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. 

Forkin’ Big Win for Little Wellington BrewPub

by | October 9, 2024 | Cover Story | 0 Comments

Brayden Rawlinson, sole brewer at Wellington brewpub, Fork & Brewer, celebrated his recent win at the NZ Brewers Guild Awards in August, nabbing 11 medals and the title of Aotearoa’s Champion Microbrewery.  He took time out from a brewery-hopping jaunt in Europe...
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McLeod’s On Cloud Nine

by | October 9, 2024 | Cover Story | 0 Comments

It’s a tough choice for Jason Bathgate — is he happier with McLeod’s winning the Champion Medium Brewery title or Tropical Cyclone winning the Champion Beer at the New Zealand Beer Awards in August? After just a brief pause, he’s matter of fact: “I’d have to say the...
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Instagratification: Dusty’s best of the latest releases

by | October 8, 2024 | Opinion | 0 Comments

Photographer, beer-lover and Instagram influencer Dusty, picks his highlights from the latest releases CANYON BREWING TO CENTRAL WITH LOVE Take a seat — this one is a ride! To Central With Love is a barrel-aged pinot noir wild ale, an all Central Otago colab, ft...
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Parrotdog’s Core Range Rolling In Gold

by | October 4, 2024 | Cover Story | 0 Comments

The retraction in the beer economy over the past two years has an upside for Parrotdog — better beers. The Lyall Bay outfit won the Champion Large Brewery at the recent NZ Beer Awards, claiming two trophies, four gold medals and a 100 per cent success rate, with 20...
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Urbanaut Atlanta Bright IPA

by | September 25, 2024 | Recommended | 0 Comments

It seems 2024 is turning into of the ‘year of the bright IPA’ with phenomenal releases rolling out one after the other, many of them in super affordable multi-packs too.  Atlanta Bright IPA is the very latest, from Auckland's Urbanaut.  Powered by the classic trio of...
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Searchlight Shining Bright in Queenstown

by | September 25, 2024 | Travel | 0 Comments

Nestled away in Industrial Place just outside the bustle of Queenstown’s CBD is Searchlight Brewery. The independently owned and operated brewery was first started as a passion project in 2015, with doors opening to the public in 2018 – it’s since changed hands to...
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Trouble Brewing in Margaret River

by | September 18, 2024 | Features | 0 Comments

This is the contentious story of how craft beer forced its way into a premium wine hotspot in Western Australia — and the Kiwi brewing engineer at the centre of it all. What happened in Margaret River, 270km south of Perth, was a stand-off between winemakers and...
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Badass Beverages Out But Not Down

by | September 13, 2024 | News | 0 Comments

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

by | September 6, 2024 | News | 0 Comments

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...
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Duncan’s Drop The Lactose For Vegan Beer

by | September 4, 2024 | News | 0 Comments

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...
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The Beer Project — Karamu Barrelworks

by | August 28, 2024 | Features | 0 Comments

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

by | August 27, 2024 | Recommended | 0 Comments

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...
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Fermented Culture – A Moment of Communion

by | August 27, 2024 | Opinion | 0 Comments

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...
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Craft Reaches New Heights at Broken River

by | August 20, 2024 | Features | 0 Comments

With news of brewers and premises in strife seemingly now a daily headline, it’s with some relief that I find myself writing about one reaching new heights. The Broken River Ski Club recently completed upgrades to its hospitality offering at 1600m, making it one of...
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Instagratification: Dusty’s Winter Warmers

by | August 20, 2024 | Opinion | 0 Comments

Photographer, beer-lover and Instagram influencer Dusty, rounds up a bevvy of winter warmers 8 Wired X Pinta Crumbs if there's one dark brew you should deep dive into this winter, or this year even, it's Crumbs, a 10% imperial cookie stout, a global colab featuring 8...
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Pacific Coast In Liquidation

by | August 16, 2024 | News | 0 Comments

Pacific Coast — the Mangawhai brewery that opened last year to great fanfare — is in liquidation. It’s a little bit complicated because the business that went into liquidation is called Vanderlay Industries and it owns the brewery/production side of the Pacific Coast...
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Dylan Adams — Two Breweries, Two Liquidations

by | August 13, 2024 | Features | 0 Comments

For a few days in June, Dylan Adams thought he was cursed. He’d lost his job as lead brewer when Deep Creek went into liquidation last year. He soon picked up a new gig, as head brewer at Brothers Beer — but 11 months later he was looking at unemployment again when...
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We’re Goin’ To Jackson Street

by | August 9, 2024 | Features | 0 Comments

Food-centric Jackson Street — the thumping main artery heart of vibrant Petone — is now officially a craft beer destination™. For those who don’t know it, Petone is the fulcrum between the capital and Hutt Valley — not quite Welly, not too Hutty — and always with a...
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Parrotdog End Garage Project’s Reign at NZ Beer Awards

by | August 4, 2024 | News | 0 Comments

Recent history was turned on its head at the NZ Beer Awards in Auckland last night with Parrotdog usurping Garage Project as the country's champion large brewery, and McLeod's ending Behemoth's reign in the medium-sized category. Three Boys, for the second time in...
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Liberty Brewing Win Third Malthouse WCIPA Challenge

by | August 2, 2024 | Features | 0 Comments

Liberty Brewing won their third Malthouse West Coast IPA Challenge title claiming the Golden Gumboots with God of War (6.9%). Another three-time winner Epic, were second with Atari Baby (6.7%) while Brave Brewing were third with Dreamcast (6.5%); and the much...
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