But on the bright side…

Opinion

4 Dec

At the end of a grim year for beer, with some big names in financial trouble, Michael Donaldson highlights some of the positives from our brewers...

Brewery of the Year: Sawmill. Not a single offering from Sawmill missed the mark this year. But you could say that about many breweries. I might be biased thanks to the numerous pints of their XPA that I’ve had after a round of golf at my home club, Titirangi. My wife swears by their Hazy IPA as her preferred go-to. Sawmill Nimble was an outstanding 2.5% breakthrough beer that I love to bits. I had a non-alcoholic Bare Beer when out for lunch and it was delicious. Their Riwaka fresh hop was an explosive flavour bomb… I could go on and on.

Objective Beer of the Year: How can I objectively pick a best beer? Well, I looked at gold medallists from the New Zealand Beer Awards (where 8 Wired’s Wild Feijoa Sour Ale was named the best beer); the New World Beer & Cider Awards Top 30 (where Lakeman Primate Pilsner was crowned champion); and the votes for Beer Hug’s Choicest Craft Beer box (where Behemoth Brain Smiles came out on top) and across those three events only one beer appeared in all three lists: McLeod’s Paradise Pale Ale.

Subjective Beer of the Year: Wilderness Russet Pinot Barrel-aged Flemish Red from Derelict Brewing Company in North Canterbury. It has layers of flavours – light balsamic acid quality, prune juice, apple skin, and with a ribbon of red wine running through it. Real depth and relatively sweet for the style, possibly from the 8% ABV.

Achievement of the Year: Garage Project winning a Silver Medal with Chance Luck & Magic 2020 in the Belgian-style sour category at the World Beer Cup. They only give out three medals at the WBC and it’s truly remarkable that a Kiwi brewery can be the second-best in such an esoteric category.

“Parrotdog Watchdog builds on what others have created in the non-alc space and refines it superbly.”

Innovator of the Year: Froth Tech’s discovery and isolation of Wilding yeast. Hard work, technical know-how and a little bit of luck all led Froth Tech to making a commercial batch of New Zealand’s first native brewing yeast.

Idea of the Year: I was super-impressed with what Colab Brewing created this year with their ‘Say It With Beers’ bespoke labelling offer. Other breweries are now jumping on this, but Colab were the first to nail the process and the customer interface.

Personality of the Year: Grant Caunter of State of Play. Grant is a force of nature in the non-alcoholic category, relentlessly pushing the message that abstinence doesn’t need to mean missing out on great flavour.

On that note…

Non-alc Beer of the Year: Parrotdog Watchdog builds on what others have created in the non-alc space and refines it superbly. Brilliant beer.

Quote of the Year: “Beer is like ice cream. When Goody Goody Gum Drops came out, I thought ‘That’s wild, crazy’ and now you only have to walk past a Duck Island store and see the weird and wonderful things that are being done with ice cream flavours. There’s a real parallel between ice cream and beer.” – Bruce Turner of Urbanaut.

Style of the Year: Move over Cold IPA and make way for West Coast Pilsner. In the past few years, (possibly as a contrast to hazies) old school IPA has been getting leaner and cleaner, with the malt base pared right back to allow modern hopping techniques to showcase the flavour and aroma of hops. With the melding of pilsner-style malts to IPA hopping regimes, West Coast Pilsner is the natural endpoint of that trend. It’s a beer style you will see a lot of this summer.