The Underground Bar has had to close

Hi there,

Due to circumstances beyond our control, we are sad to announce that The Underground Bar has closed.

Rendezvous Restaurant, upstairs from the bar, has gone out of business. As our bar utilised the restaurant's liquor licence to serve alcohol and its kitchen to provide food this means we have had to close our doors too.

As you can imagine, we are extremely disappointed that this has happened. We had worked hard to create a place like-minded people could come to enjoy some great local beer as well as enjoy the company of friends and family. And we were really pleased with how the bar was going. In the end we only  had a couple of days notice, so didn't have a chance to explain the situation to many of our customers face-to-face.

Thank you so much for your support since we opened! We have met a lot of wonderful characters, and had a lot of fun showing-off our beer to both locals and visitors to town.

Please keep the faith. We are very hopeful that once the dust settles another opportunity will arise and there'll be another Croucher bar here in Rotorua in one form or another. And when this happens be assured that we'll track you down to make sure you know what we are up to.

Cheers, thanks, and all the best...

Nigel Gregory & Paul Croucher
The Croucher Brewing Company

PS. A huge thanks to Jo, who shared bar duties with Nige. We loved your work!!!

Hours, Beers & Cheers!

Merry Christmas to you from the team at The Underground Bar!


Thanks so much for your support in 2009, we really appreciate the way the Underground bar has been adopted by local beer fans.


To celebrate, and as a bit of a thank you, we are running happy hour prices on all tap beer and house wines from now until Christmas (that is Tuesday the 22rd, Wednesday the 23rd and Thursday the 24th of December 2009).


Cherry Bock

So make sure you get in to the bar this week, where you'll also be able to sample the latest Croucher Brewing seasonal beer - the Cherry Bock. A Bock is a dark lager, and this one is chock full of cherries and raspberries (60kg of real fruit went into this 600ltr batch). It has a distinctive fruity aroma and flavour, and packs a punch at 8% alc/vol. The Vicar's Vice, our other recent seasonal release, is also on tap and has been getting great reviews from drinkers.


Christmas Hours:

Below are our opening hours through the Christmas period. If you have friends or family coming in to town, bring them in to try some genuine locally brewed craft beer. And if you are heading out to the Lakefront Mardi-Gras on New year's Eve, pop in for a drink on the way.


Wed Dec 23 4pm – 11pm
Thu Dec 24 4pm – 11pm
Fri Dec 25 CLOSED
Sat Dec 26 CLOSED
Sun Dec 27 4pm – 7pm
Mon Dec 28 CLOSED
Tue Dec 29 4pm – 10pm
Wed Dec 30 4pm – 10pm
Thu Dec 31 4pm – 8pm
Fri Jan 1 CLOSED
Sat Jan 2 CLOSED
Sun Jan 3 4pm – 7pm
Mon Jan 4 CLOSED
Tue Jan 5 4pm – 8pm


2010

Next year we will be working hard to make things even better at the bar. We are keen to run some tastings for beer, as well as maybe wine and whiskey too. Let us know if might be interested, along with any suggestions on what you'd like to see. I think we'll have to throw a beer fest in as well.


Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and your family.


Cheers,

From the team at the Underground - Nigel, Paul & Jo


P.S. Please forward this email to other Rotorua people you know and encourage them to receive our blog updates. Thanks.

the UNDERGROUND bar - Vicar's Vice, Friday BBQ's, Croucher Pale Ale gets national recognition

Croucher Pale Ale named in Top 8 NZ beers

In the annual 2009 Beer Neccessities Awards, run by Wellington's Capital Times, The Croucher Brewing Company's flagship Pale Ale beer has been named in the Top 8 beers in New Zealand.

 

The beers were blind judged on their appearance, aroma and flavour with some thought given to their stylistic integrity. Here are the judges comments about Croucher Pale Ale:

Croucher Pale Ale pours a nice clear gold with a quickly dissipating head. Aroma features some fresh zesty perfumy citrus hop notes and a rich toffee note. In the mouth there is plenty of perfumy hop flavour with a big slightly early bitter finish. Good beer that could use a touch more malt balance.Croucher Brewing have been building up a reputation for their range of pale, complex, aromatic beers which they brew in Rotorua making them one of the few craft brewers to fly the flag for brewing in the North Island.

Vicar's Vice now on tap

The latest Croucher seasonal, Vicar's Vice is now on tap at the bar. It is a Belgian style strong ale. It was brewed with a bucket load of New Zealand citrus peel and a kilo of crusked coriuander seeds. It is exceptionally smooth, and has a delicious spicy citrusy flavour.

Friday Night BBQ At The Underground

In conjuction with the team upstairs at Rendezvous Restaurant we are running a BBQ on Friday nights in the courtyard of the bar. They are cooking up some delicious snacks like satay chicken skewers, meatballs in sauce, and more. Prices range from $2 to $5, so come in and enjoy some BBQ food with your Happy Hour beers. Happy Hour runs from 4pm to 7pm each Friday.

Come and see us at the UNDERGROUND bar, 1282 Hinemoa Street, Rotorua.

the UNDERGROUND bar goes Movember

Yes, next time you come in you'll notice the ugly mo growing (slowly) on Nigel's top lip. He's going for one of those hideously plain 'slug on the top lip' mo's.

The UNDERGROUND bar has formed it's own Movember team, and we'd love you to join up too (or show your support). You don't have to be a 'mo grower' to get involved, so even the ladies join the team.

We'll be collecting loose change at the bar to raise money for the Movember causes - The Cancer Society and the Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand. Plus you can also donate online. Thanks for your support.

Please forward this to anyone in Rotorua growing a mo, and encourage them to join our team!

See you at the Underground.

UNDERGROUND now also opening on Tuesdays

We've had a few requests to open the UNDERGROUND bar earlier in the week. Therefore, since we love keeping our customers happy, from this week we are adding TUESDAYS to our opening hours.

To celebrate the first TUESDAY night (that is tomorrow) it is going to be happy hour on tap beer and house wines ALL evening. The bar will be open at 4pm, so please come in and support our new opening night.

We have also taken the opportunity to extend our mid-week hours as we have been finding people are keen to stick around a bit longer on a Wednesday and Thursday. New hours are below...

** NEW **  UNDERGROUND Bar Hours:
Tues 4pm - 8pm
Wed 4pm - 10pm
Thu 4pm - 10pm
Fri 4pm - 11pm
Sat 4pm - 11pm
Sun 2pm - 6pm
Mon CLOSED

October at the Underground

The new menu is out, you can click here to see the new line-up of craft beers and wines. We currently have a new seasonal beer on tap, the Croucher BRUN. It is a spicy amber ale, full of big malty hoppy flavour with a touch of clovey spiciness. Get in and taste it while it lasts.

The good weather is on the way, and as we know there are a few mountain bikers who enjoy a Croucher Ale at the bar, we have installed a bike rack for off-street bike parking - just ride down through the tunnel to find it.

October is Oktoberfest time, and an opportunity to celebrate German beer right here in Rotorua. Croucher Brewing's HEF is a cloudy German-styled Wheat Beer, and we've had on authority from German visitors and ex-pats that it is true to style and as good as the best they get back home. Make sure you get in to the bar during October to taste our tribute to Germany's fine tradition of brewing.

on-tap

Well it is Friday, and to celebrate we have added a couple of beers to the line-up tonight. Back on the handpump is the Porter (a chocolatey black beer), plus a very temporary return of Deliverance Pilsner. Deliverence is brewed on Waiheke Island by Kiwi brewing legend Ben Middlemiss. We only have around 1/2 a keg of this left, so if you haven't tried it get in quick!

Also, we are currently running another business card draw - $50 bar tab at the UNDERGROUND bar and $50 voucher for Rendezvous restaurant (upstairs). Get your business card in by 6pm Sunday to be in to win.

Happy hour(s) tonight from 4pm-7pm. Have a great weekend!!
Nige

Welcome to the Underground...

theUNDERGROUNDbar has been up and running here in Rotorua for around 3 months, and we've finally gotten around to creating an online home for it. Here you'll keep up with what is happening at the bar, new beers and wines as they change, promotions, etc. Please subscribe to get the updates sent straight to your inbox. We'd love to have your support.