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 medals from 20 beers.

The perfect return on the medal count and the fact that three  of their four gold medals went to popular core range beers meant a lot to lead brewer Matt Warner.

 “The growth in consistency and quality is the result of huge efforts in the past two years,” he said.

Until the recent economic downturn, Parrotdog grew rapidly year-on-year thanks mainly to the hyper-success of Birdseye Hazy IPA.

Now, with the plateau in the wider industry, things have levelled, which has allowed them to catch up to themselves.

“That high growth meant that process refinement and things like equipment maintenance took a back seat, so maybe we weren’t quite hitting the super-high quality we might otherwise hit,” Warner says.

“This year’s success is a reflection of the past two years of stable volumes — it’s meant there’s been more focus on refinement, consistency and quality.”

Parrotdog don’t make the huge numbers of different products that some others do, so 20 entries represented their entire available production. And in a year when other breweries were more judicious in their entries, Parrotdog put in more than last year.

“It was everything we had. I don’t remember discarding anything that was available at the time. We only entered 16 last year and increased our entries by four when others seemed to be going the other way. We just put in each beer on its own merits.”

Warner said getting a 100 per cent success rate was almost on a par with winning two trophies and the champion large brewery title.

“I don’t believe we’ve had 100 per cent in the past — so that was a huge effort, and it really does reflect the focus on quality, and across a range of styles too.”

That’s another thing about the past couple of years of stabilisation, they’ve been able to put more effort into limited-release offerings when the previous few years were consumed by core range growth.

His biggest buzz was Sundog Pilsner winning a trophy in the NZ-style Lager & Pilsner category.

“We’re super proud of that win. It’s very hard to win a trophy with a core range six-pack these days. You’re trying to hit a value proposition with six-pack beers so you don’t have licence to go as high with the cost of goods as you would with a 440ml limited release. So, to stick out is something that’s pretty special and that beer is a favourite amongst the brew team too.”

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Matt Warner, left, and managing director Paul Watson, right, celebrate the breweries success with their team.

Bitterbitch winning a gold medal was also rewarding.

“That always has some significance — as it was our first beer — and Falcon won a gold medal as well, so three core range beers getting gold medals is something we’re very proud of for those same reasons — that you’re in a somewhat limiting space of a six-pack beer going up against single 440ml cans that might have higher hopping rates.”

Bitterbitch has certainly stood the test of time over the past 13 years and Warner says one of the things that’s kept it at a high quality this year was the “privilege” of being able to do hop selection with NZ Hops Ltd.

“Doing hop selection means we’ve been able to dial in the consistency of that beer.

“It’s still our number two seller behind Birdseye, which is quite remarkable when you think of the malt – the copper colour of the beer and the malt structure — those are qualities that have faded away from the market in recent years, you don’t see those malty IPAs and pale ales any more. It’s great that it’s hung around and there seem to be some original drinkers who have stayed with it the whole way.

“And it seems to be our most anti-seasonal product — we have consistent volumes through most of the year, and I guess it’s the comforting nature of the malt structure through the winter and it’s refreshing enough in summer as well.”

The last time Parrotdog won a champion brewery crown was in 2018 — the first year the Brewers Guild went to a tiered system of micro, small, medium and large breweries. Parrotdog won the medium brewery title that year — a result that sparked wild celebration from their table.

Six years on — not quite half Parrotdog’s lifespan — the 2024 celebration was more contained, which is a reflection of how the business has matured in that period.

“There was a bit more of a grown-up vibe to accepting it, while still being humbled by it in the same way,” Warner says.

“This win means a lot more to the organisation as a whole because there are so many more people involved now whereas back in 2018 that was a relatively small team and we were all involved in everything. Now that we have all these different layers to the organisation it means more to the business as a whole.”

And for those anxious to get a taste of the trophy-winning Cold IPA, Warner hopes to have it ready in November once all the core range summer brewing is in hand.