GABS Brewer 2016: Stu McKinlay from New Zealand’s Yeastie Boys

What beer are you making for GABS?
We’re making a Hot Smoked IPA with Gladfield Manuka-smoked malt, Sauvin and Rakau from NZ Hops, and a good dose of Peach Bhut and Fatalii from Fire Dragon Chillies.

What’s it called?
​Hellzapoppin’

Where did the inspiration come from?
Hellzapoppin’ is the debut album of legendary New Zealand rockers The 3Ds… one of their members now has my old homebrew fermenter sitting in her house, as her partner is a homebrewer, and I started listening to a lot of their music after he picked it up.
Hellzapoppin’ immediately struck me as a fantastic beer name and I just started thinking about what a beer with that name would be. Fire and brimstone was the first thing I thought of. And, then, about how many hop heads will probably end up in hell 😉
In the end we’ve created something that’s a good fit for hop heads and hot heads! Or, quite possibly, just another smoked beer that we see us getting a influx of hate mail… for those scared of Rex Attitude, however, you can rest easy in the knowledge that there is no peat-smoked malt in this beer.

Tell us why you have chosen to brew a Festival Beer for GABS
We want to be front and centre at one of the world’s beer beer festivals. Modern brewers are a very creative bunch, who love to have a lot of fun with beer (while also being deadly serious about beer quality)… and GABS is the perfect place for us to showcase what we like to do.

Finish this sentence – one thing I would like to change about craft beer is…
People getting hung up on the past, when there was a small “in crowd” in the craft beer scene, and not looking forward to a better future… ​people are not selling out, it’s just that a lot more people are buying in!

The Great Australasian Beer Spectapular is on May 20-22 at the Royal Exhibition Building in Carlton, Victoria, May 27-28 at the Australian Technology Park in Eveleigh, NSW and June 18 at ASB Showgrounds, Greenlane, Auckland.