Beer & Food showcased by Brewers Guild of New Zealand

Posted: 1/03/2010 6:08:42 p.m.

So many people have no idea that there are 50 small independent breweries, making an amazing range of different beers and beer styles in this country.

It is a shame that these small businesses are too under resourced to be able to get noticed beyond the noise made by the large corporate brewers.

So these small brewers rely on making beer that actually has aroma and flavour that you want to taste as opposed to making sure the beer is cold enough so it just quenches your thirst.

So it was a real treat to be involved with the Brewers Guild showcase at the New Zealand Beer Festival, at Ellerslie Racecourse, on 13th February.

This was a nearly five hour session of back to back presentations of beer and food matching, and introduction to beer and brewing.

If anyone was on to it enough they could have sat there all afternoon, eating and drinking for free. As well as learning about a special group of people that battle away in the shadows making great beer in this country.

The exciting part for me was, it was the actual brewers that were presenting the beer and food match. They were able to give background on who they were and how they made the beer and what made it special. Even as one of the brewers and presenters myself, I still got a real thrill listening to the other brewers talking about there beers, and the food it was matched with.

The impressive thing was this showcase hadn't really been promoted that well, but the attendance was more than a full house, and there was nearly as many people standing in the back as where seated for pretty much the whole five hours. If it had been promoted heavily then it may well have been a logistical nightmare, as significant numbers would have turned up.

The exciting thing is that it is happening again at the New Zealand Beer Festival this Saturday 6th March at Westpac Stadium, Wellington (midday till 9pm).

If this sounds interesting and can't make it this weekend then pencil in the diary Beervana (also in Wellington) 27th & 28th August, Wellington Town Hall. A chance to sample from a selection of 175 different beers from around NZ. http://www.beervana.co.nz
If you can make it to the Beer Festival this weekend make sure you swing by the Epic Beer stand and say hi, so we can drink a beer together.

Cheers
Luke

P.S. If you haven’t been to a beer festival in a while or ever and your impression is it is just a bunch of Westies getting drunk and wanting to fight you would be very wrong. Beer festivals these days such as The New Zealand Beer Festival and Beervana are now attracting a more sophisticated and curious crowd, and that maybe because of the interest that the craft breweries are creating for the New Zealand beer drinker. (Anyway beer festivals is a topic for another blog post)