Garage Project Tiny But Mighty

Light IPAs have made great strides in the past few years, but a truly alcohol-free example that still drinks well has always seemed like an impossible target.  But this year some brewers have finally begun to make the breakthrough.  The aroma in this sub-0.5 per cent offering is superb, with a Mosaic-led assembly of zesty lemon lime citrus overlaying more pungent tropical and gooseberry notes.  The flavour kicks off with more punchy citrus and a slight (but undeniably present) clean malt.  The flavours move along at a pace too, which is important.  The high velocity of the mouthfeel, allows it to skip over the mid-palate void where these beers usually collapse, and skip straight into the pleasantly full tropical finish. It then levels out and wraps up nice and clean.  It can’t 100 per cent emulate an IPA with a conventional malt base, but it’s a huge step forward from many past examples.

Boneface Brewing Deadlift Double IPA

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...

Thief Brewing Frog Wallop IPA

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...

Double Vision x Baan Bangkok Thunder Struck Triple IPA

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...

Behemoth Chur-Toberfest 2025

Every year more of our local craft brewers don the lederhosen and kick out a kiwi version of a Munich Festbier.  Historically, the results have been mixed… NZ malt and even more so our hops just don’t mesh well with the peerlessly smooth, crisp and understated...

New Zealand’s Most Awarded Beers

It was Stay Gold that started this … the Brave Brewing XPA that won a trophy in the International Pale Ale class at this year’s New Zealand Beer Awards. I was looking back through the records and realised it was the fifth gold medal that beer had won, and I started to...

Slow Walk Through Paradise — Visiting Every Brewery in NZ

There’s something about beer that’s always been part of my story. From the early days of sneaking sips of Lion Brown at my dad’s feet and walking around the house with my ‘beer mou’, to the $2 jugs of Joseph Kuhtze Lager at the Southern Cross Tavern during University...