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. 

Brothers Beer Mighty Quinn Quadruple IPA

by | October 21, 2026 | Recommended | 0 Comments

How strong is too strong? Opinions differ, but for my part I believe that if you want to go nuts, then you should go nuts.  Usually this means brewing a double, or even triple IPA, but not to Auckland’s Brothers Beer, who have well and truly gone nuts with their 13.5%...
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Panhead Six Splitter WCIPA

by | October 21, 2026 | Recommended | 0 Comments

Even without the proximity to the Malthouse WCIPA Challenge, it feels like we’ve been feasting (or sipping, at least) on vastly more West Coast style IPA than usual these last few months.  Even I haven’t had the opportunity to try them all (yet), but as I’ve been...
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Renaissance Black The RIPA

by | October 21, 2026 | Recommended | 0 Comments

Black IPAs are few and far between these days, almost to the point that one could credibly call it something of a ‘retired’ style, but I’m always glad to see the odd one now and then to give some contrast in the IPA space. Black The RIPA from Renaissance is doubly...
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Lakeman Rogue HoG

by | October 21, 2026 | Recommended | 0 Comments

Taupo’s Lakeman has been revving their IPA engine again with another slot in the recently announced New World Beer & Cider Awards Top 25 (and not their only one either), for this West Coast style IPA. Classically styled, with assertive pine and pithy grapefruit up...
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Bach Brewing All Day Go

by | October 21, 2026 | Recommended | 0 Comments

Bach Brewing All Day Go, a vitamin fortified non-alcoholic pale ale, is the latest addition to their burgeoning (and wildly successful) non-alc range.  Seeing any beer that has been in any way ‘fortified’ with something chemical rather than culinary, always raises the...
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DNA Brewing Moulin Rouge

by | October 21, 2026 | Recommended | 0 Comments

Another release from the Malthouse West Coast IPA challenge, this time from Blenheim’s DNA Brewing. Spectacularly bright and sharp citrus led nose, with a distinctly herbal undertow of rosemary and thyme running underneath. The palate kicks off with big, pithy...
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8 Wired Gallus Scotch Ale

by | October 21, 2026 | Recommended | 0 Comments

Releasing a new Scotch Ale in New Zealand is a brave manoeuvre for two reasons.  Firstly, it’s an incredibly niche style, and secondly, the very few core range editions (Renaissance’s Stonecutter first amongst them) are so good and so belligerently consistent,...
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Behemoth Lid Ripper

by | October 21, 2026 | Recommended | 0 Comments

The newly packaged Behemoth Lid Ripper (now liddier, and rippier) has been doing the Instagram rounds recently, but rather than pile on there just to keep my free beer status up to date, I’ll take a more critical look at both the IPA and whether there’s any benefit to...
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My Life In 5 Beers — Jason Bathgate

by | September 21, 2026 | Cover Story | 0 Comments

I grew up in Vermont, a little state in New England, USA. A breadbasket of amazing food and beer. As a young man though it was mostly Canadian or US big-brand-lager-crap. Once I started my culinary journey in the late 80s, I began exploring beer, which has so much...
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Small & Perfectly Foamed

by | September 17, 2026 | Cover Story, Opinion | 0 Comments

The year is 1850-something. Karl Marx, Edgar Bauer, and Wilhelm Liebknecht are on a pub crawl down London’s Tottenham Court Road. In one public house, by now full of ale, they clash with the fraternal order of Odd Fellows. The clash turns to high jinks on the streets,...
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Brewing Up A Storm In ‘Chiefs Country’

by | September 14, 2026 | Cover Story | 0 Comments

Their team might have been thrashed in the Super Rugby final but brewers from Chiefs' country were the big winners at the NZ Beer Awards, turning the tables on their rivals from the capital by eight trophies to one. And frankly, it could have been 10 to one if we play...
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Riding Auckland’s City Ale Link

by | September 10, 2026 | Cover Story | 0 Comments

The City Rail Link has been Aotearoa’s biggest infrastructure project. Aucklanders have got used to the city centre being a mess of dug-up streets, barriers and road cones for what seems like decades. But over recent months, excitement has been building as the...
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The Hoptimist — Double Vision Brewing

by | September 9, 2026 | Features | 0 Comments

How do you connect an all-terrain stroller with Double Vision Brewing’s Expatriate American Pale Ale? Well… it’s not exactly written in the Phil & Teds instruction manual, but the answer involves four workmates: Mario, Warren, Evarn and Harry — proof that...
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Urbanaut install bodyguard against ‘silent killer’

by | September 9, 2026 | Features | 0 Comments

Urbanaut Brewing in Auckland are the first craft brewery to install a LogiCO2 carbon dioxide monitoring system to protect staff and patrons against a “silent killer”. Urbanaut founder Bruce Turner said CO2 monitoring was on his to-do list when he started the brewery...
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Shining Peak Shining Bright Three Years Running

by | September 9, 2026 | News | 0 Comments

You have to go back to 2023 to find the last time Shining Peak missed a medal at the New Zealand Beer Awards. The champion small brewery — for the third time in four years — scored a perfect 20 out of 20 medals at the 2026 event. It was the most medals won by a...
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Pilsners Power to Podium

by | September 8, 2026 | Features | 0 Comments

The two best competition beers in New Zealand this year are pilsners — and two absolute classics. Curiously they both come from craft breweries under the Lion umbrella, and they both use Riwaka hops (of course). What they also have in common is the way they push the...
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Garage Project Buy bStudio

by | September 4, 2026 | News | 0 Comments

Wellington's Garage Project have bought bStudio in Napier, moving from client to owner. It is a massive investment as bStudio — housed in the landmark National Tobacco Company building in Ahuriri — is one of the largest breweries in the country. It features a...
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Instagratification: Dusty’s Best of Winter

by | August 31, 2026 | Opinion | 0 Comments

Photographer, beer-lover and Instagram influencer Dusty, picks his highlights from the latest releases. Aliment X Froth Waimarama Wilding ale Waimarama Wilding Ale is a 5.8% colab ft Aliment Brewing x Froth Tech & Nelson's Brook Waimarama Sanctuary. Just wow! A...
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Port Road Pilsner Supreme Winner At NWBCA

by | August 24, 2026 | News | 0 Comments

The 2026 New World Beer & Cider Awards have been announced with Panhead's Port Road Pilsner named the supreme winner. It's a welcome return to the awards stage for this beer — for a number of years it was an annual inclusion in this event (and a regular gold...
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Hop Growers Start Their Own Brewery

by | August 10, 2026 | News | 0 Comments

New Zealand’s newest brewery belongs to one of our most prominent hop growers. Cultivar Brewing, owned by Mac Hops, is taking over the site previously home to Hop Federation and will be run by hop farmer Brent McGlashan alongside his wife Ria. Former Hop Federation...
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