8 Wired is the youngest of the new breed of contract brewers to take New Zealand by storm.
Contract brewing companies like 8 Wired brew their beers in other people’s breweries meaning they can concentrate on producing striking character full products without needing to brew “bread and butter” beers to pay the bills. Like Yeastie Boys before them, 8 Wired have caused a real stir in the Wellington beer scene with their first two richly hopped brews.
8 Wired is the creation of Danish expat Soren Eriksen. During the day Soren works as a brewer at Blenheim’s craft brewer Renaissance while in the evenings he works on perfecting recipes for his own company. So far those recipes have proved particularly successful with his uniquely New Zealand take on the richly hopped American Brown Ale style, Rewired Brown Ale selling well and his intensely aromatic Hopwired IPA making the top 8 in the Capital Times Beer Necessities Survey and racing out the taps in record time.
My pick of the two would be the striking Hopwired IPA. A big complex aroma of passionfruit, rock melon, and herbaceous citrus leads into a tangy tropical punch bowl of hop flavours and a dry lingering finish. Both beers will soon be available in bottle from Regional Wines and Spirits with a second batch of Hopwired destined for the taps at The Malthouse and Hashigo Zake in the coming months.