Two Bays

This IPA was the winner of the International Pale Ale category (oops!) at the 2021 Brewers Guild Awards.  True to its name, along with NZ and US hops, Garage Project Proper Crisp IPA is partially the product of potato slices added to the mash.  Whether it’s the potatoes or some other confluence of magic, the aroma is strikingly bright and clear:  a drizzle of clover honey, with intensely lush and ripe fruit. Sweet orange citrus, passionfruit mango and banana skin follow.  Crisp, clean and rapid on the palate, with more sweet citrus and tropicals blooming briefly before being snapped back into place by the sharp bitterness.  Finishing short, dry and concise.  A profoundly clean and aromatic IPA of such a quality that we’ll surely see more experiments into potato additions further down the track.

Two Bays Widens NZ Gluten-Free Market

Just about anywhere you go to eat these days understands a large chunk of the population is gluten-free. You see GF beside dishes listed on menu and on packaged food in the supermarket. But until now, with a couple of long-standing exceptions, you didn’t see...

Brewer Becomes Co-Owner at Searchlight

Ash Hutchinson, head brewer from Searchlight in Queenstown, is now a co-owner of the business — and one of his first big jobs will be showcasing Searchlight to the wider world at Beervana this year. Ash has worked at some of the best breweries in the country:...

150 years of Speight’s

Speight's Brewery in Dunedin — New Zealand's oldest brewery — is celebrating its 150th birthday. It's quite the yarn, because it's a brewery that has risen, fallen, partly revived, fallen, risen and risen further. In celebrating the landmark birthday, owner Lion noted...

Altitude’s Trophy-Winning Attitude

Queenstown's Altitude Brewing are celebrating (another) stunning awards performance at the Australian International Beer Awards, held in Melbourne last night. They increased their haul from last year’s AIBAs — taking home three trophies and a swag of medals (20 in...

Bach Brewing Sticky Buds III

I’m far from ready to declare a favourite from this year's fresh hop season, but I surely have some contenders, and the third edition of Bach Brewing Sticky Buds (by way of Steam Brewing) is most definitely on the list.  Fresh Nectaron is the pick here, supporting a...

8 Wired Fresh Hopwired

It’s here… the full force of the fresh hop storm is upon us, and I find myself again in the (not so arduous) position of having vastly too many releases to choose from. So for this week’s feature, I’ll pick one that I’ve been most looking forward to reuniting with. ...