AND THE 2023 BEER OF THE FESTIVAL IS…
Now that the dust has settled, the breweries have packed up and the food vendors have put away their knives, the stadium has been cleared out, and the last of the merch has been sent home, the Beervana team want to thank YOU for being such a incredible bunch of beer lovers!
Thank you to you all for coming along and exploring New Zealand’s (and Australia’s!) amazing craft beer scenes.
While each session had its own top-praised beers on the leaderboard, there can be only one with the most praises overall and that beer… Drum roll please… is
Altitude Brewing’s Croquembouche Pastry Stout
Altitude's Founder and Brewer Eliott Menzies says it’s taken the team around six or seven years to make it to the top spot. In the past they’ve been close with their Jam Session and Sticky Date beers making the top five, so it really is a sweet (while we’ve got the drums… ba dum tshhh!) victory for the team.
“Creating the beer has been a real journey, from the name to sourcing the ingredients which included canterbury hazelnuts and chocolate husks from Dunedin, we threw in a bunch of vanilla and caramel for good measure. It ended up being a truly delicious beer, and seeing it take out number one is a real treat.”
Notable mentions to One Drop who took 2nd and 3rd with Dragon’s Breath Triple Fruited Smoothie Sour and On the Lam Yellow Lamington Smoothie Sour. You all sure loved the sweet things at Beervana this year! The power is indeed with the people, cheers for logging in and praising the beers.
Then there was the food, and wow did you all get through a lot! With Crayfish Cheeserolls, Whitebait fritters and more selling out while local vendors scrambled back to their kitchens between sessions to restock it’s almost as if the food is as important as the beer (shhhh, it absolutely, 100%, totally is!).
Shout out to our Brewshop.co.nz homebrew West Coast IPA Challenge finalists and winners below:
1st - Cam Clarke
2nd - Rob Hough
3rd - Matt Hopping
Maybe we’ll see you exhibiting at Beervana in future!
Heaps of new beers released at Beervana this year are making their way into cans and bottles so if you missed something special or if a particular beer is haunting your dreams, get on down to your local Liquorland or reach out to that favourite brewery.
But as always, support your local brewery. Try something new but also make something your regular.
Until next year,
Ryan McArthur and the Beervana team
