My expectations of the New Zealand Beer Festival weren’t high and they dropped a little more when I got off the bus in Ellerslie and found a guy dressed as ‘Beer Man’. The closer I got to the beer, the more they dropped; at the first door I was handed a card to get my sixth Cobra free. At the second door was another multi-buy card, this time for Carlsberg. Then I got inside and confirmed that many of the breweries listed on the website weren’t there, since the lucky buggers were at Marchfest.
I did cheer up considerable though when I ran into Luke from Epic brewery, who was staring up at his projector. It wasn’t pointing quite where it was meant too, possibly because they’d hung it from the roof in an Epic box with some bits of string. I’m not sure why this cheered me up so much. Probably because it reminded me that this wasn’t a completely soulless Auckland event and there were great breweries here. Luke also recommended I head over to Mike’s stand and try either their Imperial IPA or Imperial Porter. I had the porter; it was delicious and thoroughly cheered me up.
There was plenty to keep a beer geek happy for the afternoon. Along with Epic and Mike’s, there was Croucher, Mata, Epic, Harrington’s, Tuatara, and Wigram breweries, serving up their finest wares. The Auckland Sobaites managed to bags a good central table and create a little pool of calm (well, as calm as you can be when you’re tasting Mike’s Imperial Porter or Mata’s Taniwha and you want to yell to the rooftops how awesome it is). We had a good group there and it was an interesting afternoon.
The problem was, was that the Beer Festival didn’t want to be a beer festival, it wanted to be a party. The VIP tent, the loud (and often terrible) music, and the chumps walking up to Mike’s stand and ordering ‘something with lots of alcohol’ all seemed much too in-line with New Zealand’s predominate drinking culture. I’m glad I went to support those craft breweries who did go, but with the bogans, Portaloos in the rain and the (frankly) false advertising, all I could think was ‘Bring on Beervana!’ Only four months to go!
Just Another Beer Blog 
March 29, 2011 at 7:39 pm
I could’ve done without the bogons as well! Oh well. I need to get to beervana sometime.
I did spot a few other people there wearing soba t-shirts, managed to say hi to most of them!
March 30, 2011 at 7:43 am
Being on he other side of he counter ( well actually that is were my staff were) I noticed a significant change in the crowd from the previous years in Auckland. Historically I have experienced the bogans, and we still had a few of those, with a large percentage of our beer sales being lager.
This year we sold out of Armageddon by 6pm then Portamarillo, then Mayhem. We went home with just four cases of lager and a case of stout and pale ale. So an impressive day for sales. But more impressive the change in the people buying our beer, more educated, more Wollongong to try something new that they hadn’t tried before.
Normally at Auckland beer fests I want to run out of beer 2 hours before the end of the event so we don’t have to deal with the bogan lager drinkers.
Did hear from an organizer that Carlsberg didn’t even sell a pallet.
Those multi buy cards should be allowed. They should just take the money from those people wanting to drink 5 green bottled lagers at the gate and send them home. Same with the people that pay $25 to come and drink Corona at a beer festival.
Overall very impress with the huge change in drinkers in Auckland in the last 12 months, I feel it is also being reflected in the changes in attitude by bar owners willing to stock craft beer.
It wasn’t a perfect beer fest, but a serious movement in the right direction for Auckland. Here is to Auckland becoming the Beer capital of new Zealand.
March 30, 2011 at 2:49 pm
It is always different if you’re on the serving side of the counter… it tends to be easier to handle if you’re making a fortune. And, to be honest, when you’re not an international brand you are less likely to see those only interested in “booze”.
I reckon the Wellington one last year was similar but my thoughts are pretty much aligned to Luke. There is an excellent groundswell of those people who are there looking for the best… that will only continue.
As for our binge culture. I think our politician continue to look at it the entirely wrong way… but my thoughts are an essay, rather than a comment.
Cheers
Stu
March 30, 2011 at 4:58 pm
As a first-timer, I was disappointed with this event. The lack of casks was the first thing that struck me, especially from the likes of Epic! If I want to drink that from the bottle, I can buy it from my local liquor store – and they don’t charge me $25 to enter!
There was just enough smaller breweries there to keep my interest, but the Cobra, Carslberg, and Corona stands really dragged the occasion down. It’s not surprising it attracted a certain element who were just there to get drunk. And to say that the likes of Kirin were “represented” because there were a few crates of there was a cheap trick on the part of the organisers.
I was particularly disappointed by Emerson and Renaissance’s apparent absence?
March 30, 2011 at 9:32 pm
I bet Renaissance and Emerson’s weren’t even invited…
March 31, 2011 at 10:46 am
What about you Boys? I must’ve missed you too?