Now that most of my friends have created little versions of themselves it isn't often that they all get to go out by themselves l, however, there is one event every year that has a standing reservation on their calendars...Beervana, a chance for craft brewers to show their wares to the Wellington beer drinking public. It runs Friday afternoon, Friday night and then same again on Saturday. Beer drinking is never improved by battling with the crowds so Friday afternoon is the time to go.
You get a taster glass and can have it filled with whatever is on offer. In the past you also got some tokens as a part of your ticket. Unfortunately this year tokens were extra. No point on stewing on the stingyness though, the beer wasn't going to drink itself. Now I am not going to tell you about every single beer that I tried. A) because I can't remember and B) because beerticking isn't really my thing. I like trying different beers that I haven't had before but I don't need to keep a record of it. (Having s
Beervana (also known as Boganvana due to the typical patrons) is a great balance of all sorts of craft beers and some tasty tasty food from some of Wellington's best food venues organised under the oversight of Martin Bosley. Martin's Croque Monsieur goes perfectly after a few beers but there are plenty of other tasty treats from Pies to dumplings to pizza as well as some sweet treats for those that way inclined.
Garage Project had gone all out this year with a stand that three times the size of some of the other attendees and two bars, a normal one and a workshop one which did all sorts of crazy (gimicky?) beers like a porter blended by hot poker, beer slushies and jellied beer. I wasn't sure that it was my thing, but the crowds loved it with a massive queue all day. With so much other good beer on offer I steered clear of the queue and sampled some other random offerings.
With NZ craft beer being a bit of a hopfest the Belgian bar with its Stella Artois, Hoegarden and Leffe felt out of place (and certainly wasn't being visited by the patrons). Interestingly Moa was conspicuously absent. Financial troubles or just another instance of Moa thinking it is better than everyone else? In any event, thoughts like that were only fleeting with plenty of good ale on offer (8 Wired Bumaye aside...) and another great day out.
