badass
With the flood of new beers on the shelves of our local retailers it’s easy to go past something that stands out from the rest.  Luckily for me I stumbled across this beauty of beer from the team at Abandoned Brewing.  I must admit I have limited knowledge about the brewery and the beers they produce, but after sampling their hazy pale ale you can now count me as a fan! After doing a little investigating I discovered that Abandoned Brewery is located in an old disused factory in Lower Hutt.  The remnants of an old brewery were left but the team pretty much started again from scratch.  Their branding really effective…put simply, it looks like they’ve got a plain white can and used crayons to create the text.  You won’t find any psychedelic, multi-layered brand campaign on these cans, they simply describe the style of beer you should expect, which is really effective! The beer itself is bloody good! Pour the can and you get this light honey coloured liquid with the gentlest haze.  Nectarine, peach and passionfruit aromas galore and mouthfeel that is best described as light and powdery! At 5 per cent ABV the beer really holds up its complexity, very easy drinking and totally smash-able. If you’re looking for a summer fridge filler then you shouldn’t go past this beer… it’s now top of my list!

Badass Beverages Out But Not Down

Start-up brand Badass Beverages is shutting up the shop with the brand for sale. On face value it’s a sad day because Badass did some cool things — and they were good people too. But, as co-founder Dave Pearce told me, he’s not “sad” it’s over, and he makes some...

I Am Hope Rejects Funding Over “Not For Pussies” Beer

Mental health charity I Am Hope has refused to take money from a boxing fund-raiser because a beer with the tagline “not for pussies” is being co-promoted alongside the event. Swordfish Mojo is a low-carb lager created by Matt Watson, the star of the ITM Fishing Show...

Duncan’s Drop The Lactose For Vegan Beer

New Zealand’s self-professed biggest user of lactose (milk sugar) in the brewing process is set to find new customers after creating a lactose-free, vegan-friendly smoothie sour. The use of lactose in dessert beers, ice cream sours, smoothie sours and milkshake IPAs...

The Beer Project — Karamu Barrelworks

It's a magical drive into Karamu Barrelworks on Daryl Bryant's rural Waikato lifestyle block. The morning light softly filters through the trees he and his wife Lynette planted when they first moved onto the property. Vision, a bit of hard graft, followed by time has...

Sprig & Fern The G.O.A.T Doppelbock

Over the next wee bit I’ll be exploring the trophy winners from the recent New Zealand Beer Awards, starting with The G.O.A.T Doppelbock (7.9%) from Nelson brewing legends Sprig + Fern.  As the name implies, this is a beer with a long history of awards, including a...

Fermented Culture – A Moment of Communion

This column was pitched to me as a vehicle for me to reprise “The Grumpy Brewer” a character I played during lockdown that comedically allowed my frustrations with the world of beer and my general eccentricities out into the world. However I didn’t want to wallow in...