Stag semen beer set to return – minus the stag

A David Bowie inspired brewery that developed a beer laced with stag semen has said it may bring the beer back – but minus its most famous ingredient.

Wellington brewery Choice Bros, which developed the stag semen “milked” stout for the Green Man bar in Wellington two years ago, has said that they might bring the “awesome”  award-winning beer back – but without its most controversial ingredient.

Speaking to WellingtonNZ.com’s Spinoff, head brewer Kerry Gray said that the Green Man pub-owner Steve Drummond had the idea for the beer which was developed to highlight the pub’s Wild Food Festival.

The brew included a measure of “export-quality” deer semen, supplied by a local stud farm.

Gray told Spinoff they had tried to make “the best beer they could with that ingredient” and they had created an “awesome beer” that won a silver medal at a beer awards.

“We still get emails from people who want to try it, a lot of enquiries from Americans on the cruise ships,” he told the New Zealand site. “The Ministry of Primary Industries weren’t too happy about it, so they had a lot of questions, but they signed off on it and everything was above the board.”

However, Gray has said he won’t be keen to repeat the exercise.

“It’s definitely not a beer I would choose to make, and I won’t be re-brewing it,” he said, before adding, “We might do another version of it – without the stag component.”

Until then, Gray is sticking with his less controversial, although no less interesting brews, which include a peanut butter and English raspberry jelly ale, and a coriander, wormwood, star anise and foraged fennel seeds beer, and beer aged in wine barrels from Waipara. However the roast lamb and mint flavoured beer, which used potatoes, carrots, peas, Kumara and a lamb reduction, proved less of a success.

Other beers in the range include beers inspired by Bowie’s songs, Ground Control to Major Tom, Serious Moonlight, after the 1983 Tour, and I’m Afraid of Americans, inspired by the 1997 single.