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!):
- Hallertau Beetroot Sour: An odd but interesting start to the day!
- Epic Hop Taco Mexican IPA: I heart tacos…
- Keruru AT-AT Imperial Pilsner: I heart Star Wars…
- 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
- 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 ☹
- Liberty Brewing Thug Juice: A dank-named pilsner
- Emerson’s ConFusion Imperial Belgian IPA
- Weezledog Dickie Ahoy Rum Barrel Red Ale: I heart rum…
- 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.
- 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.
- Foreigner Brewing Durian Durian: I’ve never eaten a durian before, but now I’ve drunk a beer brewed with it.
- 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.
- Feral Brewing Co. Shooter McGavin’s Breakfast IPA: “I eat pieces of shit like you for breakfast…” “You eat shit for breakfast?!”
- Heyday Beer Co. Saronno Stout
- Behemoth Brewing Mocha Madness
- Dainton Brewery Skittlebrau: Tasted exactly like beer made with Skittles
- 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.