NZ Beer Awards

Winner of the ‘Wheat & Other Grain’ category at the 2021 Brewers Guild Awards.  Joe and Sarah Emans, the husband and wife team behind Three Sisters brewery, envisioned a beer in homage to the iconic World War 2 poster featuring Rosie The Riveter.  Pouring a strikingly auburn red, they’ve gotten that part right straight off the bat with this 8.4 per cent beauty.  Flavours of toffee malt, stewed stone fruit and that unmistakable rye spice are right there.  The full bodied palate begins with tart dried fruit, but quickly settles into a smooth, almost buttered pastry note.  As the firm bitterness takes hold of the finish the spice emerges in full, with nutmeg and allspice, leaving that signature warming sensation unique to rye heavy beers.  Big, bold and sumptuously satisfying.

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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Brothers Beer Limey B*Stard West Coast Pilsner

by | July 24, 2025 | Recommended | 0 Comments

Much as I may still suspiciously view the West Coast Pilsner style as the former (and I thought far more indicatively named) IPL style re-entering the market with a fake moustache and glasses, it does seem to be sticking around, and more importantly, producing good...
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