That's a wrap: the best of 2023

Some last-minute Christmas gift ideas. Saint Leonard's Brewing opens with a bang in Auckland. Testing hop "terroir" with Altitude Brewing. Blue cheese beer (yes!). Paradise name clash.

Brewery of the year: Sawmill. Not a single offering from Sawmill missed the mark this year. But you could say that about many breweries. I might be biased thanks to the numerous pints of their XPA that I’ve had after a round of golf at my home club, Titirangi. My wife swears by their Hazy IPA as her preferred go-to. Sawmill Nimble was an outstanding 2.5% breakthrough beer that I loved to bits. I had a non-alcoholic Bare Beer when out for lunch and it was delicious. Their Riwaka fresh hop was an explosive flavour bomb… I could go on and on.  

Beer of the Year:  Wilderness Russet Pinot Barrel-aged Flemish Red. Layers of flavours — light balsamic acid quality, prune juice, apple skin, with a ribbon of red wine running through it. Real depth and relatively sweet for the style possibly from the 8% ABV.

Achievement of the year: Garage Project winning a silver medal with Chance Luck & Magic 2020 in the Belgian-style sour category at the World Beer Cup. They only give out three medals at the WBC and it’s truly remarkable that a Kiwi brewery can be the second-best in such an esoteric category.

Innovator of the year: Froth Tech’s discovery, and isolation of, Wilding yeast. Hard work, technical know-how, a little bit of luck … all led Froth Tech to discovering, isolating and making a commercial batch of New Zealand’s first native brewing yeast.

Idea of the year: I was super-impressed with what Colab Brewing created this year with their Say It With Beers bespoke labelling offer. Other breweries are now jumping on this but Colab were the first to nail the process and the customer interface.

Personality of the year: Grant Caunter of State of Play. Grant is a force of nature in the non-alcoholic category, relentlessly pushing the message that abstinence doesn’t need to mean missing out on great flavour.  

On that note … Non-alc beer of the year: When I first wrote this for the print version of the magazine, it was Parrotdog Watchdog. But this week I had Urbanaut Little Rock and that built even further on what others had created in the non-alc space. What I loved about Little Rock was the bitterness. It really added to the overall mouthfeel and aftertaste, and I was completely satisfied.

Quote of the year: “Beer is like icecream. When Goody Goody Gum Drops came out I thought ‘that’s wild, crazy’ and now you only have to walk past a Duck Island store and see the weird and wonderful things that are being done with ice cream flavours. There’s a real parallel between ice cream and beer,” Bruce Turner of Urbanaut.

Style of the year: Move over Cold IPA and make way for West Coast Pilsner. In the past few years — possibly as a contrast to hazies — old school IPA has been getting leaner and cleaner, with the malt base pared right back to allow modern hopping techniques to showcase the flavour and aroma of hops. With the melding of pilsner-style malts to IPA hopping regimes, West Coast Pilsner is the natural endpoint of that trend. A beer style you will see a lot of this summer.

---

Beer of the week No 1

I guess if I wanted to add a category to the above, it might be “branding idea of the year” in which case it would go to Mount Brewing for their 1 Micro IPA. In an era when people are more conscious of how much they’re drinking, having a beer that tells them exactly how many standard drinks they are consuming, while looking cool and tasting great, is a win. This simple design is matched by a simple, but satisfying 3.2% IPA that is so tightly balanced, to the extent that no component stands out over another and as a result you get an effortless drinking experience. Great job!

---

Last minute Christmas gifts!

I was doing a tidy up at the end a messy year and discovered a box of Hoppiness caps that I’d forgotten about! There’s only 30 or so left and to celebrate their rediscovery I’m offering free shipping on any orders made between now and Tuesday. So get in quick!

Hoppiness Hat | Pursuit of Hoppiness

The other option is to gift a subscription to Friday Night Beers, which also gets your friend at copy of Pursuit of Hoppiness home-delivered for free!

And you may or may not know this, but I start each day by wrapping products for my wife’s skincare business, Agnes & Me. And there’s a free shipping offer this weekend there as well. So … I’ve got you covered for those last-minute gifts 🎁😌

---

Saint Leonard’s launch with a bang

The launch of Saint Leonard’s brewery in Auckland made some of the biggest noise I’ve seen on social media for some time.