LBQ has just celebrated its second birthday. It has become a pleasantly civilized pub for the craft beer enthusiast over its first couple of years, during which time it has installed a couple of handpumps. They generally keep their barrels upright directly beneath the bar, with a nod towards reducing temperature by sheepishly adding bags of ice cubes around the barrels, although on their website they proudly declare that their handpulled beer is "Served through a traditional beer engine, at room temperature with low carbonation". Wellington has been erroneously styling itself as NZ's craft beer capital for some time despite having neither any real ale breweries nor any pubs that consistently serve cask-conditioned beer (surely Christchurch, Nelson and Auckland have a more genuine claim?). LBQ should be acknowledged for taking a step in the right direction, but beer-loving patrons might want to suggest that they go the final step and actually serve cask-conditioned beer at 12 °C through their handpumps.
