Crustacean species named after Wellington brewery

Wellington pub Fork and Brewer has its name immortalised in scientific literature after winning a beer competition.

The marine isopod, which looks something like a prehistoric garden bug, was given the formal scientific name of pentaceration forkandbrewer. Fork and Brewer were given the honour after brewing the best beer at last year's Crustacean Beer Competition as part of the 10th International Crustacean Congress, which brings together carcinologists - those who study crustaceans - from all around the world.

Organisers wanted a unique way to celebrate their niche area of marine study, which they did by creating the beer competition along with naming rights to a species discovered in 2008.

"People love beer, so we thought why not immortalise a local brewery by giving them the chance to be forever included in scientific literature?" said marine biologist Rachael Peart from the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), which co-hosted the event.

The competition attracted entrants from seven breweries. Fork and Brewer won with a beer inspired by the seafood boil-ups popular in southern states of the US, head brewer Brayden Rawlinson said.

He wanted to emulate the oyster stout style, where oysters and oyster shells are thrown into the boil to add depth.

"So with that in mind, I had my base style, which was a stout, and then I was like how can I make it you unique? So threw potatoes and flaked maize into the mash with the grain, which was a stout base, basically that just concluded clean fermentables.

"A small number of prawns were added to infuse a subtle briny foundation to the beer, reminiscent of an oyster stout. We also infused it with creole seasoning steeped in bourbon whiskey.

"This gave it a super savoury, complex, aroma and flavour, with top notes of fusel (warm) alcohol, which gave the impression of it being a higher alcohol beer."

Although he found out his beer won about a week after the event ended, the process of officially naming the species took about 16 months of going "through a lot of loops and a lot of hurdles".

"Usually you get a trophy, or pat on the back or a match paddle for winning things, but to actually get immortalised in scientific literature would be quite cool and a bit different.

"I've got bloody friends from all over the world, they saw it on ... the front page of The Guardian, 'Crustacean species named after brewery in New Zealand', which was quite cool, and they all thought 'that's probably f---in' Brayden', and it was, which was quite funny.

"I've had a heap of people messaged me over the last couple days after it's been officially announced."

The micro brewer champion said he was up for a new challenge and wanted to impress the congress with more than just a seafood-inspired name for his brew.

"I was all in on it. It was different, it was unique and it allowed me to kind of push the envelope, push the boundaries as to what I guess can be defined as a beer.

"I'd spoken to a lot of people about it and they were like, oh, yeah, you know, we're gonna do something, maybe just call the beer after a crustacean or I think someone did Mr Krabs from SpongeBob and stuff like that.

"And I was just like, nah ... I'm going to go like all in and I'm going to use crustacean in the beer."

Kareen Schnabel, another marine biologist from NIWA, said more than one creature, this time a deep-sea ghost shrimp, needed a name. The shrimp was named vulcanocalliax beervana as a nod to the crustacean beer competition's co-organiser, Ryan McArthur, who also organises the annual Beervana festival.

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