New non-alcoholic brewery launched
The low down on low carb beer, GABS festival returns to Auckland, the human element of hospo, plus three beer recommendations for your weekend drinking pleasure.
Gidday beer lovers,
Another week chockful of good beer news and we start with the launch of State of Play, a brewery dedicated to non-alcoholic beer. It’s the first of its kind in New Zealand but follows the hugely successful model we’ve seen in America with The Athletic, which has turned into a powerhouse brewery off the back of doing only non-alc beers.
State of Play was founded by Grant Caunter, who spent 25 years with DB and the upper echelons of Heineken as their director of craft and speciality beer in Europe. He became a non-alcoholic beer evangelist when he gave up drinking to lose weight at the start of the pandemic and it so changed his life he decided to launch his own brand.
Lifestyle beers on the rise
Non-alcoholic beers are partially responsible for the a spike in what is known as the “lifestyle” beer category that encompasses everything from gluten-free to alcohol-free. According to Foodstuffs North Island, which has data from New World, Pak’n Save and Four Square supermarkets, this category grew 20 per cent last financial year. By far the biggest driver of growth were low carbohydrate beers. And we’ve seen craft breweries matching demand with a bunch of new products launched this year from Epic, Urbanaut, Emerson’s, Bach, Sprig & Fern and Good George.
The cynics might say it’s all about marketing but when you read my story with Scott Sharp-Heward of Sawmill you might see it a different way. Scott developed Type 1 diabetes, possibly as the result of a Covid infection at the start of the pandemic and has fully embraced the low carb lifestyle for health reasons. And he swears by the difference and his working on his low carb beer for Sawmill.
Beer of the week No 1
My mate and Pursuit of Hoppiness reviewer “Crafty” Mark Gower is always on the search for great fresh hop beers, he lives for them basically. And he was falling over himself about Shining Peak Gung Ho! Mark writes:
“Last year, in a review I introduced the term “dankidy-dank” and Gung Ho! from Shining Peak deserves the same loving description! Shining Peak have been smashing it out of the park recently and their entry in this year fresh hop line up is up there with the best! The beer itself is rather light and very clean which allows those big grassy characteristics to shine through. The beer is nicely bittered, full of resins which leave your lips lovingly coated in oily goodness! Gung Ho! now sits in number one position in my fresh hop ratings for 2022 — who will knock them off in the coming weeks?”
There are so many fresh hop beers out there and they still have currency, so do let us know what you think are the best and we’ll get our tastebuds wrapped around them.
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Style insight: Baltic Porter
A quick change in direction as we head towards the colder months … Baltic Porter.
We don’t see many of this style in New Zealand … but did you know Baltic Porter is really a lager? As part of a series on classic styles, Hoppiness writer Tym Ryan explores the history of the style and comes up with some recommendations if you like your beers richly flavoured for these winter months.
Festival and event round-up
It’s been confirmed that the GABS festival is returning to Auckland after a pandemic-enforced two year hiatus. The always fun event — full name: the Great Australasian Beer Spectapular — will be at the ASB Showgrounds (yes, it’s not a film studio … yet) on Saturday June 25 and tickets are available today. There’s some good deals for group ticket buys, so grab a bunch of friends and save the date.
Also on the upcoming events card is the rescheduled Taranaki Beer Festival, set for July 1-2 at the TSB Stadium in New Plymouth. There’s a great list of local breweries in this up-and-coming beer region plus other leading breweries from around the country. It’s an ambitious plan to hold the festival over two days in a regional centre but it’s a good excuse for a holiday in one of the most under-rated parts of the country IMHO.
And one event that I think is can’t-miss if you love weird and wonderful beers is the Fortune Favours Rare Beer Challenge.
This is fundraiser for Rare Disorders NZ and Fortune Favours have got a great line-up of Wellington breweries who will bring their weirdest and most wonderful ideas using rare ingredients and obscure brewing techniques to produce their version of a rare beer.
That’s on Friday June 3 at Fortune Favours, 7 Leeds Street, Wellington.
And speaking of festivals, thanks to our own Denise Garland for sharing this link, in which she’s also quoted, about the kind of appalling behaviour women have to put up with at beer festivals.
“[There’s] been a vibe with some of them; a prevalence of [men] drinking a bit too much, and looking down on or being hostile to people at the festival who do not look like them, particularly females or people from the queer community.”
A quick public service announcement for any Society of Beer Advocates (SOBA) members out there who fancy picking up a special personalised plate for their car. Long-time SOBA member Mike Pink is heading back to the UK and is selling his ‘SOBA 1’ plate. He’s happy to contacted on hopleaf39@gmail.com.
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