The kiwi brewing industry has just celebrated the 2022 New Zealand Beer Awards.
Christchurch brewery, Three Boys, took the top spot as Champion Exhibitor. Garage Project won New Zealands Best Beer with Chance, Luck and Magic.
Other awards for the evening included Awards for Beer Media, Sustainability in Brewing, the Packaging Award and Beer Tourism which was recieved by Wellington Culinary Events Trust's Beervana.
The newest trophy, No & Reduced Alcohol, proved to be quite popular for its first year with 29 entries. The winner being Behemoth Brewing Company's Low Hanging Fruit - Blood Orange and Passionfruit Edition.
The Brewers Guild saw a total of 828 beers entered across 119 different style classes.
"We're thrilled that the entry numbers continue to stay strong, and it was also great to see many new breweries enter this year, many of whom received medals - In fact, this year's success rate at gaining a medal was 62 percent, up 10 percent from last year," said Melanie Kees, Brewers Guild Executive Director.
Judging of the beers took place in Christchurch at the beginning of July. The team included 29 judges, 22 stewards and six support staff. With travel slowly returning to normal, head judge Tina Panoutsos was able to make her way across the ditch for the event alongside four other Australian judges.
The main celebration for the awards took place at Emerson's brewery in Dunedin. The event was also live-streamed to six other locations across the country.
A complete list of award winners can be found on the Brewers Guild website.
