Cult favourites return

Behind the scenes on a hop farm, Beer World Cup controversy, best of light beers, four recommendations for your weekend, Monteith's move to cans a sign of the times a couple of GOATs and much more

Greetings beer lovers,

A heads-up first for Monday morning when the New World Beer & Cider Awards are announced. Declaration: I’m in involved in these awards as the Chair of Judges, but I also think this year’s awards list is one of the best I’ve seen. I’ve got heaps of surprises, a lot of newcomers, many old favourites, some absolute legendary beers and best of all: it’s full of variety. Make sure to check out hoppiness.co.nz on Monday for all the details, write your list and then go shopping for the good stuff.

---

New release radar

There are two cult beers being released this week and next that deserve your attention. The 2021 vintage of 8 Wired’s Wild Feijoa Ale is here now and after something of a hiatus, Liberty is back with their hugely popular Prohibition Porter (12% ABV). Brewer Joe Wood previously released earlier vintages of the Kentucky bourbon barrel-aged beer at the end of a year to avoid putting it into barrels at the hottest time of the year but he’s made a minor tweak to ensure it now comes out in the winter months, a more appropriate time, for sure. It’s being launched next week at the Beer Spot in Auckland on May 19 but I saw on Facebook that there will be early samples available from the Liberty taproom in Helensville tomorrow.

---

Beer of the Week No 1

I’m always on the look out for low alcohol beer options … something to do with getting old I think, haha. And last year I found a real goodie in 8 Wired Lo Fi. I argued at the time of its release that the hoppy sour flavour profile was ideal for bringing bags of flavour on a lower ABV. I briefly chatted with Soren Eriksen from 8 Wired about this and I might have urged him to make this more than one-off, so I’m rapt to see if back in six-packs. And it’s now in 330ml cans rather than 440ml which makes the single can a good buy at $3.99 if you’re keen to see how much flavour can be packed in to a 2 per cent beer!

Also, if you want more insights into these lower ABV beers, the Hoppiness team has come up with a list of what we think are some of the best available.

---

Diary of Hop Farmer

When hop farmer Josh Lewis approached me offering to write a diary, noting what goes down on a hop farm across the year I was quick to say yes, even though I had no idea if he was a good writer or not … but he had me at the intro when he wrote about “looking out over the farm after harvest still seems surreal. In four or five weeks everything we worked so hard on the last year has gone in what seems like a blink of the eye. It gets me every year.”

---

Friday Night Beers is a reader-supported publication. If you like what you see here, and want more of it, please think of a paid subscription (if you’ve paid already, roll on past…). For just $50 a year you get a round up of beer news, three or four beer recommendations each week, commentary on what’s happening in the beer news and you also get a complementary copy of Pursuit of Hoppines print magazine delivered (worth $45) delivered to your door six times.

---

New brewery lifting job numbers on the Coast

Some of you may have already read about the set-up of Shortjaw Brewing in Westport. Owner Luke Robertson wrote this first person piece for Pursuit of Hoppiness at the start of the year. Luke and Shortjaw recently featured in a Stuff story about new job creation on the West Coast, where there have been 278 new jobs created in the past year, including the four new positions at Shortjaw.

---

You lost me at Web3

if you ever wanted to read a beer story that made absolutely no sense, I have it for you. Unless of course you’re one of the few people in the world who understand non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

I read this a couple of times but I’m still none the wiser, but then I’m not a “tech bro”. Although I do get the “drop culture” scarcity element of new beers.

Anyway, if you are into NFTs and cryptocurrency and want a deep dive into the relationship with craft beer, step right up.

---

Memorial service for Alasdair Cassels

The wider Christchurch community gathered last week for a memorial service for Cassels Brewing founder Alasdair Cassels, who died last month. He was remembered as a “true champion” of the city, who helped turn Woolston into Coolston.