Member Comments

This survey serves little or no real purpose (IMO).

A random choice of breweries included (who's lining whose pocket here??), craft beers that include the mass produced swill of DB and Lion (both of who are unfairly aggressive to any competition e.g. Radler), judges whose opinions vary widely on some beers and lack of knowledge of the finer points of beers (bottle conditioning?).

The results of this survey will be largely ignored by genuine beer connoisseurs but is potentially very damaging to the small breweries that have been slagged by it, possibly for no good reason.

From reading the comments I wonder if it is a matter of labelling that meant the odd beer missed out...

Mata's two commonly avialbale beers would both fit into the pale ale style - especially the Artesian - but are they clearly labeleld as pale ales? Townshend's Cathcarts NTA would also definitely fit in, though is considerably less widely available than the Mata beers.

I was a judge in this tasting and my own brewery's anniversary IPA (Yeastie Boys 'His Majesty 2009') was not included. This was of no concern to me as the beer was available at so few outlets that it is pretty irrelevant to the general Consumer reader. It'd be different if this was a specialist beer or beverage magazine.

Mac's and Monteith's beers should definitely be included in these sorts of tastings. They are marketed in the "craft" category, so why would you exclude them? surely not on volume produced. If so, should we exclude Epic or Emerson's beers because they make batches 5 times the size of the 'average' microbrewery? Or Harrington's who had one of the best scoring beers in the tasting but are making even more beer than Emerson's and Epic?

Slainte mhath
Stu

you mention there are over 80 beer styles, but only look at 3.. what about the Stouts, Bitters, smoked beers, strong ales, ect.

Seems jolly poor to me

I fail to see how Monteiths is a craft beer - mass produced in Auckland.

Also we should not be supporting a brewery (DB) that rides rough-shod over other smaller breweries - refer wwww.soba.org.nz. Then look up Radler

Have to agree that 'hop rocker' isn't a bad drop, but the 'rogue hop' takes the cake. Glad they included Monteiths, as ever since they sold their souls, it's just become too hard to swallow. Thus the results.

Where is 'Townshend Brewery' - Upper Moutere!? also available in local New World supermarkets.

A test lacking topic research.

Try www.ratebeer.com if you want to see a wider list of beers and what punters thought of them.

Reviews of this sort are always subjective and should be taken with a large grain of salt. I would have liked to have seen a larger range of beers though. The inclusion of the Mac's and Monteith's brews is debatable. Personally I was pleased to see the 'Hop Rocker'score well as I enjoy that regularly as I do the 'Great White' (esp on tap). These beers should have been held up as a point of comparison though, not as part of the craft beer range despite their craft origins.
The comment about fresh beer is true to a point. However Emersons, at least, promote their top Ales as improving with age and I know that many other top brewers do the same.