Brewers celebrate big awards
Last Monday new displays popped up in liquor departments at New World supermarkets across the country. These displays are of the gold medal winners from this year’s New World Beer & Cider Awards. I’d encourage you to make the effort to have a look.
Having now had a chance to look through the results, established names dominate the winners list. Of the 27 gold medals awarded, Hamilton’s Good George topped the list with three gold medals, a remarkable achievement. Meanwhile, Auckland-based Bach Brewing, Deep Creek, Mac’s and Dunedinbased Emerson’s each won two gold medals. Single gold medal winners included Three Boys, Hawke’s Bay Independent Brewery, mike’s, Galbraith’s. Congratulations also to Luke Nicholas of Epic, whose Armageddon IPA maintained its incredible run of gold medals and best-in-class wins.
Established brewers aside, as always I was keen to identify some of the beers I tasted during the final rounds of the judging from less well-known producers.
First, my congratulations go to Auckland brewer Adam Sparks. Having been awarded a gold medal last year (for Sparks Brewing Prospector Farmhouse Ale), he backed up that success by taking another gold medal and the best-inclass award in the stout, porter and black beer category.
Sparks Brewing Outlander Extra Stout (6.2 per cent) must be something special because my wife – a well-known connoisseur of robust, dark ales – gave it her seal BEER of approval when we shared a bottle last weekend. I was allowed just a single, tiny sip.
While I’m on the subject of stouts, although Auckland brewer Andrew Childs is best known for punchy, hop-driven pale ales, it was his Behemoth Triple Chocolate Milk Stout – a sweetish, caramel brew infused with vanilla, cacao nib and cocoa powder – that impressed the judges and earned him a gold medal in the specialty, experimental, aged and wood-aged category. Andrew describes the beer as ‘‘just like a chocolate milk shake, only beery’’.
That category’s best in class award went to one of the competition’s overseas-brewed winners. Petrus Aged Pale (7.3 per cent) is a delightfully complex marriage of soured (think earthy, leathery, citric) wood-aged Flanders red and brown ales from Brouwerij De Brabandere in Belgium.
Meanwhile, two imported Belgian-style strong dark ales headed the European-style ale category. The fruity, spicy (pepper, clove, coriander) and warming, Delirium Nocturnum (8.5 per cent) from Brouwerij Huyghe, narrowly pipping Hertog Jan Grand Prestige – a similarly fruity/spicy but even more luscious and headier (10 per cent) Belgian-style quadrupel from Eastern Holland.
Having recently relocated from Leigh to Matakana, Sawmill Brewery joined Good George and Parrotdog by winning a gold medal in the Pilsner category. Dry and lean, with lemon and lime notes from a trio of Kiwi hops (Nelson Sauvin, Motueka and Riwaka) over a honey-like malt base, Sawmill Pilsner is delightfully crisp, clean and quenching.
Further up the road, Vermonttrained chef-turned-brewer Jason Bathgate is fast putting Waipu on New Zealand’s beer map with a range of fine beers. A tricky style, which demands ultimate hop freshness and malt structure, Mcleod’s Tropical Cyclone Double IPA caught the attention of the judges who noted, ‘‘Great length, well-balanced, clean and juicy’’. Judging by the beers I’ve tasted since Jason’s arrival in Waipu, Mcleod’s is definitely one to watch.
In the flavoured ciders category, Zeffer Two Point Five – a low-alcohol cider infused with sunflower, rose, jasmine and calendula – was deemed by one judge ‘‘ethereal and elegant, harmonious and attractive’’ and took a gold medal. It was narrowly pipped for best-in-class by Good George Drop Hop Cider, which somehow manages to successfully marry the tart, tannic flavours of the base cider with juicy, resiny, passion fruit, mango and pine-like notes from hops.
And finally, a word of warning. Some of the winning beers and ciders from the awards are produced in very small batches, so won’t hang around on the shelves. My advice: buy them when you see them.
Cheers!