Beer – Fabulous local beers triumph

Envelope please. The annual New Zealand Brewers Guild awards were held in Christchurch earlier this month. This is the pinnacle of the New Zealand brewing industry and where breweries compete for the coveted title of Champion Brewery of New Zealand. All brewers submit their beers into various categories. A weekend or so before the awards, our most talented beer palates gather to sip, slurp, taste and ponder over the huge variety of styles, flavours and textures that our brewers large and small, and even those without physical breweries, have offered up.

Medals are awarded according to how a beer best fits the style guidelines laid down for each category. The highest scoring beer in each category takes home The Best in Class trophy. This year there was a phenomenal 964 beers entered in over 14 categories. The Champion Brewery title went to Wellington outfit Garage Project who have pushed the boundaries since their inception. Garage Project produce a large number of beers and submitted close to 40 beers for this year’s competition.

But there was an exceptionally strong showing by local breweries such as Sawmill, 8 Wired and McLeod’s. Matakana’s Sawmill Brewery finished with two Best in Class trophies and four Golds for their Weizenbock, Session IPA, Sawmill IPA and their wonderfully delicious Baltic Porter. The brewery also earned three Silver medals and two Bronzes plus an award for packaging. For Sawmill’s Mike Sutherland is was an extremely satisfying result and proves that they are going in the right direction with the beer and the brand. I’ll
drink to that!

Warkworth’s 8 Wired Brewery brought home a huge haul of twenty medals, including Gold for their barley wine Lord of the Atlas and I Stout Unchained. Several of their barrel-aged beers received Silver medals and their popular pale ale Tropidelic received a silver too.
Waipu based McLeod’s achieved four Golds and four Bronzes at this year’s awards and eight medals in total for 10 beers entered. Paradise Pale Ale, Chili Pils and Traders Scotch Ale all won Gold this year. McLeod’s Geoff Gwynne was rapt with the results: “Hey, at least we know we’re on the right track and making good beer, and it was great to see some other small independents achieve medals and trophies,” he says.

With over 30 medals coming into the region, three trophies and loads of great beers, the future is looking hoppy for the local industry. So next time you go for a beer try something local and back a winner.

Ian Marriott, Tahi Bar
www.tahibar.com