Posts Tagged ‘beer’


Steinlager Pure Review

Possibly the coolest advertising campaign ever, with Harvey Keitel telling everyone how cool New Zealand is, and finally claiming the he loves the beer. It’s pretty clear that the campaign and the beer have been a runaway success here, with 2 other brands of beer coming out with clones and everyone and their dog drinking the beer itself. It comes in a tall sleek green bottle that really stands out from the crowd of kiwi beers. The whole premise behind this beer is that it is made from all pure ingredients (and no preservatives) sourced from the untouched wilds of New Zealand.

It’s clearly cliched to call the taste of Steinlager Pure crisp and clean, but I’m all for cliche, so to describe the flavour, it is crisp and clean. I don’t really believe in the idea that some beer gives you a worse hangover than others (with equal alcohol content and this is one is a reasonable %5). I’m a huge believer that all hangovers were created equal and if you don’t wake up with an aching head then you haven’t drunk enough. Anyway, a few people I know think that because of it’s purity it is gentler on the head.

In any case, of all the good commercial beer in New Zealand (and there is a lot of good beer) I’m willing to say that Steinlager Pure is the best. 2 high quality beers that it is comparable to in drinkability are Speights Distinction Ale and Monteiths Radler. Distinction Ale is obviously a more robust drink while Radler is similarly crisp but has a taste that you can’t have for more than a few. Generally though, you could spend the whole night on the Pure.

The Royal Exchange, Toowong

In every town, there are drinking icons, places that everyone knows about, everyone has had their fair share of schooners at, and everyone will have great memories of in 35 years when they can’t drink anymore cause their kidneys give them grief. Of all the pubs in and around Brisbane the RE in Toowong may not be the swankiest, the coolest, or even the friendliest but it’s probably the best local. It’s one of those places that you could walk into blind folded and just the smell of it draws a picture. It just so happens in this case it’s the smell of spew, nonetheless it makes you feel like home, or you are at your local.

Let’s be fair about it, there is nothing that jumps out and takes you about this pub, the beer garden is big, complete with the requisite covers band 4 nights of the week playing more than it’s share of Jimmy Barnes, Powderfinger and Hunters & Collectors. The band has to stop playing at about 11 every night, cause the people that live nearby started complaining about the noise, even though there has been a band playing there since before they were born. Though, it’s not the band that the punters come to see, in fact they aren’t coming to see anything in particular except the beer. That’s the thing about uni students, all they need is a a few tables, a shitty band and cheap cold beer and they’ll sit and talk shit anywhere.

The public bar has about 42 flat screens within 4 metres of each other not to mention a couple of old blokes betting on the dogs that look like they’ve been there since it opened (1876), the dogs haven’t been there since then, the blokes have. The upstairs has a couple of pool tables and a bar, the bar is only open when they’ve got some reason which isn’t really that often. That being said, the upstairs has a nice little deck overlooking the stage.

As I’ve mentioned it’s not the coolest place, but it does have a webcam, so head on over to the website and check it out for yourself.