BAR OF THE MONTH - April

New Zealand Real Ale Bar of the Month for April is The Moutere Inn.

Virtually all of the bars featured on this website are extremely young. The Moutere Inn, however, claims to be the oldest inn in New Zealand, in terms of still occupying its original buildings. It was built in the 1850s by German immigrant Cordt Bensemann (great grandfather of artist Leo Bensemann), whose compatriots brought with them grapes and hops, for which the region is now well-known. Since October 2008 the Moutere Inn has set about establishing itself as a purveyor of 'craft' beers. Crucially, their bar includes three handpumps. Martin Townshend (of the Townshend Brewery ) was amongst the partners who bought the inn, and his beers are usually available on handpump. Galbraith's Bob Hudson's Bitter and Bellringers Best Bitter have also been available recently. This is very much a community pub, but increasing numbers of tourists are visiting, especially those on local biking trails. Being on a backroad between Richmond and Motueka, this is hardly the sort of place that many people are going to drive past by chance. This makes the challenge of keeping two or three real ales (plus about a dozen gas-dispensed 'craft' beers) considerable. They try to ensure that each barrel doesn't remain on for much more than about four days, but it's certainly worth checking which is the freshest beer and whether any has been pulled through before diving straight in with an order. If you are unfortunate, you can end up with room-temperature beer that has been sitting in the pipes for a while. It seems inexcusable that any self-respecting publican would permit that to happen. Moreover, it is distressing for a knowledgeable beer-lover to watch as a well-meaning tourist returns his flat, warm, stale beer, mumbling apologetically that there "seems to be something wrong with this one" (there was!), only to be told that "it's English beer" and "that's how it's supposed to taste!". Unfortunately this is happening too much in NZ bars starting to introduce their customers to real ale, usually by bar staff who, through no fault of their own, have no idea what proper beer is 'supposed' to taste like. This only serves to give "English beer" a bad name. To state the obvious, real ale should be alive, fresh, clear, have bite and be served at about 12 °C. People being served beer like that will come back for more, not back to return it! The shame of this, is that one mediocre (or worse) pint undoes the good work of 100 well-kept ones. I wouldn't claim that their success rate is quite as favourable as 100 good : 1 bad, but I have enjoyed a number of well-kept, eminently drinkable pints at the Moutere Inn this year. They care about beer, and get it right more often than they get it wrong. Greater attention to the standard of every pint pulled, though, would rightly make this place a tourist destination.