the largest in our hemisphere with 7 huge foedres and hundreds of wooden barrels. Their brewpub & distillery in Matakana - 8 Wired Barrelworks - is a must-visit destination.
BEER // When Freestyle Hops created a totally new hop/botanical ingredient, Kohia Nelson, by combining dried NZ passionfruit (aka Kohia) with a blend of NZ hops they wanted brewers to use it in new beers and put it through its paces. For the 8 Wired team, brewing a Wit seemed like the obvious home for this tropical citrussy blend. Adding ingredients outside of the Reinheitsgebot holy trinity is sometimes thought of as a modern 'craft' trend but additions such as oranges and coriander were used in brewing as early as the medieval times, in Witbiers in particular. For 400 years the lucky inhabitants of East Brabant, Belgium drank Witbiers brewed with barley and wheat from the rich surrounding farmland and also exotic fruits and spices bought to the Lowlands by Dutch traders. In 1745 there were 30 breweries in the village of Hoegaarden (a very healthy number for a village of 2,000 people) but gradually the style went out of fashion as drinkers took to mass produced lagers. The last brewery making Witbiers closed in the 1950's. Fortunately for us, a local milkman named Pierre Celis missed the style so much he decided to start making it again and the rest is history. Kohia Wit is a surprisingly smashable fragrant Wit with minimal spicy yeast character and a nice soft body.
BREWERY // 8 Wired
BEER // Kohia Wit
STYLE // Witbier
ORIGIN // Warkworth, Auckland
ABV // 5%
TEMPERATURE // Cool - 9-10C
FOOD MATCH // Potjevleesch. Seafood Risotto. Omelette with Sharp Apple & Goats Cheese.
VESSEL // Tulip