The New World beer awards provide a rare opportunity to sample some of the more exotic, often high-strength and therefore relatively expensive hard-to-find beers because the supermarket is stocking about 40 of them until mid-May.
Local brews to stand out in the awards, which drew nearly 460 beers from 83 breweries, were Dunedin brewer Emerson's Bookbinder (gold and best British-style ale), Pilsner and 1812 (silvers), Bird Dog and London Porter (bronze); Queenstown's Altitude The Persistent High scored a bronze, Moonlight Track stout (a smooth, effervescent coffee/chocolate experience) a silver and highly commended and Oamaru's Scotts Brewing 1905 and B10 Porter each scored bronze.
Steinlager Pure (gold medal) was judged the best lager. Pure often takes second place in competitions to its more bitter brother, Classic (this time, a bronze). The Italian Peroni Leggera (3.5%) was the best lower-alcohol beer.
Wellington region's Kereru Brewing had a successful raid: silver for Impersonator IPA (an easy-drinking lighter-roasted version), bronze for both Farmhouse Pale Ale (refreshing, with lots of hop aroma and flavour) and Imperial At-At Pilsner (untasted, but a whopping 10.2%) and gold and best in class for Imperial Nibs Porter (8.5%).
The Nibs is best described as the brewery's (bronze medal) Great Justice Coconut Porter (4.5%) ‘‘on steroids'' with oats, vanilla and chopped (nibs) roasted cacao (cocoa) beans added.
Others randomly sampled were:Renaissance Tribute Barley Wine which, at 11.8%, is so intensely flavoured it resembles a port (silver, highly commended).
Garage Project Los Lobos (8%), full of American hops (gold, best in class). Moa Southern Alps White IPA (6.4%) which relies on some wheat for its colour and would fool a blind man into believing he was drinking a dark IPA (gold, best in class). Good George Doris (4.5%), an apple cider with plums and grapes that would, again, fool a blind man into thinking he was drinking a rosé wine (gold, best cider).
A list of medal winners is on newworld.co.nz.