Good Friday Special: Best Beers of 2023 so far

Easter edition — 13 beers for the first quarter of 2023.

I know, I said last week that I wasn’t going to write a newsletter on Good Friday, with everyone being on holiday. But then an idea came to me … every year I promise to keep a beer diary so that when I get to the end of the year I have everything good recorded in one place and I don’t have to wrack my tired December brain trying to find the highlights for the inevitable end-of-year column.

So, as much for myself as for you, dear reader, this subscriber-only special is a quick dash through the best beers I’ve tried this year. Call it the Best Beers of the First Quarter. They are in some kind of order, indicating how impressed I was by each.

1. Urbanaut Rose Bay Lager. Apparently so simple at first glance, but delivers such pure, clean flavour as to be scarcely believable for a 2.5% lager.

2. Garage Project Tiny Anytime XPA. I thought the non-alc “brew natural” craft style had reached its peak with hazy variants but this eats the rest for lunch.

3. McLeod’s Longboarder. A classic. That’s all. Should be mandatory summer drinking.

   

4. Pacific Coast Wairua / Tapawera Pils. The first beer out of new brewery Pacific Coast was brewed for Hop Revolution to showcase their hops and named for their two farms. A few cans made it to commercial release. If you found one consider yourself blessed.

5. Three Boys Wheat. One of the most under-rated beers in New Zealand IMHO. Loads of depth in the flavour department, both satisfyingly complex and thirst-quenchingly simple.

6. Small Gods “Chaos” Brett Pilsner. This experimental brew from the adventurous team at Small Gods hit all the right funk-filled notes: like very ripe fruit mingled with hay and a brioche sweetness to balance it out.

   

7. Derelict Lemon Meringue. This is so refreshing, yet and extremely drinkable. It’s just like the dessert it’s named for and disappears as quickly.

8. Lakeman 5 O’Clock Somewhere. A brewery that’s really hitting its straps right now and this is a beer that breaks the trope that all hazies taste the same. Light, bright, citrus zest.

9. Sawmill Hazy Riwaka. Bingo. There are not many hazies on my must-have list in any given year, but this is one of them.

   

10. 8 Wired Capitola Cold IPA. I’m loving the Cold IPA trend and this is one of the best I had over the summer, edging Epic Rooster and Garage Project La La.

11. Badass Flagship Lager. I often judge a beer by how quickly the first one goes down and how much I want another one straight away. This was perfect at the end of a hot summer’s day.

12. Emerson’s Reverb NZ IPA. A complex, rippling flavour experience that includes pine & pithy grapefruit entwined with grapes and finishing with a building bitterness.

13. Duncan’s Passionfruit & Lime Ripple. I went nuts on Duncan’s a month or so back and raved about it in this email. At that stage I hadn’t tried this beer. It trumped the rest.
    
    Cheers and happy Easter,