Michael Donaldson reflects on the lessons from New Zealand’s biggest night in beer...

The recent New Zealand Beer Awards produced some intriguing data: a whopping 77% of entries got a Gold, Silver or Bronze medal. That’s a phenomenal result, as traditionally medal-winning beers have equated to around 50-55%.

It begs the question: are our beers getting better? The partial answer is: yes. The flip side is: are judges are more generous? Possibly.

And in-between those two options is whether breweries are more judicious in what they enter, putting in only those beers they know will do well and not wasting valuable cash on entering any old beer that’s lying around. The data supports this option.

Behemoth is a prime example. Last year they entered 52 beers, this year 26. Garage Project also entered fewer beers than normal. And Jason Bathgate, head brewer at McLeod’s (awarded Champion Medium-Sized Brewery), said he and his team went through a rigorous pre-entry process where only beers deemed good enough for at least Silver, in their opinion, would be entered.

All of these factors combined made for a busy medal-collecting night. It’s also the year that delivered more “perfect” results than any other in recent history. A whole bunch of breweries got medals with every beer they entered. Of those who won at least one Gold medal and entered 10 or more beers, there were seven breweries that had 100% percent records: Sprig + Fern (20/20), Parrotdog (20/20), Shining Peak (15/15), Panhead (14/14), Three Boys (12/12), Good George (12/12), and Bach (10/10).

While breweries are being more judicious in their entries, I also believe the quality of New Zealand beer continues to improve. As Jason Bathgate noted in my chat with him, we are blessed with
a number of judges who have excellent palates but are, as he described it, “hyper- critical” of any technical faults.

And every year, there are fewer and fewer “dud” beers entered into these competitions – and I speak from my experience as chair of judges for the New World Beer & Cider Awards. I’ve seen the quality in that competition rise every year. A decade ago, some entries were nigh on undrinkable as they were so fault-riddled.

There was a range of other highlights for me from this year’s NZ Beer Awards too. Sprig + Fern’s The G.O.A.T Doppelbock won a trophy for Amber & Dark Lager or Ale – it’s fast becoming one of New Zealand’s most-awarded beers alongside modern greats such as Panhead Port Road Pilsner, Three Boys Oyster Stout and Epic Armageddon. A barrel-aged version has just been released, which should be on every beer geek’s collectible list.

Mount Brewing knocked off a long- awaited huge achievement. They had a great 12 months leading up to the event, winning the Malthouse West Coast IPA Challenge in 2023 and the NZ Stout Challenge this year. They added a long- overdue Trophy to their collection with Shades of the Pacific, which won the Stout and Porter Trophy.

It was a special effort for Good George Virtual Reality Pale Ale to win the Trophy in the Low, No and Reduced Alcohol class given that it was a non-alc beer up against 2.5% competitors.

Kudos to Beer Baroness Slice of Heaven Hazy NZ IPA – it took out a big double this year: the New World Beer & Cider Awards Top 30 and a Trophy (for Hazy/Juicy Pale Ale); a feat also achieved by Sprig + Fern’s The G.O.A.T.

And Bach Brewing got a deserved reward for a year in which they have made some of the nicest New Zealand-hopped hazies, with Bungy Smuggler winning the Trophy for Hazy/Juicy IPA.

Of course, McLeod’s were the biggest winners on the night, scoring a competition-best of eight Gold medals, two style Trophies, the Champion Medium Brewery crown and the title of Champion Beer with Tropical Cyclone Double IPA. A huge effort from the Waipu crew.

Michael Donaldson is a Beer Writer of the Year, journalist and author

beernation.co.nz