Brave

Three Boys Gas NZIPA was originally brewed as a collaboration with Burkes and took third place at the 2021 Smiths IPA challenge.  Now Three Boys have got it into cans for a wider release in their Brewers Reserve series.  For an NZIPA the nose manages some strikingly American notes. Grapefruit and orange citrus, apricot and lychee with some spice and rosewater. The palate is packed with rich juicy malt, bittersweet red grapefruit and candied orange peel.  Great concentration of flavour precisely contained by a firm bitterness.  A superb reminder of just how good an all NZ-hopped IPA can be.

Brave Brewing — The Eye Of The Tiger

by | August 5, 2025 | Cover Story | 0 Comments

Just days before Brave Brewing won the Champion Brewery crown at the New Zealand Beer Awards, founder-brewer Matt Smith was wondering aloud about “imposter syndrome”. Talking to the Third Pint Theory podcast, Matt said that despite more than a decade of professional...
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Brave Brewing Triumph At NZ Beer Awards

by | August 3, 2025 | News | 0 Comments

Brave Brewing and their cult IPA, Tigermilk, roared the loudest at last night's New Zealand Beer Awards in Christchurch. Brave Brewing, from Hastings, won a swag of trophies — with the most important being the title of overall Champion New Zealand Brewery. Moments...
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Guinness 0.0 Set for Wider Distribution in NZ

by | August 1, 2025 | Features | 0 Comments

Guinness 0.0 — the hard-to-get non-alcoholic version of Guinness — will become more widely available in New Zealand from later this year. Lion is the official brewing and distribution partner of Guinness in New Zealand but has not been able to get its hands on a...
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Mean As Win for Mean Doses in West Coast IPA Challenge

by | July 31, 2025 | Cover Story | 0 Comments

Tiny Wellington brewery Mean Doses captured the 18th annual Malthouse West Coast IPA Challenge with their "no gimmicks" entry, The Scale of Mean. Mean Doses took out the coveted Golden Gumboots (gold spray paint, barely dried, as per tradition) last week — a big first...
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Ales On The Camino Trail

by | July 29, 2025 | Cover Story, Travel | 0 Comments

I’ve been a beer guy forever. I love the taste, the industry and the social connection of sharing a beer.  In the middle of Covid lockdown in Amsterdam in July 2020, I realised I didn’t love alcohol.  Well, that’s not the whole story — I didn’t like what I...
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Kegstar Picks Up Distressed Konvoy Kegs

by | July 25, 2025 | News | 0 Comments

Concerns about a shortage of kegs in New Zealand have been averted after Kegstar concluded negotiations to purchase their financially-stricken rival Konvoy Kegs. The two companies controlled the keg rental market in New Zealand and Australia until Konvoy went into...
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