Garage Project Cabbages & Kings

Name inspired by the Lewis Carrol poem The Walrus and the Carpenter, Through the Looking Glass and Alice in Wonderland. In the poem the Walrus is like the pied piper of oysters and he lures the oysters from the ocean and into our beer. From Te Matuku Bay in Waiheke Island, 120 of these oysters are used alongside the native New Zealand bush pepper, horopito. The Te Matuku Bay oysters are Pacific oysters, meaning that they are an inter-tidal species that has adapted to live half of their life in water and half of it out. This has resulted in them closing shut very tightly to survive the dry part of the day by holding sea water inside themselves. When they arrive at GP all of that saltwater is still inside of them and when they are added to the boil they open up, release all of the contents, and create a beautiful salty and brine like boil. Combined with the spice of the pepper, the smokiness of some Manuka smoked malt, and 12% alcohol, the result is an all encompassing journey between you and the walrus. Moving from salty, to spicy and finally to smoky all in one hit. All NZ ingredients, there was a bit of a process involved with finding the oysters! many samples over many weeks finally got to the right one.