September 17th, 2015

Beer's Biggest Bash

This Saturday is the New Zealand beer industry's night to celebrate. The Brewers Guild of New Zealand Awards (BGoNZAs) is our brewers chance to look inwards and celebrate out own achievements, and those of our many mates within the industry.

Historically the BGoNZAs have been held in Wellington, the day before Beervana. The Brewers Guild found that this timing meant that all the good news from the awards was swallowed up by the excitement surrounding Beervana.

To make the BGoNZAs its own event, the guild moved the date to September, and the venue to Auckland.

Of course this means unless you're in it, there's not as much motivation to fly to Auckland to attend the awards dinner. We usually send a contingent from the bar, and we scrub up pretty well as you can see.

So it looked like us non-brewer Wellingtonians were going to miss out... until the Brewers Guild announced that this year they're streaming the awards night live on the interewebs!

So to try and bring a slice of the party back to Wellington this Saturday (barring technical difficulties on the guild end) we're showing the live stream on the tele, with sound in the red room. 

We'll reserve the whole room for those of you who want to cheer on the awesome people in our industry, and be among the first to find out who get the golds, who gets the trophies, who is named NZ's best beer writer, and who is crowned this year's champion brewer.

The stream should start sometime around 6pm, and will most likely continue till 9-10pm if previous years format is followed. Just like at the real BGoNZA's; formal dress is encouraged

Dancing & Drinking

Around the end of the BGoNZAs, at 9.30pm the Dancing and Drinking Society should be kicking off.

They'll be playing "a mix of old time standards and originals, that make a toast to the intoxicating old world mélange of New Orleans Swing/Blues that will get fingers clicking and feet stomping!"
So if you'd like to add some dancing to your drinking this Saturday, pop on down around 9.30pm to enjoy the show. We even won't charge you for the dancing, but you will have to pay for the drinking.

Beer Book & Book Beer

Last year ex-Hashigo beertender Jules van Cruysen launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund his goal of creating a "comprehensive guide book to New Zealand beer and breweries of New Zealand, focusing on the craft brewing industry."
Cynics declared the day of the beer book over - with new beers being released almost every day, they said it would be out of date as soon as it was printed.

However supporters of the book didn't want to see the historical record of this era of growth in the beer industry reduced to a few Untappd check-ins and RateBeer reviews.

The supporters won out, when the Kickstarter campaign raised $20,063, ensuring "BREWED - A Guide to the Craft Beer of New Zealand" would become reality.

I'm looking forward to a book about  written by someone who knows the people, beers and breweries of our industry - and tell the stories behind them. Instead of reducing our entire industry to Monteith's and a few others, and tacking on a bizarre blurb on the popularity of ice distilled beers in NZ....

Jules is holding the Wellington launch of his book at Hashigo Zake this coming Tuesday, followed by a nationwide launch tour. He'll be selling and signing copies of BREWED (there's even a SOBA discount), and might even buy you a glass of the accompanying book beer if you're lucky...

To coincide with the book launch of BREWED, we will have on tap a brand new collab beer from Yeastie Boys and author of BREWED Jules van Cruysen - I AM.

Author Jules describes the beer succinctly:

"I AM is a collaboration between the Yeastie Boys and BREWED author Jules van Cruysen to celebrate the release of BREWED: A Guide to the Craft Beers of New Zealand. It is a hybrid Pilsner / Pale Ale brewed with an eye to the creativity, ingenuity and diversity of the New Zealand craft beer industry."

 While the Yeastie Boys shows their penchant for waxing lyrical in their less-edited description:

"When tasked with the enviable (yet nerve racking) task of creating a beer that represents New Zealand craft beer, we immediately thought of the things that have shaped where we are today. The great brewers both at home and in commercial sites; the inviting bars and their publicans who really opened up the scene in the last 6 years; the growers and suppliers that helped us get to where we are; the hybrid styles of beers that seem (to outsiders) to have metamorphosed from nowhere.

I AM, like the beer industry it is brewed in honour of, is hard to define. It is from nowhere, yet everywhere. It sits somewhere between a New Zealand Pilsner and a Pale Ale. It showcases a combination of local hops and the American ones which helped shape our industry. It's bold enough for the hardened beer geek, yet beguiling and delicate enough to attract the attention of the intrigued craft beer novice."

The books and beers start flowing this Tuesday at 5pm, come along a grab a beer - and maybe even a book.