Winners And Grinners From The Brewers Guild Of Nz Awards

by Anto Coates

Last night was the Brewers Guild of New Zealand Awards dinner at the Wellington Town Hall. Paul Mercurio again emceed the evening with great aplomb and had the rare distinction of judging the beers as well. Judging appears to be Paul's forte and many New Zealanders would be more familiar with his work evaluating celebrity dancing on television.

The evening is a celebration of brewing excellence and most of the major players in the Kiwi craft beer scene were rewarded for their efforts. Though as is always the case in blind sensory evaluation, some worthy candidates didn't do as well as perhaps they would have hoped, I think for the most part the results were a good representation of those making noise in the beer scene today.

For all the enjoyment of the dinner, the evening was tinged with sadness for all that has been lost over the past year. Christchurch is the spiritual home of craft brewing in New Zealand, and there were many moving speeches from brewers who were genuinely touched by the generosity of many within our industry. The support that has been extended to Christchurch brewers in the weeks and months following the devastation of the February earthquake has been nothing short of amazing and will not soon be forgotten.

On behalf of Regional Wines & Spirits, I would like to extend a big congratulations to the winners, especially 8 Wired Brewing that took out Champion Brewery in an amazingly tight 8-medal countback over 2009 champ Emerson's Brewery. Congratulations to Soren Eriksen for what is an amazing story - as he said himself, 3 years ago he was a home brewer and now he's at the crest of this growing wave we know as the New Zealand craft beer movement.

(And on a side note, the Emerson's and Regional Wines collaborative brew Regional Special Bitter picked up a silver medal in the British Ale style, so well done to Kieran Haslett-Moore and Emerson's for brewing an awesome beer.)

The trophy winners were:

Class A - New Zealand Champion Brewery
Trophy: 8 Wired Brewing

Class B - Champion International Brewery
Trophy: Boston Beer Company

Class C - European Lager Styles
Trophy: Steam Brewing Company - Cock & Bull German Pilsner

Class D - International Lager Styles
Trophy: McCashins Brewery - Stoke Amber

Class E - British Ale Styles
Trophy: Harrington's Brewery - Pig & Whistle

Class F - Other European Ale Styles
Trophy: Tuatara Brewing Co Ltd - Tuatara Ardennes

Class G - US Ale Styles
Trophy: Epic Brewing Company - Epic Armageddon IPA

Class H - New Zealand and International Ale Styles
Trophy: Emerson's Brewery - Emerson's Oreti Red

Class I - Stout and Porter Styles
Trophy: Three Boys Brewery - Three Boys Oyster Stout

Class J - Wheat and Other Grain Styles
Trophy: Tuatara Brewing Co Ltd - Tuatara Hefe

Class K - Flavoured and Aged Styles (incl. fruit/spice/herb/honey/smoke)
Trophy: 8 Wired Brewing - The Big Smoke

Class L - New Zealand Draught
Trophy: DB Breweries Ltd - Tui East India Pale Ale

Class M - New Zealand Lager and Premium Lager Styles
Trophy: Lion Breweries - Speights Summit Lager

Class N - Specialy, Experimental, Aged, Barrel and Wood-Aged, reduced Alcohol, Reduced Carbohydrate and Gluten-free styles
Trophy: 8 Wired Brewing Barrel Aged Big Smoke

Class O - Cider and Perry Styles
Trophy: Camla Farm Cider

Class P - Cask Conditioned
Trophy: Cassels and Sons Brewing Co - Milk Stout

Class Q - Packaging
Trophy: Moa Brewing Company - Moa St Joseph's Magnum

Class R: Festive Brew
Trophy: Emerson's Brewery - Emerson's Black Op

Morton Coutts Trophy for Innovation
The Yeastie Boys (for Rex Attitude beer, from 100% peated malt)

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