This week I chatted to Sabrina Kunz, executive director of the Brewers Guild of New Zealand about the history and the purpose of the Guild, the annual awards, how Covid has impacted NZ breweries, non alcoholic beers, beer tourism, festivals, breweries paying to tie taps, labelling rules, excise, supermarket duopoly, trends, the future of NZ beer and Speights Mid winning the trophy in the Speciality & Experimental category.

Jules wrote the book on beer. Brewed is a brilliant snapshot of beer in NZ in 2017. He is also a wine maker (Known Unknown), retailer (Cult Wine), event organiser, educator, sommelier and all round renaissance man. We discussed how beer has changed since the release of Brewed, the differences and commonalities between wine and beer, what beer can learn from wine, terroir of hops and barley, pairing drinks with food, getting stuck in a flavour rut, the pokémonisation of beer and lots more.

Brewers Guild Awards Special! Matt & Luke host a slightly breathy podcast as they stroll the Auckland Beer Mile to find brewery burgers while discussing the big wins and surprises from the biggest awards in NZ brewing. Huge congratulations to all of the winners and to all the awesome people working hard in every area of New Zealand beer.

Recorded while picnicking in the park drinking beers from 8 Wired & Altitude, we chat real fruit sours, the history of Duvel, Belgian bottle shops, buying bottles of rum in Berlin kebab shops, Oktoberfest, Helles lager, Otherside brewing, Brood fermentation, curating the Beer Jerk Advent Calendars, brewing a Scotch Ale and the dozens of breweries that are pulling out of the Mikkeller Beer Festival (more info on that in the linked article below).

We're still in lockdown this week as we discuss viscous stouts with oil slick residue, the pros and cons of collaborating remotely, Three On A Match, brewing unsexy beer, finding the best pizza in Auckland, vanilla being the the best flavour on Earth, brewers that will only sell their beer to people who deserve it, Matt’s cheeseburger blog, Raspberry Berlinerweisse, corn fungus (huitlacoche), fresh Otherside shipment plus WE’RE HIRING!

The Cheeseburger Diet Freakonomics Podcast

Auckland’s still in lockdown but there’s lots of international beer news to discuss this week as BrewDog enter partnerships to take over Japan and India, and Stone & Wood (Australia’s 2nd largest independent brewery) is purchased by Mitsubishi. We also chat about ingredient homogenisation, thick adjunct imperial stouts, homebrewing, cooking with beer and new releases. We’re drinking a brilliant classic West Coast IPA from Christchurch’s Volstead and remembering the man who inspired the name, Mr Ombibulous.

Libby is the library app where you can read digital magazines for free with a library card.

Some New Yorker articles by the Ombibulous HL Mencken

Stone & Wood bought by Lion (Kirin/Mitsubishi)

Article from one of Black Hops’ founders with an inside view on the challenges of growing a beer business

BrewDog Asahi partnership

The Cooking With Beer book Matt was reading

We are still in Level 4 lockdown as chat about perfectly the evolved Pale Ale from The Theoretical Brewer, lots about Small Gods labels and concepts, home brew dip hopping, Boak & Bailey’s book Brew Britannia, CAMRA members saving beer, cask vs keg, poorly canned beers, shipping beer during lockdown and creating TextBeer to compete with the supermarkets.

In this episode we chatted about a couple of delicious beers from Whistling Sisters, amateur enthusiasm, beer label art, 1964 beer trends, bottle caps vs corks, lavender saison, old books, pirate themed rum bars, exporting Dark Mild to England, Master Brewers, candi sugar, Goldings terroir and cuddling Logan.

It’s the Beer Jerk Zest Cast! We are zesting a wheelbarrow-load of grapefruits, finally drinking Matt’s home-brewed Table Beer and talking about the Mumme we (Small Gods) made with Double Vision, dip hopping, biotransformation of hop oils, i of the Zombier, meeting the new owner of Ballast Point, new releases, supporting independent brewers, delicious sage and disgusting wormwood tea.

Søren and I took time out of our brew day to chat about his background in biochemistry, the early days of 8 Wired, barrel ecosystems, freezing Bumaye, art vs science, coaching yeast, getting feijoas out of a barrel bunghole and brewing a 16% low carb beer.