Beervana: The post-match analysis

Wellington on a good day

I started writing this the Monday after Beervana (yup, it's taken me a while because I've been working), and I feel exactly like I used to after I once played four games of football over a weekend - sore legs, slightly seedy and so glad I put myself through it.

But you have to forgive me for being so glad. When you're walking into Westpac Stadium and the weather is that good, you can't help but be happy with whatever you're doing.

For me, that doing was volunteering. I really, really, really miss bartending - but maybe not the pay - so thought I would offer my services, and promptly got told I would be serving beer alongside cool people like Richie. He ended up working every session. If he was a brewer, that would be understandable, but for a volunteer he put in a big effort. Someone should get that man a beer sometime.

But I didn't end up working at a bar at all. Volunteer maestro Jessica caught wind that I was in the media-brewer competition, and decided I could help with the tasting. Then she decided I could run the session... five minutes before it started...

It was hard yakka. No microphones, some judges who weren't very crowd friendly (sorry guys, no offence) and a lot of running around. But it was great fun, with some wacky brews offered up; horseradish pale ale, chili and marshmallow beer and ANZAC biscuit ale were there for the judges to try. The most "normal" beer was an imperial IPA.

Liberty Brewing - Rennals Toward Murawai

And I came third! Well, Stu and I came third with a lot of help from Chris Banks. I didn't really have much to do with it to be perfectly honest. I just turned up on brew day and provided the stainless. But I think Tintin and Uri's Third Wheel Spoonbender turned out great. Easy-drinking for 7-ish% but that candi sugar made from a sweet white wine still stood out. Smart! I'm looking forward to seeing what the Yeastie Boys do with it from here.

The most fun part was chilling out with people afterwards and going through the brews. I managed to meet a lot of awesome people who I had only "met" through the Twitterverse. But I spent the most time with Simon Morton and Richard Scott from Radio NZ's "This Way Up" show. It may have had something to do with the free beer (a lure to any good journalist), but it was great to sit down and talk brews and journalism with a couple people who know what they're on about and were really nice.

Naturally, having a few drinks with journalists left me in a great place to have a few more beers with journalists. I met up with a few buddies from my journalism class and proceeded to drink some of the Beervana brews.

Picking a favourite from Session 2 was tricky. Hallertau Funkonnay was absolutely everything I thought it would be - sour, wine-like but still with some awesome beer flavour going on. Emerson's Regional Best Bitter was tasting great on the handpump, as did the Cassel & Sons Milk Stout. Both nice and creamy, with the stout a rare treat for me. I even managed to fit in some Garage Project Red Rocks Reserve.

There was some great food as well. I made sure to get in on Fork & Brewer chef Anton's session about beer and food. Beer vinegar, salmon paired with Emeron's Pilsner and a chance to give Neil Miller a bit of stick - what else could a guy ask for!

Trying to check the clarity of C!tra

I had a glass of both Liberty C!tra (nicely modelled by Kerry there) and Yakima Monster (which was far too awesome) near last call, but it was their Rennals Toward Murawai which really stood out. As black as Death but really quite light for a beer that big, it showed off more than enough promise to convince me to go out and get a couple bottles sometime. Chur Joseph, chur indeed!

After a good sleep, shower and feed of McDonalds - there may have been a Tuatara Double Trouble from Fork & Brewer somewhere before that good sleep - it was off to Session 3!

For some reason, I didn't feel like high alcohol beers on Saturday. So instead, I mainly stuck to the milds. While annoyed I didn't get any of Feral's Watermelon Warhead - 2.7% watermelon sour beer - I managed to have a whole lot more awesome stuff.

Monkey Wizard's Black Mass oatmeal stout was the best of the session for me, but there were other great milds - ParrotDog Dogg, Garage Project Milk Chocolate Stout and Yeastie Boys/Lobethal Bruce ordinary bitter the ones I really remember - but there was really only ever going to be one beer of the session.

The one thing I loved about the festival was the relative lack of queues. But at 3pm, a massive line formed for 8 Wired's Bumaye. What else was going to happen for a 17% barrel-aged imperial stout?! It was tasting pretty fresh (lots of oak and alcohol notes) at the festival, but I think it'll be great in a year.

I went with the intention of taking detailed notes - I even had a notepad - but didn't get around to it. Why? Because I was simply having too much fun with people. And that's where Beervana was great for me. It was a chance to meet some people, catch up with some people, congratulate a lot of people and generally spend time with people who all shared something in common - an appreciation of beer as a drink, rather than a drug, and a want to share that with other people.

Brewers, bar tenders, photographers and people being idiots - that's Beervana in a collage.

So, until next year, cheers Beervana!