Beer awards top 30 now on show
The top 30 brews from among 600 entered in the annual New World beer awards are now on show at the chain’s 140 stores. And, for the first time, one has been declared “champion”. It is Lakeman Primate pilsner.
Lakeman, depicted on packaging by a hairy “yeti”, was set up on a farm at Taupo 10 years ago after farmer James Cooper, who knew nothing about brewing, tipped his first three batches down the drain. He now employs a brewer who produces more than a dozen labels.
The top 30 beers will be featured in store for the rest of the month. It is the only time many of the small breweries’ brews are available outside their region. The next best 70 are highly recommended and are listed on the supermarket website.
Otago Brew School, on Otago Polytechnic’s Cromwell campus, is the only southern brewery to make the list with its Klassenbester Dunkleweizen dark wheat beer, which won silver at last year’s Brewers Guild Awards. (Its Hidden Number pale ale bronze at the Brewers Guild Awards is on the highly recommended list.)
The school’s beers are available at the brewery at the start of the road to Bannockburn, but the next batch of Dunkleweizen will not be available from there until after King’s Birthday weekend.
One zeroalcohol beer, Asahi’s Super Dry 0.0%, made it on to the top 30 (Bavaria 0.0 Wit was highly recommended). Other noncraft brews on the list are Macs Gold, Monteiths Tight Lines pale ale, Steinlager Pure and Tiger Ultra Low Carb.
Among the stouts/porters are Burkes Brewing Unforgiven porter (for the second successive year), Spring and Ferns Norty Porter, 8 Wired’s Baltic Smoked Porter (9.7%) and Bootleg Belgian chocolate rum stout (12%).
Highly recommended southern brews are Emerson’s London Porter, Old 95 English ale and Reverb NZ IPA and Wanaka’s Rhyme and Reason Happy Pils.
Among world’s best
Garage Project is the latest New Zealand brewery to gain prominence at the World Beer Cup. Its Chance, Luck and Magic spontaneously fermented Belgian sour (2020) has won a silver medal at the awards in the
Only southerner . . . Otago Brew School’s Klassenbester Dunkleweizen is the only southern beer to make New World’s top 30.
United States.
The beer was the champion brew at last year’s New Zealand Beer Awards and is no longer available, but the 2012 version is (at $55 for 750ml).
More than 10,000 beers from 2300 breweries from 51 countries were entered.
Three New Zealand beers have previously gained silver medals: Garage Project for a barrelaged porter in 2016, Monteiths Black in 2000 and Speight’s Triple Hop in 2014, while Cassells produced the best milk stout in 2019 and 2020 and best pale ale in 2021.
Clever (for a change)
The rationale for a lot of names on beer labels is often lost on all but those who thought them up. But the latest, by Gisborne’s Sunshine Brewery, is an exception.
Profits from sales of its Gabriale Americanstyle red IPA go to a farming recovery fund for those affected by Cyclone Gabrielle.
I was thinking of flavours I like to enjoy with feijoas and I also wanted cake! I decided to add them all together and came up with this very delicious loaf, which was so good that next time I make it I will serve it up as a grand dessert. 5 (300g) feijoas, peeled and small dice 80ml honey
30g raw cane or brown sugar
2 large eggs
150g raw cane sugar
225g unsweetened yoghurt 1⁄2 cup oil
190g flour
2 tsp baking powder
1⁄2 tsp salt
Preheat oven to 170degC.
Lightly grease and line a 20cm × 13cm loaf tin with baking paper.
Place the honey and first measure of sugar into a small saucepan and heat gently to dissolve the sugar.
Add the diced feijoas and stir to coat. Pour into the base of the loaf pan to cover the base,
In a large mixing bowl, whisk the eggs with the sugar until well combined. Whisk in the yoghurt and oil until well combined.
Sieve in the dry ingredients and gently fold through.
Pour the batter over the sticky feijoas.
Bake on the second shelf up from the bottom of the oven for 4045 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the centre of the cake.
Cool in the tin for 15 minutes before turning upside down to cool.
Will last for three days.