# J Boags Wizard Smith English Ale



## mjp (29/8/10)

Was at "The Cock n Bull" English pub in Launceston Tasmania earlier this year, and had a try of Boags Wizard smith on tap.Great beer if a little fizzy.goldings flavour throughout.Reccomend it if you are ever in Tas.I asked,and apparently they dont ship it to the mainland as it doesn't travel well.


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## DU99 (29/8/10)

also tried on the Boag's Brewery tour..nice drop


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## kahn (30/8/10)

I've had this beer a few times. Very nice.

I have also been told by a nice guy at the brewery that the main reason why they don't ship to mainland is so they don't compete with James Squires range of beers, which are both owned by Lion Nathan.

They did do a limited ship to mainland in September 2007 - I remember well watching the mighty cats win the flag and I was drinking this beer...


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## MeLoveBeer (30/8/10)

Have had a crack at the Wizard Smith a few times when we've been in Launceston to watch the hawks and didn't mind it


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## hazard (30/8/10)

mjp said:


> they dont ship it to the mainland as it doesn't travel well.


Neither does VB but CUB insists on shipping it everywhere...


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## mjp (1/9/10)

hazard said:


> Neither does VB but CUB insists on shipping it everywhere...Don't under stand this either.Cheap is cheap but it tastes like crap!!!Does anyone still drink that stuff?


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## chadjaja (1/9/10)

One of my favourite beers at the Mud bar in Lonnie and can be had at Dan's here in Vic on the odd occasion at the city QV store but only certain times of the year. So it can be found but you have to be lucky.


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## Guysmiley54 (1/9/10)

I love this beer :chug: 

Does anyone have a recipe? How would you go about making an approximation?


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## michaelcocks (10/10/10)

Guysmiley54 said:


> I love this beer :chug:
> 
> Does anyone have a recipe? How would you go about making an approximation?



Just found this one too on a trip round tassie. Especially nice on tap.

Served a bit too cold and overcarbed for a true English Ale - but a pretty good drop nonetheless and one of my favorite interpretations of and English Ale/Bitter - Anyone know if it can be purchased in NSW ?? 

Also looking for a recipe

It mentions dry hopped with Goldings on the bottle - the sample I had seemed to have that bready yeast flavour that comes with an English yeast

I would approximate:

4.5KG of a good English Pale Malt or (Maris Otter varietal) mashed around 64c for an hour and a half
250 gm medium English Crystal 120L
EKG all way through (60, 30, Dry)
(Bittered to about 30 IBU)

English Ale - ESB or S04 if using dry

Ferment at 19C

Add 15gm of EKG dry hope and cc for two weeks

Would get you a good place to start from....

Unfortunate I didn't get time for the Boags tour (did the Cascade one) but some AHB'ers must have been thru - Maybe some further info out there somewhere ???

It's a shame they think it will compete with Squires - they are smart enough at marketing to realise they can generate a whole new category for this beer.


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## Dazza_devil (10/10/10)

michaelcocks said:


> Just found this one too on a trip round tassie. Especially nice on tap.
> 
> Served a bit too cold and overcarbed for a true English Ale - but a pretty good drop nonetheless and one of my favorite interpretations of and English Ale/Bitter - Anyone know if it can be purchased in NSW ??
> 
> ...



I don't think you can buy it on the North Island, not sure why. It does seem to be be nearly everyone's favourite from our bigger breweries, mine too. We send all our best wines, apples, beef and seafood off shore so dunno why the beer doesn't go as well.
I like your recipe, not being an AG brewer yet I couldn't comment on the recipe as a comparison with the Wiz, sounds nice though. 
I didn't think the Wizard had a lot of body as compared to a typical English Ale and was perhaps a little light on the hop aroma, maybe just me. Perhaps your suggested mash temp could give that result though.
Added - not sure that they would bitter with EKG, probably more likely POR or something similar, just a hunch. I don't think we grow EKG here so it could be more economically viable to use a local hop for bittering but I'm only guessing.


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## dago001 (10/10/10)

Pretty certain that its bittered with por - late hopped with EKG. The bloke doing the tour went to great lengths to say that they imported the EKG from England. One of my favourite beers in Tassie - though a little overcarbed for me.


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## Guysmiley54 (10/10/10)

Looking good. Will put this on my to do list!


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## RdeVjun (10/10/10)

LagerBomb said:


> The bloke doing the tour went to great lengths to say that they imported the EKG from England.


Ha! I'm glad to hear they're English, if they're using EKG that would be fairly self- evident- in this case East Kent designates origin and not cultivar, perhaps your guide doesn't realise that.


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## Dazza_devil (10/10/10)

RdeVjun said:


> Ha! I'm glad to hear they're English, if they're using EKG that would be fairly self- evident- in this case East Kent designates origin and not cultivar, perhaps your guide doesn't realise that.




Funny enough, some of my ancestors originated from East Kent but they ended up living in Tasmania.


WTF is Ringwood?


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## michaelcocks (11/10/10)

Boagsy said:


> Funny enough, some of my ancestors originated from East Kent but they ended up living in Tasmania.
> 
> 
> WTF is Ringwood?



POR

Pride of Ringwood

Hop used in almost all Aussie beers high alpha bittering (and sometime flavouring hop) Most Aussie lagers use this as Bittering only


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## hsb (11/10/10)

Could be NZG used? :unsure: 

East Kent used to be part of the 'Garden of England' but to me it looks more like a scene out of _The Tripods_ these days with 8 lane motorways, telephone towers, security cameras, spiked steel fencing and just the general malaise of Thanet in general. The cabbage fields I used to play in as a kid are grotty Barratt's estates, Tracey Emin is a more famous East Kent export than EKG these days :lol: 

Er, going off on one there, sorry, still hop fields a plenty there though. fizzy bitter sounds a bit iffy but good to hear of new varieties, they should try it on the mainland, i only ever drink Amber Ale when it is the only choice of that ilk.


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## Dazza_devil (11/10/10)

michaelcocks said:


> POR
> 
> Pride of Ringwood
> 
> Hop used in almost all Aussie beers high alpha bittering (and sometime flavouring hop) Most Aussie lagers use this as Bittering only




I know that, I was wondering 'Where' TF is Ringwood. If they are the pride of Ringwood I figured that's where they come from, a place called Ringwood.


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## hsb (11/10/10)

VIC 3134
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ringwood,_Victoria



> Perhaps Ringwood's most global notoriety is the development in 1958 of the "Pride of Ringwood" hop variety, which today "flavours" ;-) Fosters Lager, Victoria Bitter, and many other beers around the world. The hops were developed along the Mullum Mullum creek, near the site of what later became Penguin Books in 1963.


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## Dazza_devil (11/10/10)

I'd like to think they use Tassie hops for bittering.

Anyway I reckon it's gotta be one of these,

http://www.hops.com.au/products/australian_varieties.html


Interesting link, I didn't know we grow Galaxy here in Tasmania but I doubt they used that for bittering. 
Any guesses?

Interesting to see that the Bushy Park Estates hop farm makes the Australian hop industry an equivalent age to the Tettnang Region in Germany.


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## probablynathan (11/10/10)

I am pretty sure that they use Imported EKG, the previous master Brewer that came up with the beer was a Englishman and apparently he was after the particular profile of EKG. Probably on of the reasons its so expensive. But worth it IMO.


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## Shed101 (11/10/10)

I thought it was a fairly ordinary attempt at a bad English keg beer, tbh, and preferred a bottle of Cascade's Amber Ale or Moo Brew Dark Ale on tap.
... perhaps it didn't travel well to Southern Tassie :lol: 

(... plus it's made with that dirty Esk ditch water  h34r: )


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## dago001 (11/10/10)

Shed101 said:


> I thought it was a fairly ordinary attempt at a bad English keg beer, tbh, and preferred a bottle of Cascade's Amber Ale or Moo Brew Dark Ale on tap.
> ... perhaps it didn't travel well to Southern Tassie :lol:
> 
> (... plus it's made with that dirty Esk ditch water  h34r: )


Oh dear - the old North vs South thing again. Boags vs Cascade - we got over that years ago. 
Back on topic - I did see quite a few 20 litre drums of tetra hop extract during the tour, but can't remember if they use it in the Wizard Smiths. The carbonation is a little high, but hey are trying to appeal to the average drinker, so they need to make some compromise with the carbonation. Joe Average doesn't like flat beer. Interestingly, on the tour, only approx 1/2 of the people drank their sample of the Wizard Smith - most didn't like the hop taste. Myself and Mrs Bomb were quite happy with it.
Cheers
LagerBomb


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