Shining Peak Gung Ho!
Last year, in a review I introduced the term “dankidy-dank” and Gung Ho! from Shining Peak deserves the same loving description!  Shining Peak have been smashing it out of the park recently and their entry in this year fresh hop line up is up there with the best! The beer itself is rather light and very clean which allows those big grassy characteristics to shine through.  The beer is nicely bittered, full of resins which leave your lips lovingly coated in oily goodness!  Gung Ho! now sits in number one position in my fresh hop ratings for 2022 — who will knock them off in the coming weeks?

Mean As Win for Mean Doses in West Coast IPA Challenge

by | July 31, 2025 | Cover Story | 0 Comments

Tiny Wellington brewery Mean Doses captured the 18th annual Malthouse West Coast IPA Challenge with their "no gimmicks" entry, The Scale of Mean. Mean Doses took out the coveted Golden Gumboots (gold spray paint, barely dried, as per tradition) last week — a big first...
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by | July 29, 2025 | Cover Story, Travel | 0 Comments

I’ve been a beer guy forever. I love the taste, the industry and the social connection of sharing a beer.  In the middle of Covid lockdown in Amsterdam in July 2020, I realised I didn’t love alcohol.  Well, that’s not the whole story — I didn’t like what I...
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Kegstar Picks Up Distressed Konvoy Kegs

by | July 25, 2025 | News, Cover Story | 0 Comments

Concerns about a shortage of kegs in New Zealand have been averted after Kegstar concluded negotiations to purchase their financially-stricken rival Konvoy Kegs. The two companies controlled the keg rental market in New Zealand and Australia until Konvoy went into...
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Brothers Beer Limey B*Stard West Coast Pilsner

by | July 24, 2025 | Recommended | 0 Comments

Much as I may still suspiciously view the West Coast Pilsner style as the former (and I thought far more indicatively named) IPL style re-entering the market with a fake moustache and glasses, it does seem to be sticking around, and more importantly, producing good...
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Winter Beer Selection — 20 Beers For The Colder Months

by | July 24, 2025 | Cover Story | 0 Comments

Looking for a beer to keep you warm during the winter months? We've got you covered with our Winter Beer Selection Emerson's Deaf By Chocolate 9% / $17.99 500ml bottle Richard Emerson loves it when his ears burn. It either means he’s being talked about, or he’s...
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Brewing Up Fun — Double Vision Brewing

by | July 23, 2025 | Features | 0 Comments

It all started when four friends, Mario, Warren, Evarn and Harry, decided to brew some beer together for fun. It soon got serious, leading to them building a brew bar in Miramar, just down the road from Weta, in 2018. Cash-poor, they did a lot of the work themselves....
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