30 March 2016 - Best Beer HQ
Tuatara Outrigger Pacific Pale Ale review
ABV: 4.5%
IBU: 20
The bottle: Like all 500ml bottles in the Tuatara craft beer range, this bottle sports a spiky, scaly neck like that of a lizard (or the tuatara to be exact). It’s a unique feature that Kiwi craft beer aficionados will be well familiar with by now, but it’s worth highlighting for any newbies who might have stumbled across this blog (to those people I say kia ora and welcome!).
Blurb about the beer: According to a quick look on the Tuatara website, Outrigger is a Pacific Pale Ale – one of the Paraparaumu-based brewery’s seasonal brews – that is made primarily from Australian-grown Galaxy hops, as well as New Zealand pilsner yeast and New Zealand wheat malt.
Now let’s crack this bottle open and see what’s inside.
Tastes like: The Pacific Ocean, if it tasted like a bouquet of fresh fruit, including guava, pineapple, and mango.
It’s something I’ve come to expect from so-called “Pacific Pale Ales” – they’re just zestier, fruiter versions of the humble pale ale. Off the top of my head, I can tell you that Monteith’s makes a shit one and Garage Project makes a really good one; fortunately this one is less like the former and more like the latter.
Tuatara’s Outrigger Pacific Pale Ale is actually rather tasty for a beer of less than 5% alcohol. It’s a sweet one, with a slightly bitter aftertaste. As I settle into this beer now, I find it smooth, refreshing, and infinitely quaffable.
Is it the best beer ever? Although this is the first time I’ve reviewed something by Tuatara for this blog, it’s not the first time I’ve tried a Tuatara beer before.
Like many Kiwis, Tuatara has sort of been my gateway into New Zealand craft beer. That’s because it’s ubiquitous, it’s competitively priced, and it’s unintimidating for the uninitiated. It’s not the best craft beer in the land – nor is it the worst.
And that’s about how I feel about this one. The Tuatara Outrigger Pacific Pale Ale isn’t earth-shattering and it’s unlikely to win any big prizes, but it is quite a bit better than average. I’d even go so far as to say it’s pretty darn drinkable.
I’d certainly be happy to buy a bottle of Outrigger again next summer.
Also check out: Garage Project’s Hapi Daze Pacific Pale Ale.
Comments
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
[…] Tuatara Outrigger Pacific Pale Ale review […]