The 17 beers I sampled at #GABS2018

22 July 2018 - Best Beer HQ

The 17 beers I sampled at #GABS2018

As a 33-year-old man with a penchant for good beer, GABS is about the closest I ever get to feeling like the proverbial “kid in a candy store”.

The only trouble is, there are just so many beers and so little time to sample them all in. Still, I tried my best to imbibe a wide variety of New Zealand and Australia’s best beers – and I even bettered my GABS 2016 effort by one.

Here are the beers I sampled at this year’s event in Auckland (apologies for my tardiness – I really should have posted this a while back!):

  1. Hallertau Beetroot Sour: An odd but interesting start to the day!
  2. Epic Hop Taco Mexican IPA: I heart tacos…
  3. Keruru AT-AT Imperial Pilsner: I heart Star Wars…
  4. Mount Brewing Co. Mermaid’s Mirth APA: I grabbed a glass of this while my sister stood in line to get us some hot chips
  5. Harrington’s Rye Ale: With all due respect to Harrington’s, the people manning its beer stand were among the stingiest pourers of the day ☹
  6. Liberty Brewing Thug Juice: A dank-named pilsner
  7. Emerson’s ConFusion Imperial Belgian IPA
  8. Weezledog Dickie Ahoy Rum Barrel Red Ale: I heart rum…
  9. Panhead Batch 36 Banana Ice Cream IPA: This was definitely the strangest concoction of the day, with nitro and chocolate sprinkles. I tasted exactly like banana ice cream, but it also made me feel a wee bit sickly, to be honest.
  10. Hawkers/Wheaty/Liberty Brewing Framboise à Trois: The queues for the festival beers were long, so I worked the marketplace beers first and only began to select beer paddles from the container bars with an hour left to go in the first session.
  11. Foreigner Brewing Durian Durian: I’ve never eaten a durian before, but now I’ve drunk a beer brewed with it.
  12. Green Beacon Brewing Parfait IPA with Passionfruit & Guava: I like the idea of this beer, but I honestly can’t remember if it was any good or not.
  13. Feral Brewing Co. Shooter McGavin’s Breakfast IPA: “I eat pieces of shit like you for breakfast…” “You eat shit for breakfast?!”
  14. Heyday Beer Co. Saronno Stout
  15. Behemoth Brewing Mocha Madness
  16. Dainton Brewery Skittlebrau: Tasted exactly like beer made with Skittles
  17. Bach Brewing Velvet Marley: This was one of my favourite beers of the day – a sweet, velvety dark beer that tastes like Cherry Ripe chocolate bars 😋 It was so good, that I finished my day session with another glass of this gorgeous beer.

Craft Beer / Weird and Interesting Australia / New Zealand /