It’s Friday again thankfully. Another exciting week immersed in the cut, thrust and glamour of corporate IT...or something. The sun’s still shining and the weekend’s here.
To celebrate I thought I’d pop a bottle of the Flying Nun Records 30 Year Ale and lie on the concrete taking photos of it. I couldn’t find my camera, and with kids it could be anywhere. So I shot the pics on my new phone.
I finally stepped up to trying an Android phone, the Sony Ericsson ARC. Which is a lovely, wafer thin piece of hardware sporting an 8 mega pixel camera. Unfortunately it also sports Android which is an operating system created by Rubik’s corporation.
My photography is average at the best of times and not improved by my choice of camera. So I was surprised recently when the Sunday Star times stole one of my photos and published it. Of course they apologised profusely and told me this never happens. When I mentioned it to Luke from Epic he shot that story full of holes, explaining they had done the same to him. I guess since there is no money in newspapers these days they have to rely on stealing photos off web sites. Even ones taken with a 5 year old snappy camera, partially blocked by baby food.
In the absence of this humble camera, my new phone seemed to do a very decent job. One feature I do love is when I’ve taken a bunch of photos I cruise back to my computer and can examine them in my Google photo album, having been automatically uploaded by the camera on the fly.
Back to the beer, the Flying Nun 30 Year Ale was created by Epic to celebrate the anniversary of our most iconic record label. The label which gave many young Kiwi acts a chance after they’d been snubbed by major record labels.
Flyng Nun was formed in the 80s in Christchurch, originally intended as a vehicle for local punk rock acts. However the label grew to prominence by promoting the emerging bands of Dunedin.
I was four when 1980 rolled around, so I know less about “the emerging Dunedin sound” than I do about photography. So I’m going to skip straight to the beer.
While rolling around on the concrete trying to get a good shot I took a sniff. I get tropical grass flavours, or something like that sweet damp smell you get in small fruit stores.
A professional photographer I know says to take the perfect product shot you need to stay clear of direct light. A cloudy day or light filtered through a sheet is perfect.
So I stuck the bottle in direct sun light to get that really contrasty look of course. The beer looked great, very light in colour, with a bubbly white head. I took a hit while channeling Brian Brake. The taste is somehow different that I expected, more complex and somehow more malty. On the first sip there is that signature Epic bite at the very tip of your tongue. Once again grass, lemon and some exotic fruit. Then there is an unfamiliar funky tropical grapefruity flavour which I can't get close to naming (help me out if you can) and some interesting maltiness.
It's definitely part of the new Epic family, being super light, crisp and lemony, reminding me of Hop Zombie and Mash Up.
I would recommend you match this beer with some sun, a concrete floor, some creativity and a Friday afternoon. Together it sure tastes sweet.
