NZ International Beer Awards

[Stu McKinlay]

FYI - NZ International Beer Awards Results

Some observations:
"Rogue IPA" took out the always contentious Supreme Champion award.
The foreign beers totally cleaned us out - only two NZ beers took out classes (and one of them was for NZ styles): "Wigram Propeller" and "Townshend No 9 Stout".
Strangest name - typically Japanese - "Draft One Sparkling Aroma" (just pipping "Menage A Frog", "Yellow Snow Ale" and "Old Crustacean").

Award the for supporting SOBA goes to Sapporro for their "Morimoto Soba Ale". Nice work!

[Stu McKinlay]

Sassy Red was tasting superb earlier this year but I've not had it in a while. I like it when it's a bit maltier, it carries the hop flavour so nicely.

Greig, as long as you only insult me verbally you will be fine... unless I take notes - it's the note taking that brings out the elephant-like memory. Just like the realtionship between the Waikato water and your whale appendage ;-) Remember that one? Where did the organic fella take off to?

[Greig McGill]

Wow... I had to think about that one. I am impressed!

[Geoff Griggs]

Morimoto Soba Ale is brewed by Rogue of Oregon (not Sapporo).

[Barry]

I hear what you're saying Geoff, but the net result in this instance is that the NZ brewing industry is seen to be either not very good, or this competition doesn't mean enough for them to bother entering. Either way, for the beer industry here, it's not a good look.
Wish I could get hold of some of those Rogue ales though!

Hey on that brewers premium "old dark", isn't there a borderline breach of copyright in that name?

geez what a negative git I sound like this morning. Might have to go back to bed and get out on the right side...

[Larry Kurth]

Thats ok Barry the name is not that rare. Larry

[Barry]

Congratulations Larry, do you have any outlets in Auckland for your Old Dark? Or any of your beers?

[Larry Kurth]

Sadly not at the moment, as pretty much all the beer I can make is for sale here at our outlet.

[nzbrewer]

Barry

You may also look at the results in a different way. Not many NZ breweries entered.

Geoff, this wouldn't be an example of confusing the consumer would it? or even frustrating the consumer that can't get the Supreme Champion winner?

[Stu McKinlay]

But Luke: a gold is a gold is a gold. It doesn't matter how many or few beers are entered. Or why they did or didn't.

According to a quote I found on the internet (so it must be true):"Gold is defined as a world class beer that exemplifies its style, displaying the proper balance of taste, aroma and appearance."

An overseas Supreme Champion should inspire some of the brewers who entered to do better, and some of the brewers who didn't to come in and knock the bugger off next year.

My honest opinion is that that I don't agree with the idea of Supreme Champion (but I certainly see its point as a marketing tool). I don't think any of the beers should be judged against each other, only against a style guide. If "winners" and "champions" rather than purely medals are to be found, then the judging should be score based (like BJCP).

[nzbrewer]

Stu

I'm not disputing the gold. All I was commenting about was Barrys comment about NZ brewers not doing very well, and suggested it wasn't a reflection on all NZ breweries , but more so the number of NZ breweries that actually entered. At a guess was it 5 or 6 NZ breweries that entered?

I don't think the utopian world you have indicated lives here in NZ, where the winner being an international brewery will inspire more brewers to enter or make them try harder to imporve their beers. It is more likely those that got a bronze are extremely grateful.

[Stu McKinlay]

Right, I see what you mean there Luke. As I said above, I'd like to see a list of all entries. I think all beer awards should do this as it adds a bit of credibility. And, as a stats man, I'd be really interested to see what ratio of golds, silver, bronzes and no medals are handed out each year.

In regards to the Utopian world - I know you wouldn't be happy with a bronze. Nor would Colin Paige or Richard Emerson, or a few others. Look at what Steve Nally has done over the last few years. I remember him being delighted with bronze a few years back. But he knew he could do better and he has. Now he wouldn't be satisfied with bronze, he wants gold, he wants best in class. He knows he can brew beer of beer when he works hard. True, not everyone will be like that but the most passionate will and they will generally succeed (especially if they can nail the business side too). Hopefully some of the brewers who got silver and bronze are now thinking about how they could get gold next year. Any Larry might be thinking about he could turn his gold into the "supreme champion" beer.


On a slightly different note:
If I owned a brewery NZIBA would be very appealing for the fact that it has a "Supreme Champion" award. Have you gotten much out of that for the Epic brand? I'm sure it makes the odd person take a second look. As I said, I personally don't think the supreme award is "right", and I'd certainly like to see it judged in a different way if it did exist, but it is certainly very appealing from a marketing/branding perspective - both for the award organisers and the entering breweries (cue Greig jumping in with anti-brand spiel).

However, like a lot of New Zealand breweries, I would be a member of the Brewers Guild (actually, I already am) so I would be torn towards supporting "our" BrewNZ event, especially given that it is about to become something far beyond just beer awards (I'm not sure a lot of brewers can afford to enter both). I wonder then, if BrewNZ shouldn't also have a "Supreme Champion" and "Champion Brewery"...

[nzbrewer]

And I think that Champion Brewery would be perfect. How about we do that this year at BrewNZ.

It will be the brewery that has the highest average score for their beers. This offers more value to the consumer than just one beer. It says this brewery is making consistently awesome beers across the whole family of beers.