BrewNZ/Beervana Part 1: Funking bar steward

This is the first of (hopefully) several blog posts covering my time in Wellington over the last week at BrewNZ and Beervana.

I volunteered to assist with the stewarding at the BrewNZ beer awards. These are the main annual beer awards in New Zealand and this year they were bigger than ever. In total about 360 beers were entered, from all around the world. As well as beers from New Zealand and Australia (as you might imagine) there was a significant contingent from the USA. As a result of listening to The Brewing Network podcasts over the last year or so I have come to know of the names of some of these US breweries, if not the names of the beers. However, with no plans to visit the west coast of the US any time in the near future I did not expect to ever see the beers in person, never mind actually taste them.

Anyway, I suppose I should describe what I was actually doing there. The job of a steward at a beer judging session is to make sure the right beer gets in front of the right judges at the right time and in the best condition possible. We had 3 tables of judges, with either 6 or 7 judges on each table. The judges came from all over the world - best known to non-beer people would be Paul Mercurio, host of Dancing With The Stars but also an avid homebrewer. From New Zealand there were my good friends Geoff Griggs, Kieran Haslett-Moore and Shane Morley from the Steam Brewing company in Auckland, as well as a number of other judges from New Zealand, Australia and as far away as Holland. Chief judge was Dave Logsdon, proprietor of Wyeast labs in the USA.

The beers had all arrived and been stored in an air-conditioned room at the Duxton hotel before I got into Wellington on the Sunday afternoon. When I arrived, judging was in full swing. The basic procedure for the steward was to label up a glass per judge with the class number and an identifying number for the particular beer, then put a similar label on a jug. This jug was then taken into the kitchen where other stewards ensured the right beer was pulled from the fridge and poured into it. The original steward would then pour tasting samples into the judges' glasses and take them out to the table. Once the judges had completed their deliberations on that beer, the process would be repeated. Actually, we stewards were working hard to get as many beers lined up as possible to make the process as quick as possible. 360 beers is a lot for 3 tables of judges to get through.

It was three long days of work for both stewards and judges. The first 2 days were spent analysing and scoring all the beers, then the third day was dedicated to revisiting the top-scoring beers and allocating medals. On most days the judges were sitting down to their first beer of the day at around 8.30am, which meant that the stewards had been there for half an hour beforehand, and judging sometimes went on as late as 6.30pm. My feet were killing me at the end of it.

Nevertheless it was a very rewarding experience. I got to sample a significant number of beers, as there was usually a little left in the bottle after pouring the judges samples. Some of these beers I'd never even heard of, and there were many I had heard of which I thought I would never get chance to taste. I even got a minute taste of Samuel Adams Utopias, the most expensive beer in the world.

As well as the access to these beers, there was the opportunity to eavesdrop on highly-skilled beer judges at work, and to chat with them afterwards. It was fascinating and a little awe-inspiring to seem them going through their work. I have a new-found respect for the role of the beer judge now. For example, on one day the table I was looking after started off judging NZ Draught (a very bland style) before moving onto NZ & International Light Lagers. They then switched to Ciders before a sequence of 26 IPAs and Imperial IPAs. How they could even taste anything at the end of that lot amazes me, yet they were still carefully assessing each beer even at the end of the day.

Once the judging was complete, we volunteer stewards got our reward in terms of being able to choose a few bottles from what was left. I carefully shipped these bottles back to Auckland and will catalogue them in a separate post.

A week of beer!

On Sunday I will be flying down to Wellington for the biggest week in the NZ beer calendar. From Sunday to Wednesday a panel of highly-respected judges will be sniffing, sipping and slurping their way through over 400 beers as part of the BrewNZ beer awards, culminating in the lavish awards dinner on Thursday night. Then on Friday & Saturday it's the public's turn as Beervana, New Zealand's biggest beer festival, opens its doors.

I'll be heavily involved in a volunteer capacity. First of all I'll be helping out as a steward during the judging at BrewNZ, then as a general volunteer during Beervana. I'm sure there will be the occasional visit to bars such as The Malthouse, Hashigo Zake and Bar Edward. If you're in town for the festivities, drop me a line and hopefully we can catch up.

I'm really excited about catching up with beer drinkers and brewers alike, and tasting some beers that I would never normally get to try. I just hope I've got the stamina for it!

New beer venues in Auckland

Apologies for the lack of updates recently. No real reason, as I've had plenty of beer-related things to talk about, but I just haven't managed to focus on updating the blog. I will try and rectify that.

Although I very much like living in Auckland, I have to agree that in terms of beer venues the city lags behind other areas of New Zealand. Up until recently I would have said there were only 2 must-visit beer venues - Galbraiths Alehouse and Hallertau brewbar/restaurant. There are a few other places such as the Cock & Bull pubs, the Shakespeare brewpub and one or two decent bottleshops but for one reason or another I wouldn't put them right up there. Contrast this with Wellington, Nelson & Christchurch (to name but 3) which are all smaller cities but with much more to commend them in terms of beer.

However, just recently a couple of places have opened up in downtown Auckland which give me some hope.

The first of these is Brew On Quay, a new bar which has opened up on Quay Street. It's a lovely building (used to be the old dockside police station) which has been sympathetically renovated inside. There is a big bottle fridge with a good selection of New Zealand and imported beers, plus a couple of New Zealand craft beers on tap (currently Epic Pale Ale and Tuatara Pilsner). Unfortunately there are a larger number of taps pouring the products of one of the Big Two breweries but I guess it's a commercial reality that a bar serving only craft beer could not survive in such a location.

The owners of Brew are clearly looking to align themselves with the cause of good beer - the local launch of the Beervana beer festival (to be held in Wellington later this month) was held there, as was the Auckland launch of the mega-IPAs from Epic and Hallertau. Both events brought beer lovers out in force and I hope they'll continue to support this new venture. Personally I'd like to see less of the mass-produced swill and more of the craft beer, but let's give them some time.

The second new venue is Prenzel, a small shop/bar located in the fashionable Elliott Stables enclave on Elliott Street. This area was already a favoured lunchtime haunt of mine due to the presence of Frankie's Wurstbude (an amazing sausage shop) but now I have another excuse to go. Prenzel has a decent-sized bottle fridge with a good selection of New Zealand craft beers from breweries such as Tuatara, Emersons, Renaissance and Epic, as well as a couple of draught beer dispensers from the Whitecliffs brewery. Customers can enjoy a pie and a pint, or buy a beer to enjoy with their food from one of the other shops nearby. Off-license sales are also available and there is a 10% discount for SOBA members. The owner (Mike) is planning to put on beer tastings in one of the very atmospheric rooms in the Elliott Stables complex.

It's early days for both of these new ventures but I wish them well. If they succeed it will confirm that it is possible to sell quality beer in the notoriously fickle Auckland market.