Macs Brewjolais

Brewed by Macs Brewery
Style: American Pale Ale
Wellington, New Zealand

Pleasant hoppy, floral aroma with a nice head and good bitter taste. A seasonal beer - unusual for Lion Nathan/Macs and an attempt to produce something made by a brewer instead of an accountant. Usually served too cold at Macs bars but gets better as it warms up and a nice session beer.

Pint at the brewery - day of release.
Pours a radiant deep amber. Thin white head.
Huge fresh hoppy aromas, bring the citrus and passionfruit home. Theres a bit of caramel malt underneath.
Flavour has intense resiny hops, coating the mouth with a pleasant bitterness.
The finish lasted about 10mins with the fresh brew. She became more subdued and balanced over time, still amazing. Cheers for this one Ally!

On tap at The Vic in Nelson. Hugely fragrant tropical fruit hop aroma. Luscious hop flavours dominate as well: passionfruit, tangerine, mango. Underlying malts are sweet and supportive. Finish is very bitter. In my mind this played as an American-style IPA but without the big ABV. Excellent.

2009, enjoyed thoroughly with Donfardz64 on the waterfront in Wellington. Dense white head with a lovely amber hue. Floral, fruity hops, complemented by a sweet malt. Damn attractive aroma, although not strong coming out of the tap. A nice bitterness in the flavour, balanced excellently by the malt. The hops manifest as grapes, pears and lime. Clean on the palate with plenty of hop flavour in the finish. Kind of like a sexed-up Hop-Rocker.

Bright orange in colour with firm white head. Citrus hoppy mouthfeel. Nice bitterness but was short. One of the better batchs.

Draught, pouring a sparkling clear golden amber with a white bubbly head. The aroma is very pleasing, juicy malts dominate with a strong fruity hop kick. A strong tropical fruit hop palate with plenty of bitterness and dryness. Reminiscent to me of the old Limburg Hopsmacker - very tasty. So much better than the rest of the Macs range it is difficult to believe it is from the same brewery.

I’ve tried this the last couple of years and thought it was very good. Never got around to rating it, as much as I enjoyed it. The 2008 vintage is excellent. I sip a glass of water and watch the world go by, as the two "pints" in front of me warm up and await the arrival of BozoNZ. Rich amber in the gloomy autumnal evening light, a little shy of brilliant, and topped off with a retreating off-white snow melt head. Sweet sticky malt greets the nose all the way from the table, with a rich and ripe fruity hop note comnig through as I lift the glass. Great malt/hop balance in the mouth. The hops are earthy, slightly sappy/piny and iron-like, with those classic kiwi tropical fruit notes coming through too. The malt is at the rich-end of being "typically Mac’s" - bready, with hints of vanilla. Taste bud stripping bitterness sneaks up on you and demands hot salty chips. We oblige and my palate is muted. For all of this it is a pretty clean beer, and superbly drinkable. Three pints and I’m on my bike. I’ll be back. Cheers Mac’s! I call her "Brewjolina", she should be a celebrity couple.

2008 vintage, finally a decent beer from the ’new’ Mac’s! great passionfruit oily hop aroma, solid palate and a refreshing balanced hoppy malty flavour, i was so impressed i had two, this has not happened since the buy out!