Drinking Imports With 5 Great New Zealand Brewers

One thing is for certain, there’s always a plethora of great beers from the Pacific Northwest beers to try at the Oregon Brewers Festival each year – but what about the international ones? Didn’t get a chance to try?  Well, the Kiwis had us covered this year and didn’t disappoint.

Portland’s award winning Belmont Station recently rallied five of New Zealand’s best brought in from a partnership exchange with the OBF and Beervana, Wellington, NZ’s preeminent craft beer festival…and we got a first taste! 

 Sauvinov – Tuatara Brewing (Carl Vasta) – This single-hopped pale ale gets its gooseberry, pineapple and citrus flavors from the distinct Nelson Sauvin hop. Sitting at 5.2% ABV and 38 IBU it’s well-balanced and offers a perfect amount of bitterness for a hot summer day. 

Brewery Fun Fact: The brewery takes its name from the Tuatara hop, which was released around the same time as the Nelson Sauvin.

 Venusian Pale Ale VPA – Garage Project (Jos Ruffel) – With a name like this, you would expect ingredients from Mars… not quite, but still just as interesting. Using lemongrass, kaffir lime leaf, coriander and grapefruit peel – this beer is as zesty as they come. While you might only want one at 7.5% and 60 IBU, the brewery started with only making ½ bbl batches, so thankfully they made enough to share this time!

Brewery Fun Fact: Garage Project ran a series of beers called 24/24, which is where they brew 24 beers in 24 weeks. They love to take risks and have their fans vote on favorites. This was the winner. They also just launched distribution to SoCal. 

Riwaka Secret IPA – Parrot Dog  (Matt Warner)- This 7.9%  Double IPA,  uses the rare Riwaka hop, found only in New Zealand as well as the Australian Vic Secret hop, both in the boil kettle and as dry hops, to give it extra citrus  flavor, aroma and bitterness, but sits low on the IBU scale with only 70. My favorite of the five beers, the American ale yeast and use of pilsner, pale ale and light caramel malts give it the perfect touch. 

Brewery Fun Fact: Starting out by contract brewing and sneaking in growlers to breweries they admired, Parrot Dog has come a long way now winning Best West Coast IPA style at the 8th Annual Malthouse West Coast IPA Challenge this month.  

Johnny Octane – Panhead Custom Ales (Mike Neilson) – While this beer classifies as an Imperial Red Ale and has a heavy malt flavor, it finishes more like an assertive IPA leaving a heavy bitterness on the tongue. Heavily hopped with Simcoe, Columbus and Centennial hops it produces loads of the traditional piney New Zealand flavors, with mild hints of citrus. At 8% ABV and 80 IBU it is definitely an Imperial even if it can’t decide what else it is. 

Brewery Fun Fact: This 18 bbl brewery loves customizing classic beer styles with a unique play of ingredients such as their Black Sabbath, an American Barleywine style. 

Gunnamatta IPA – Yeastie Boys  (Stuart McKinlay) – Probably the most unique beer of the bunch, this tea-leaf infused American-style Strong Pale Ale got teased by the other brewers during the group discussion for barely using any hops, yet pulls a 52 IBU. Brewed for the Great Australasian Beer SpecTAPular, it gets all its inspiration from the Earl Gray Blue Flower tea from Australia. At first sip, this beer has a lot going on with 6.5%, but it settles nicely and offers a lot of great flavor sip after sip. 

Brewery Fun Fact: This brewery now contract brews in London and ships its Australian Earl Gray tea to England. A lot of the beer names, as well as the brewery’s name have a musical influence to the brewer. 

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Also stay tuned for the collaboration beers these guys made during their week-stay with five Portland breweries. (Cascade, Ecliptic, Gigantic, Widmer Brothers and Lompoc Brewing)