A good brew and we all win
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Last week may well have been the best in Richard Emerson's life. On Saturday he married his South African girlfriend and on Thursday evening his brewery was awarded the Champion Brewery trophy at the 2009 BrewNZ Awards. The presentation, at Wellington's Duxton Hotel, was the culmination of a glittering awards dinner; an evening that saw Emerson's dominate this year's competition.
In all, Emerson's received four trophies including three best-in-class awards. The brewery's biggest-selling beer, the delightfully crisp and aromatic Emerson's Pilsner, beat off a pack of high-profile Kiwi golden lagers from the country's big brewers to take out the New Zealand Lagers category. With its strong passionfruit and citrus signature, this one beer has probably done more to raise the profile of craft beer in New Zealand than any other brew.
A second best-in-class award came in the flavoured beers category where Emerson's J-P, a luscious Belgian-style dubbel spiced with star anise, took the trophy. This limited-release seasonal beer is Richard Emerson's tribute to his friend and colleague Jean-Pierre Dufour, the revered Otago University brewing scientist who passed away in 2007.
When I reviewed the beer a month or so ago I found an early suggestion of mint (toothpaste?) and licorice on the palate before chocolate and roasty notes from the dark malts revealed themselves. The bubble gum and clove signature of the Chimay yeast then kick in and sit alongside the aniseed and dark malt flavours through into a long, drying finish. A small amount of this beer is still available in local shops and will probably be drinking at its best for the next few months.
Emerson's also took the trophy in the festive beers category with BeWITched, a high-strength take on a Belgian wheat beer. Made with a grist of lager malt, wheat malt and oats, spiced with coriander and fermented with the Hoegaarden yeast, this cloudy amber-coloured brew weighs in at a little over 8 1/2 per cent and is full of sweet spicy, estery flavours.
With his friend and former rival Chris O'Leary running the Dunedin brewhouse, Richard Emerson also took two gold medals in the wheat beers category. O'Leary has a remarkable talent for brewing sensational wheat beers so it was no surprise when Emerson's Dunkelweiss and Weizenbock, both dark beers in the German tradition, took golds. In the end these two delightful brews, which both feature the Bavarian style's classic banana and clove signature, were only pipped for the trophy by a paler but similarly inspired wheat beer, Tuatara Hefe, brewed by last year's champion brewery.
Marlborough brewers were also among the award winners. Although Blenheim's Renaissance Brewing surprised many by only managing one bronze medal, for its Discovery APA, Moa Brewing took the best-in-class trophy in the Specialty, Experimental, Barrel and Wood Aged category. Its exceptional Moa Dark Reserve, an imperial stout that spent two months in a young pinot noir barrel, is the first in a new range of three beers from the Jackson's Rd brewery. Josh Scott will be presenting a free tasting of Moa's new "Barrel Reserve" range at Scotch in Blenheim from 4pm to 6pm on Wednesday September 9.
Having written just last week about Scotts Brewing Company's new gluten-free beer, I was rapt when the Auckland microbrewery won the Morton Coutts Trophy for brewing innovation.
Back at the awards dinner, the standing ovation that greeted Richard Emerson as he made his way on stage to receive the trophy for Champion Brewery says much for his status within the industry.
Although the award is recognition, if any were needed, that his Dunedin brewery consistently produces some of this country's finest beers, Emerson took the opportunity to share the moment with his peers.
Having hailed the remarkable efforts of "the boys back at the brewery" he went on to point out that when Kiwi brewers strive to improve their beers in order to vie with each other in competitions, the real beneficiaries are New Zealand's beer drinkers.
The way Wellington and Marlborough rocked later that night, I suspect the gods agreed. Cheers!
For full awards listings visit brewnz.co.nz
- The Marlborough Express
