Sorting the wheat from the chaff
‘‘It’s got a real citrus character.’’
‘‘No malt backbone though.’’
Four glasses, each partly filled with a splash of amber liquid, are put back down on the table. The beer didn’t impress.
The four judges around the table stop to scribble down feedback and move on – there’s more beer waiting in the wings.
Sequestered in a room at Westpac Stadium, a couple of dozen brewers, tasters and beer nerds hunker down to weed out the best beers and ciders for the annual New World Beer and Cider Awards.
The tables of judges had to whittle down the 640 beers and ciders being poured to their top 50 or 60.
The field will be narrowed down again to a top 30, which will be stocked on New World shelves around the middle of this year.
Chairman of the independent judges Michael Donaldson is overseeing the blind judging process – the toughest thing for this group of judges is taking off their brewer’s hats and thinking about what kind of beers the public likes.
‘‘I overheard one of the brewers going, ‘This is a technically excellent beer’. And it was a really good example but in the words of someone else who was on the table, it’s a brutally bitter beer.’’
The judges work their way through each of the samples brought to their tables, evaluating the look, taste, texture – even ‘‘mouthfeel’’ – of each beer.
When a particularly good beer comes to the table, everyone tinkles their glass with a piece of cutlery.
Tuatara head brewer Brayden Rawlinson has been brought on as an associate judge, a sort of judge-in-training.
‘‘It’s exhilarating for me to be here,’’ he said, adding that like others here, he had found it hard to take off his brewer’s cap.
Rawlinson has trained as a sommelier, and has also worked at industry beer awards, but never something like this.
He hoped to be invited back next year as a fully fledged judge and as for his favourite beer? Anything Belgian, or a decent European sour brew.