What we found

Draughts

There wasn't anything inspiring in the New Zealand draughts we tasted. Although Speight's Gold Medal Ale was the best of the bunch, it wasn't worthy of our top rating.

Dark lagers

The dark lagers had more success in tantalising our panel's tastebuds. Black Mac was the highest-scoring beer in our tasting. It had a silky mouthfeel and a great lingering after-taste dominated by dark malt. One of our panel commented he could drink a lot of this beer!

Small New Zealand breweries also made a good showing with their dark lagers. Moa Noir was a full-bodied beer with a nice dry hop finish. Wigram Brewing Co. Munchner Dunkel was balanced and complex, tasting of chocolate and hops. Founders Organic Long Black was rich and malty with a nice mocha aroma.

Ales

Emerson's Old 95 was the only ale that got the panel's seal of approval. It had a pleasant hoppy taste with a clean finish.

Porters

"Finally a real porter," said the panel when they tasted Speight's Porter - a well-balanced beer with a chocolate and coffee flavour. It was also the cheapest porter in our tasting.

By comparison, the other porters lacked intensity and didn't have enough malty flavours to impress.

Stouts

Stouts should be big and gutsy, but our panel wasn't particularly impressed with the Kiwi offerings. Cascade Stout from Australia was their pick. It was big and creamy with a smooth dark malt character.

Surprisingly, Guinness didn't rate highly. With one exception - and he drinks a lot of Guinness - our panel members thought it was bland, metallic and thin-bodied.