Discovering a new, high quality craft beer or cider can be pretty exciting – it sure is for me, perhaps equal to finding a new wine style or producer. With over seventy craft breweries in New Zealand there are plenty of selections and an increasing range of styles. If beer is your thing, Kettle Sours, Berliner Weisse and Gose beers should really be on your shopping list in addition to the lager and IPA you might usually buy.

At the recent Great Australasian Beer Spectacular (GABS) over eight hundred beers were polled, with the Upper Hutt brewery Panhead Custom Ales’ ‘Supercharger’ taking out the title of New Zealand’s most popular craft beer of 2019.

Previous winner Garage Project’s ‘Pernicious Weed’ (a double India Pale Ale), moved to second place. This popular Wellington brewer also claimed third place with ‘Aro Street’, a New England (or Hazy) IPA.