Beervana’s ray of Sunshine

The Wellington weather may have tried to put a damper on proceedings, but inside Westpac Stadium this year’s Beervana went off big-time.

As is my habit, I attended only the first session on Friday afternoon - because it’s usually the least crowded and therefore affords me the maximum opportunity to catch up with a few brewers. In retrospect, I wish I’d been able to make it along to at least one more session. It was that good.

This year, for the first time, Beervana expanded to fill the entire circuit of the stadium. The extra space meant the stalls seemed less cramped together, and largely prevented the bottlenecks that have blighted previous events.

For me, Beervana is not about cramming as many weird and wacky beers as possible into a few short hours, but enjoying a few tasty drops while chatting with people. This year’s festival fulfilled on both counts and had a wonderful warm and friendly vibe. I bumped into many old friends and acquaintances and was introduced to several people who’d made the journey from the other Beervana – in Portland in Oregon.

Beer-wise, over the four plus hours I was in the stadium I probably tasted no more than a dozen - and several of those were shared with others. All bar one were tasty and well brewed. Although soured beers are very BEER much in vogue I elected not to visit the ‘‘Pucker Up’’ bar – my preference being to stop at small, brewery-run bars where I’m more likely to catch up with a brewer – but that’s where my favourite beer of the festival was served.

Mid-way through the afternoon, Moa brewer Dave Nicholls approached me, proffering his beer glass and challenging me to identify the style it contained. Given Dave’s penchant for soured beers, I wasn’t too surprised when my first sniff and subsequent sip revealed the complex, balsamic vinegar and sweet fruit signature of a wood-aged, West Flandersstyle red ale. Significantly paler and lighter in body than the classic Rodenbach, it was otherwise pretty much on the mark.

What did surprise me was when Dave revealed the source of the beer; Gisborne’s Sunshine Brewery. Rightly or wrongly, until that moment I’ve always regarded Sunshine as a somewhat staid regional brewer with conservative, largely unchallenging styles. How wrong I was.

Having spent time going through the company’s website, it’s clear Sunshine is on the move. These days you’ll find India pale ales, pumpkin ales, porters, and imperial stouts rubbing shoulders with the brewery’s well established Gisborne Gold and other tried and tested lagers.

Then there’s that Flanders-style not-so-red ale I tried at Beervana. According to the brewery’s website, Sunshine Grand Cru (six per cent) spent 15 months or so in a barrel before being released this month. A quick call to the brewery confirmed there were only two casks of the beer made and none has been bottled. That’s bad news for everyone except customers of The Beer Spot in Auckland and The Malthouse in Wellington, which have both secured rare kegs of the beer.

During our conversation, brewer Chris Scott told me future Sunshine releases will include two kettle soured fruit beers – one made with feijoa, the other with crab apples – and a barrel-aged pumpkin porter (around seven per cent) for Halloween.

Given Sunshine’s regular beers are transported offsite to Gisborne’s Harvest cidery for packaging, it may be some time before we see the brewery’s smaller-run barrel-aged and soured beers appearing in bottles. In the meantime, I’d suggest keeping an eye out for them on tap at specialist craft beer bars and filleries.

Cheers!