22 September 2015 - Best Beer HQ
Lion tops 2015 New Zealand Brewers Guild awards
Bigger really must be better. New Zealand’s largest brewery has this week been named the Champion Brewery at the 2015 Brewers’ Guild of New Zealand Beer Awards.
Lion Breweries – owned by Japanese corporation Kirin – beat out nearly 93 other New Zealand breweries to scoop the big award at the gala awards ceremony in Auckland.
At the time of writing, Lion produces and markets six of New Zealand’s top 10 best-selling beer brands, including Steinlager, Speight’s, Mac’s, Lion Red, and regional brands such as Waikato Draught.
Lion has also been acquiring a growing range of craft beers as well as the licenses to produce international beers in New Zealand, such as Corona, Stella Artois and Guinness.
In addition, Lion beers took out 28 winner’s medals across ten categories.
Lion national operations director Paul Woods commented: “We’ve enjoyed a good deal of success with our growing range of beers. There’s more variety and styles than ever before. That’s great for consumers and for the New Zealand brewing industry as a whole.
“For all brewers the secret to success is passion, hard work and dedication to the task. We still enjoy brewing now as much as we ever have and most brewers will feel exactly the same way.”
But the evening wasn’t all about Lion. A total of 59 gold, 159 silver and 243 bronze medals were also handed out. Beer entries were rated against a style guide for each category for its colour, aroma, bitterness, presentation and, importantly, its taste.
The winners at this year’s Brewers Guild of New Zealand Beer Awards were:
International Lager: Lion, Beck’s
New Zealand Lager: Panhead Custom Ales (Wellington), Port Road Pilsner
British Ale styles: Mike’s Organic Brewing (Taranaki), Organic Ale
European Ale: Garage Project (Wellington), Tournesol
US Ale: Bach Brewing (Auckland), Duskrider Red IPA
Pale Ale: Fork Brewing (Wellington), Godzone Beat
Strong Pale Ale: Epic Brewing Company (Auckland), Armageddon
Stout and Porter: Raindogs Brewing Company (Christchurch), Singularity Imperial Stout
Wheat/Other Grain: Dominion Breweries, Black Dog – Blizzard
Flavoured & Aged: Good George Brewing (Hamilton), Blueberry Gose
Specialty/Experimental/Aged: Garage Project (Wellington), Wabi Sabi
Cider/Perry: Forbidden Brewing Company (Auckland), Simply Apple Cider
Fruit/Flavoured: Lion, Issac’s Berry Cider
Packaging: McCashin’s Brewery, Stoke Amber 300ml 6 Pack
Champion International Brewery: Castlemaine Perkins (Brisbane)
Morton Coutts Trophy for Innovation or Achievement: Gladfield Malt
Champion Brewery: Lion Breweries
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