Home brew boom
When a slightly off-beat idea went “nuts” Tim Ward knew he was on to a winner. Ward, the brewer-owner of Lower Hutt’s Abandoned Brewery, has created a unique home brew competition in which brewers are given the same set of ingredients work with – in this case his New...
Core Competencies: in search of NZ’s best core range beers
A frequent topic of discussion here at Beer Jerk Towers is “which New Zealand brewery has the best core range?” While it’s often easy to get sucked into the cycle of new releases and exciting experiments that keep us on our toes, core range beers have the advantage of...
Search is over
Along with half of Auckland, I recently escaped the hustle and bustle and made my way down to picturesque Queenstown. People usually associate Queenstown with snow-capped mountains, Instagrammable hot tubs and burgers, but I was determined to uncover another layer...
Capital Diary: Going to the Dogs
In early August I had only just started re-indulging in craft beer again when the spectre of another lockdown started circling. Luckily, on the night we went back to Level 2 I had a booked a beer club night at the Waitoa Social Club on Victoria Street, so were able to...
Art For Beer’s Sake
With the growing popularity of craft beer in New Zealand, we have also seen a change in the way our beer fridges look. No longer are beer fridges shades of green and brown, they now resemble the walls of art galleries full of delicious pieces of art waiting to be...
DB Withdraws from capital
Tuatara is closing it’s Third Eye brewpub in Wellington. It means DB, owner of Tuatara, won’t have a presence in the Craft Beer Capital after closing Black Dog earlier this year.
Old Faithful
Do you ever think back to moments in your life and ponder just how defining it has been? I liken my first real “craft beer” experience to what I imagine happened the first time Richie McCaw picked up a rugby ball and ran with it. Obviously, McCaw went on to having an...
Lost in description
I am amazed by the creativity of brewers and their marketing teams when it comes to beer names. None of their name creations surprise me anymore and many put a smile on my face, like ‘Puddle Jumper’ (a New England IPA from Alibi Brewing) or ‘Fuzzy Cuzzy’ (an IPA by...
Full noise In Dunedin
No other New Zealand city does history and heritage like Dunedin. Former banks and insurance company buildings are stately reminders of Victorian-era prosperity, and the 19th-century warehouses used to store lamb and wool before export also add a northern European...
A fault by any other name …
If you read the news, you know there is a lot of faulted beer out there in the market. I understand I am not the first person to cynically suggest that beer quality is down the list of priorities when releasing a beer to market. It seems to me that cool labels, funny...
What came first? The Hipster or the beer
At some point in recent years, craft beer became a pillar of hipster culture. The adoption of craft beer by the hipster is a contentious issue for some people, who claim that craft brewing is under siege from a group of snobbish, insatiable, self-proclaimed...
Sunshine Black Biere de Garde (6%)
Brewed with black malts to give a dark twist on a Biere de Garde, before being aged in ex-pinot noir barrels from Framingham winery. Rich and sweet on the nose, banoffee pie up front tempered by a savory, smoky char from the barrel further in. The palate is dry and...
