Best of Brew NZ and Beervana

[Steph]

Thought I'd start a thread to give some "mad props" to my favs from Brew NZ and Beervana. Here goes:
- The great guys from stewarding. It was much harder work than I thought but I had a great time hanging out with Martin, Stu, Craig, Chris and the gang.
- Smelling how good one particular beer was in the pouring judge, looking up its number and then finding out it was Armegeddon and realising how privileged we all are.
- Being privileged enough to score some fantastic beer, including an awarding winning and delicious His Majestys in the bottle and being given one by the Yeastie Boys in the rigger.
- Meeting some of the awesome judges. Dave Logsdon was just fantastic and it was great chatting with Shane (from Steam) and Richard from Wig and Pen (among others).
- Hanging out with the guys from Renaissance Brewery. Brian is a legend for buying me coffee on the Saturday morning session of Beervana. Along with Andy and Soren that lot are the nicest brewers around.
- Meeting all the volunteers, including all you lot from RealBeer. There were some super cool people who let me boss them round a fair bit and didn't seem to mind too much.
- Laughing when Daniel from the beerstore introduced himself and said "you seem to drink a lot". And, explaining to lots of poeple that that is how I managed to get involved with BrewNZ and Beervana!!
-Almost forgot....Awarding best shirt to Matt from Harringtons for two awesome shirts on mash-in and at the awards. Big ups to Stu's shirt and pant combo and Paul Mecurio's hilarious beer shirt at Beervana.

Phew, and sure I've missed a bit out....Like the beer. I'll have to get back to it.

[Martin Bridges]

OK, just a few from me while they're fresh in my mind:

- similar to Steph's, the reaction from the judging table when I served them Armageddon in the medal round. They wouldn't let me take the sample glasses away and demanded that I brought a jug for them for their post-judging drinks. They didn't know what it was but i did.

- the bear hug that Stu gave Steve Nally when PKB won it's award!

- Steph's never failing calmness amidst the chaos that was Beervana first session

- Renaissance's awesome chocolate oatmeal stout

- the enormous cheesy grin on my face when Brendon told me what I'd won in the National Homebrew Comp

- the awesome crew on the Cryer Malt stand at Beervana (Tom, Wendy, Dick) on the final session on Saturday. I was really dreading that final session, I was so over it after a week but we had great fun

- the atmosphere back at the Malthouse after the final session. I've never felt euphoria like it. Relief that it was all over and immense joy and satisfaction at a job well done. And Armageddon flowing in abundance!

[David Wood]

Here we go:
- Steph - for doing such a great job of organising the volunteers, and doing it all voluntarily. The maddest props to you.
- Being the glassie for the first day of judging. Best job ever, sneaking samples of the jugs as they came back.
- My favourite part of Beervana was finding a brewers guild keg marked simply "Hallertau" at my stall, swapping a crappy Tasman Brewing Co. tap for it, and finding out it was a keg Maximus. Best tasting Maximus ever!
- Meeting the brewer at Moa, Dave. And sampling the oak aged beers he's done. The Imperial Stout was something else!! (favourite beer of Beervana)
- Heading to Hashigo Zake after the Friday session and seeing it quite full for the first time, then enjoying the last bottle of Rogue XS Imperial Stout
- 'Clearing the Lines' after the final session.
- All of the leftover kegs now available at various bars
- Meeting brewers, beer lovers, beer nerds, SOBA members, judges and great people in general.

[Christian]

I didn't go to Beervana but did wonder about some of the BrewNZ results - well Class K anyway. How can Export Gold get silver, while Hoprocker gets bronze? - it might not be the world's best beer but it's light years ahead of dirty old Export.

I know any competition is subjective and no disrespect to the well qualified judges but come on!

[Steph]

I don't disagree that on face value some of the result seem weird. But, the styles are very specific and it seems that Export Gold wins all over the place for the crap beer style. Why on earth would Tui win anything? It won the New Zealand draught category even though it is an "East India Pale Ale" or whatever!!

[Mike Neilson]

HAHAHAHA! TUI Beer HAHAHAHA!!! Class K HAHAHAHA 1 entrant HAHAHAHA!!!

[Steph]

Nah, sure there were two...

[Martin Bridges]

There were definitely several entrants. I was stewarding the table of judges that were doing the medal round for NZ Draught. The Kiwis on the table spent most of the round apologising to the internaional judges for having such a crap style as a national style. The truth is, if you read the style guidelines, Tui fits it very well. The fact that no brewer worth their salt would want to make one is by the by.

[Christian]

I've been reading the style guidelines and I now I think I see what the deal is with Class K. The rating factor is trueness to style and Class K contains several styles: NZ Lager; NZ Premium Lager; & NZ Pilsners.

I would put Export in the first, Pure & Summit in the second and Emerson's and Hoprocker in the third. Export has been judged to be truer to it's style than Hoprocker.

There is a logic to it but I don't like the outcome - you can brew a terrible beer and because it's historic and uniquely NZ it becomes a judging style and as long as you keep it true to this style, you can win a medal. This would tend to advantage the established mainstream NZ beers which the styles have been based off vs newer craft brewers who are innovating. I accept for practicality that some grouping of styles needs to take place but it's not without problems.

It's hard because you can't really compare different styles but when they are so closely aligned it's difficult not to put them into some sort of personal hierarchy - obviously to my tastes, NZ Pilsners are superior to NZ Lagers due to the flavour factor but then this would bias the results from the start.

I'm not sure what the answer is.

[Greig McGill]

I have a suggestion for an answer. Dis-establish those styles. If a "style" is only produced for accounting reasons (ie, no craft brewery would voluntarily make one except as a piss-take or a gateway beer) then why reward and encourage it with a category to enter?

"Because it's always been that way" is never, by itself, a good enough reason to do anything in my opinion.

[josh scott]

I could go on and on about this. (i'm gonna keep very brief)

Around half the medals to international beers. You just can't compare styles from different countries or even beers as a matter of fact.

Why we promoting international beers at BrewNZ beer awards.

New Zealand has a unique style. Hops,water,climate etc

Lets promote New Zealand beers/new zealand styles, too many good beers/brewerys missed out on even a bronze.
I agree its not judges fault, they have a very tough and demanding job, and all dedicated to the cause, but the rules that they are goverend by, they are(beer guidelines) out of whack with how beers should be awarded.

I think we should forget about this old system that we are using and being the innovators that us Kiwis are come up with a better system. Reward quality. Give more medals to good beers, then hopefully in turn get more consumers to try/buy these beers.
Then you can tighten the awards up, making it harder to get awards.

I would hate to think some brewers would try to change their styles to win more medals when by my own opinion their is nothing wrong with them.

I have still got 20 odd paragrahs in me.................

BTW I have to add that on a whole Beervana was awesome. Everything was done very well and I will definatley be back next year and I take my hat off to the guild and there helpers who put together an amazing week and weekend.

[Steph]

While I don't entirely disagree, I don't agree either. There are a huge amount of different beer styles and categories that beers can be entered into in any competition - New Zealand or elsewhere. Without doubt, entering your beers into the correct style and category a key to competing effectively.

A reason for doing so would have to be to help you evaluate your beers against a range of others in the same style - in the case of Brew NZ - from NZ, Australia and around the world. If your not winning medals, them maybe you need to try some of the beers in that style that are (read: Green Man and the IPA).

The point isn't to compare beers of different styles with each other. It is to compare beers within the same style. If you are brewing a triple, you should be able to have it judge against triple from Belgium, Canada (Unibrou) etc...Many styles and categories are based on the region where the beer was originally produced, hence the "NZ Draught", "German Style Rye", "Belgian Style Triple" etc...So, if you are brewing a Flanders red ale, you should be able to compete against red ales from Flanders.

New Zealand hops are different, but water can be manipulated and I don't see what the climate has to do with brewing unless you leave your beers outside (read: Peak Brewery, unless things have changed).

Josh, Dave and Moa are brewing a very different style of beer and I can see how that proves challenging to you guys when entering awards. Maybe you need to define yourselves a new style category. But, you cannot complain about the sucess of the dark reserve.

[Martin Bridges]

What she said. Better than I could anyway.

The number of entries from overseas was much greater this year. this does not mean that it was harder for NZ breweries to win a medal of any hue. The judges were very good at judging a beer against the style category that it was entered in. the style guidelines themselves are very clear, and internationally recognised. International beers won medals, and NZ beers won medals. The international beers that won trophies had to be generally available in NZ. Hence some NZ beers winning a trophy having only got a silver medal when gold medals were awarded (to international beers) in the same category.

BrewNZ is now seen as an international competition where NZ beers are able to pitch themselves against the best beers from around the world. Surely this will encourage Kiwi brewers to continue to strive for the best quality possible?

I don't disagree that there are some beers out there that I think should have won awards and didn't. However, you're going to have that with every system.