Burkes Brewing Co. has won the Champion Award for New Zealand’s Best Beer at the Beer Awards 2021. 

The Tekapo brewery’s Unforgiven Porter was named best brew at the awards, which were held on Thursday night (Oct 21) in a mixture of socially distanced and virtual events around the country. 

After a hiatus in 2020 due to COVID-19, the Brewers Guild of New Zealand says it was impressed with the 839 entries it received for the 2021 Awards. These were from 72 companies and spanned 122 different style classes. The Juicy-Hazy category was the most hotly contested, with 130 entries, followed by Fruit & Flavoured with 119. 

“To receive this number of entries is a huge showing considering the impact that COVID has continued to have on our industry over the past two years,” said Guild Executive Director, Sabrina Kunz. 

New Zealand’s best breweries were named as Three Sisters Brewery (Micro), Altitude Brewing Co (Small), McLeod’s Brewery (Medium), and Garage Project (Large). 

Alibi Brewing, a microbrewery on Waiheke Island, won the title of Champion New Zealand Exhibitor, which recognises the New Zealand brewing business that exhibits the best range of beer overall in the competition. 

Industry figure, Dr Ron Beatson, received the Morton Coutts Award in recognition of his career dedicated to New Zealand’s hops and brewing industry. 95% of New Zealand’s commercial hop industry is based on research he pioneered, with the recently released Nectaron named after him. 

Despite COVID impacting the entry process and judge availability due to last minute Alert Level changes, the judging was wrapped up in two and a half days, led by Chief Judge, David Nicholls of DNA Brewery.    

 

Champion Award Winners  

Champion Micro Brewery - Three Sisters Brewery (Taranaki)  

Champion Small Brewery - Altitude Brewing Co (Queenstown)  

Champion Medium Brewery - McLeod’s Brewery (Waipu, Northland)  

Champion Large Brewery - Garage Project (Te Aro, Wellington)  

Champion New Zealand Exhibitor - Alibi Brewing (Waiheke Island)  

Champion New Zealand Manufacturer - bStudio (Napier, Hawke’s Bay)  

Champion New Zealand Beer - Burkes Brewing - Unforgiven Porter (Lake Tekapo, Mackenzie Country) 

 

Trophy Winners  

Boneface Brewing Company - International Lager - Outlaw  

Panhead Custom Ales - New Zealand Style - Port Road Pilsner  

Alibi Brewing Company - Amber/Dark Lager - Temná Zima  

The Emerson Brewing Company Ltd - British Ale - Emerson’s Bookbinder  

Garage Project Brewery - European Ale - Chance, Luck & Magic  

McLeod’s Brewery - Amber/Dark Ale - Harvest Moon Dark IPA  

Garage Project Brewery - International Pale Ale - Proper IPA  

Behemoth Brewing Company - Indian Pale Ale - Get Busy Hopping  

Waitoa Beer - Juicy/Hazy - Afterglow Hazy IPA  

Burkes Brewing Co - Stout & Porter - Unforgiven Porter  

Three Sisters Brewery - Wheat & Other Grain - Roses & Rivets  

Beer Baroness Brewing Company - Fruit & Flavoured - Dare to Diva  

Lion - Specialty & Experimental - Speights Mid Ale  

Kereru Brewing Company - Wood & Barrel Aged - Amberine  

 
Industry Award Winners  

Brewing Sustainability Award - Sawmill Brewery  

Beer Tourism Award - Moa Brewing Company - Moa Tap Room  

Beer Media Award - Alice Neville  

Morton Coutts Award - Dr Ron Beatson  

Packaging Award - Small Gods & Maltkult Brewing Co - The Satan Can Trilogy 

 W: Full results are available at brewersguild.org.nz/awards