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Local breweries have won big in the annual New Zealand Beer Awards held last month, with a swag of awards, trophies and medals for regional brews.
Leading the pack was Matakana’s Sawmill Brewery, which made it a hat trick by winning the Brewing Sustainability Award for the third time in succession, together with the Amber/Dark Lager Trophy for its The Doctor dark lager and 11 medals.
Waipu’s McLeod’s Brewery picked up the trophy for best International Pale Ale for its Paradise Pale Ale and several medals, including a gold for its Rauchbier in the popular Speciality & Experimental category.
Meanwhile, 8 Wired Brewing won a clutch of medals, including gold in three categories for its Mahu Lager in International Lager, Oude Imperial in European Ale and Hop Salad IPA in Juicy/Hazy. The Matakana-based brewer also picked up a silver medal for its 2% Lo-Fi low alcohol sour ale, the highest award made in the new No & Reduced Alcohol class.
There were more than 820 beers entered in 119 different categories and classes this year, all of which were sniffed, sipped and sorted over two days by a panel of 29 judges from NZ and Australia.
In the Brewing Sustainability award, judges praised Sawmill Brewery for having a systems approach to sustainability across all aspects of their business.
“They continue to learn, improve and demonstrate innovation,” they said. “Their local community involvement is commendable.”
The judges also commented that they would be keen to see Sawmill share more of its learning and innovations with the wider industry.
Brewery owner Kirsty McKay said afterwards that was something they were happy to do, and they were considering an open day for others in the industry. She also thought some kind of industry-wide information sharing platform would be a good idea.
“We’re always saying to people if there’s anything they want to ask or if they want to come and see us, they’re more than welcome,” she said. “We’re happy to answer questions and try to be as transparent as possible.”
She said the team was incredibly proud to win the award for the third time in a row and it was a reflection of how fundamental being sustainable at all levels was to the brewer.
“Sustainability is not a compromise in running a successful business,” she said. “From an operational perspective it requires a huge focus on efficiency, which makes us a much stronger business. It also makes us a better employer and ultimately of more value to our community.”
McKay said Sawmill was currently working on a project with the Energy Efficiency Conservation Authority (EECA) to improve efficiencies in the brewery, such as finding ways to capture and reuse the large quantities of carbon dioxide produced during the brewing process. There are also plans to capture methane from the brewery’s wastewater treatment system.
McKay said some of the sustainability systems Sawmill had implemented could easily be adopted by other food and drink businesses.
“I always think we’re a manufacturer and there are thousands of other manufacturers out there, so there are lots of opportunities to share challenges, solutions and information,” she said.
