NZ Beer Festival

Yesterday I went along to the NZ Beer Festival at Ellerslie racecourse in Auckland. The weather gods had conspired against it, with driving rain and high winds meaning that everyone was crammed into the 2 halls where the bars were. As a result it was very difficult to find space to relax and chat.

I had an enjoyable afternoon, and it was good to see Greig again (and meet his missus) plus we got chatting to a few fellow lovers of good beer. Luke from Epic seemed to be having a good time too - there were certainly plenty of people round his stand.

However, I couldn't help feeling that the event missed the mark in several ways. The whole ethos of the festival seemed to be geared towards drinking and partying, rather than discovering interesting new beers. There were several stag/hen parties there and tons of people in fancy dress knocking back large quantities of Miller Genuine Draft. There were several small breweries present, but not as many as I would have expected, and the beers from some of them were distinctly average.

It's saying something that two of my favourite beers of the day were Epic Pale Ale (which I've had lots of before) and Hofbrauhaus Dunkel from Germany. The others that stick out in my mind are KEA Porter (from a now-defunct brewery) and Wigram APA (which is not one of their regular beers).

Quite a change from some of the beer festivals I've visited (and worked at) back in the UK.