17 May 2016 - Best Beer HQ
Garage Project Angry Peaches beer review
I’ve wanted to try Angry Peaches since I first laid eyes on its retro-cool label at a Liquor King on Ponsonby Road, Auckland. But for whatever reason – maybe I was low on funds that day or I was after something else – I didn’t purchase it then and there. When I eventually returned, it was gone.
Thus, for a while, Garage Project’s Angry Peaches became my white whale. I’d look for it wherever good craft beer was sold, until I eventually stumbled across it again at Hopscotch Beer Company in Eden Terrace, where I purchased a big 650ml bottle. It’s been sitting in my fridge for a couple of weeks (I love looking at it every time I open my fridge). Until now.
The rugby league is about to kick off (Warriors v Panthers) and its time to bust these Angry Peaches open and take a drink.
ABV: 6.8%
Blurb on the bottle: There are no angry peaches in this beer. None. So why “Angry Peaches”? Inspired by a throw-away beer descriptor by beer blogger Phil Cook, Angry Peaches aims to create an aggressive stone fruit character with absurd amounts of the hard to find American hop Amarillo. Because we love you, we got all the Amarillo we could get our hands on and put it all in this beer. Just for you. Angry is the new nice.
Garage Project: We’re a small brewery, located in an old petrol station in Wellington, New Zealand. It’s an unlikely place for a brewery but our aim in the Garage is to create unique and beautiful beers.
We like pushing boundaries, reinterpreting styles and challenging the notions of what beer can be. We’re here to try something new. Just like you.
Tastes like: I’ve barely gotten this bottle open, and the Warriors are already surging ahead, thanks to some brilliance from centre Solomone Kata. Maybe this is a lucky beer? God knows the Warriors can use all the luck they can get.
But back to the beer at hand. Um, I’m not sure about angry peaches, but I can detect subtle notes of angry apricot in this ludicrously tasty American pale ale. I’m loving the Amarillo hops, too, which are exceptionally fragrant. Seriously, it’s almost as satisfying to sniff the pine and spicy grapefruit aroma as it is to actually drink this beer.
But bottoms up. The Warriors give away one of the dumbest tries I have ever seen, as Shaun “Magic” Johnson tries to force a pass on his own goal line, drops the ball, and Panthers player Jamie Soward pounces on it. Stupid!
Maybe this really is a lucky beer after all – as in I sure am lucky I’ve got something good to drink, while the bloody Warriors lose again. I forget about the game and concentrate again on the red-amber nectar, which is smooth and nicely balanced, with an underlying caramel quality that belies all the fruity hops in it.
Unlike the Warriors, who eventually lose 30-18, Angry Peaches is yet another winner from Garage Project.
Movie/beer pairing: The Warriors (1979). Framed for the assassination of a rival gang leader, lovable street thugs the Warriors have to fight their way home from the Bronx to Coney Island while every other posse in the city (including the police) tries to hunt them down.
It’s a fun and flavoursome flick, with a crazy-cool aesthetic (just like the Angry Peaches beer label). And unlike the useless Auckland-based rugby league team, the plucky underdogs in this flick do not disappoint. Can you dig it?
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