Garage Project Snug

Garage Project’s application of nitro tech could lead to very exciting things for dry stouts like this, as well as malt driven beers generally.  Snug is deeply roasty on the nose with burned malt, toasted coconut and mocha.  The palate has the full spectrum of malt flavour on blast, starting with sweet toffee and finishing all the way over in the bitterest black, which gradually burns off over the long finish.  Despite the intensity of flavour and ferocity of the bitterness, the body stays light and crisp.  Not just another Guinness-a-like, this handily beats the old Irish favorite in my opinion, having vastly more flavour with only a 0.8% hike in ABV compared with the Irish benchmark. 

Beers Of The Year 2025

by | December 15, 2025 | Cover Story | 0 Comments

There were some standouts and commonalities when the Pursuit of Hoppiness team compiled their beers of the year for 2025. An overwhelming favourite was Emerson's Pride of The Plains Pilsner, the 30th anniversary rebrew of the genre-defining NZ-style pilsner that...
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Three Sisters Expand Into Wellington

by | December 12, 2025 | Cover Story | 0 Comments

New Plymouth brewery Three Sisters is expanding into Wellington, taking over the site that was once home to Black Dog brewery in Blair Street. It's a massive step for a small provincial brewery but comes with the support of their shareholders and off the back of a...
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Mr Good Bar — Epic Taproom

by | December 11, 2025 | Travel | 0 Comments

After a while, being Mr Good Bar has become a little like living a replay of Groundhog Day, the Bill Murray movie that famously celebrates repetition. And I mention that because making a professional habit of visiting various of the nation’s small army of brew bars...
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An Epic 20 Years

by | December 11, 2025 | Cover Story, Features | 0 Comments

Achieving two decades in craft brewing is a titanic feat for any producer, but few (it could be argued none) have been as formative a presence in the New Zealand industry as Epic Beer. Epic and its founder Luke Nicholas were not just at the forefront of the glory and...
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Instagratification: Dusty’s Best Summer Beers

by | December 9, 2025 | Opinion | 0 Comments

Photographer, beer-lover and Instagram influencer Dusty, picks his highlights from the latest releases. Eddyline Weizen Shine Hefeweizen Eddyline have summer in a glass with their 5% Weizen Shine Hefeweizen. All the usual suspects here: banana, clove, lemon &...
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Renaissance Takes Over Kaiapoi Site From Chinchiller

by | December 5, 2025 | News | 0 Comments

Renaissance has taken over the brewery in Kaiapoi that was previously home to Chinchiller and, before that, Eagle Brewing and Five Peaks. It's the third home for Renaissance, which started in Blenheim in 2005 before moving to Christchurch under new owners Brandhouse,...
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Beer Festivals — Your Guide To What’s On In Early 2026

by | December 2, 2025 | Travel | 0 Comments

There are plenty of beer festivals popping up around the country this summer. Here is a run-down on the main festivals coming up in the first part of 2026. Saturday, 31 January 2026 — Great Kiwi Beer Festival at Hagley Park, Christchurch...
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Three Boys Sold

by | December 1, 2025 | News | 0 Comments

Three Boys, one of New Zealand's most important craft breweries and a two-time champion brewery, is in new hands after being sold. The brewery, founded by Ralph Bungard and his wife Brigid Casey, is now owned by the head brewer Damian Treacher and his business...
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Bach Brewing Polygamy Pilsner

by | December 1, 2025 | Recommended | 0 Comments

Summer heat has now well and truly arrived so it’s time to crack out the Pilsner. Bach Brewing's Polygamy (maybe one of the weirdest naming decisions ever) Pilsner is a re-brew of one of Bach Brewing’s early beers, a Bohemian style Pilsner called Czechmate (itself a...
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Hop Federation Saved — Bought by DNA

by | November 28, 2025 | News | 0 Comments

Hop Federation has been saved. After the brewery was shuttered by previous owners Kono just a couple of months ago, Hop Federation will live on after Blenheim’s DNA Brewing stepped in and bought the brand. https://hoppiness.co.nz/hop-federation-closing-down It’s a...
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Parrotdog Go Public

by | November 28, 2025 | News | 0 Comments

In one of the biggest signs that craft beer is now a mature business, punters can buy and sell shares in Parrotdog on the open market via a new trading platform called Catalist. There hasn't been a publicly listed brewery in New Zealand since Moa's inglorious NZX...
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Festival check: Dunedin Craft Beer and Food Festival

by | November 14, 2025 | Opinion | 0 Comments

A Wellington reader made the trip down south last Friday to attend the festival and filed this report. Arrival experience: The festival is held each year at Forsyth Barr Stadium in the centre of Dunedin. It was an easy 10 minute walk through the grounds of the...
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Wigram Mustang Pale Ale

by | November 12, 2025 | Recommended | 0 Comments

Christchurch’s Wigram Brewery recently hosted an event to pay tribute to the late Paul Cooper, one of the founding fathers of New Zealand craft brewing.  It was a quiet afternoon, but the amount of living history (and a few living fossils) in that bar could have...
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Two Thumb SMASH IPA Series #1

by | November 12, 2025 | Recommended | 0 Comments

From Christchurch City’s Two Thumb Brewing Company, S.M.A.S.H (single malt and single hop) is the first release in a new series of IPAs featuring a single malt paired with a similarly singular hop. Version one (5.5%) is an all-Canterbury duo, combining Gladfield...
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Farewell To A Brewing Legend — Paul ‘Coops’ Cooper

by | October 30, 2025 | Features | 0 Comments

Before the internet, before Google, YouTube and AI, and before craft beer became a global movement, there was Richard "Paul" Cooper — or as everyone in the brewing world knew him, “Coops”. A scientist, engineer, brewer, and all-round innovator, Coops was among the...
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Brothers Beer Mad Science #2 IPA

by | October 29, 2025 | Recommended | 0 Comments

Mt Eden’s Brothers Beer invites us to taste the future with Mad Science #2 — a new trial hopped IPA. Amongst the first generation of commercially-released beers to use the latest clutch of trial hops (NZH-111, NZH-112 and NZH-115 variously) from the NZ Hops Ltd's...
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Competition Watchdog Blocks Kegstar’s Acquisition of Konvoy

by | October 24, 2025 | News | 0 Comments

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has blocked MicroStar’s proposed acquisition of keg lending rival Konvoy. MicroStar, which operates as Kegstar in Australia and New Zealand, and Konvoy are the only suppliers of keg leasing services in this...
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Boneface Brewing Deadlift Double IPA

by | October 22, 2025 | Recommended | 0 Comments

I’ve said it before, but if you want to precision test a brewery then ask for a double IPA. Everything has to work harder; the ferment, the grain selection, the hops and (in particular) the conditioning.  As the ABV speedo climbs above seven, only the most precisely...
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Thief Brewing Frog Wallop IPA

by | October 22, 2025 | Recommended | 0 Comments

Thief Brewing continues to prove that there’s IPA in them thar hills of Banks Peninsula, adding this West Coast style to the range.  West Coast by way of New Zealand anyway, being driven by Nelson Sauvin, Rakau and NZ grown Chinook.   The...
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Double Vision x Baan Bangkok Thunder Struck Triple IPA

by | October 22, 2025 | Recommended | 0 Comments

The method by which I pick a beer to feature here every week is extremely loose, but usually there’s an equation that balances between ‘interesting’ ‘relevant’ and ‘good’.  Sometimes, one of those spokes dominates to such an extent that the others cease to...
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