Local brewers head north for international beer festival

MEDIA RELEASE
Local brewers head north for international beer festival

Beer and cider brewers from across New Zealand are heading up to Auckland next month to take part in the 2016 GABS Beer, Cider & Food Festival.

Judged one of the best beer festivals in the world, GABS Beer, Cider & Food Festival 2016 will showcase the best craft brewers from New Zealand and around the world.

GABS Beer, Cider & Food Fest celebrates the diversity of craft beer and features hundreds of beers, brewery stands, outstanding food vendors, cooking demonstrations, educational seminars, fun activities and great entertainment.

What makes GABS unique, however, are the dozens of exclusive ‘Festival Beers’ brewed specifically for the event.

Unique beers from brewers across New Zealand will be showcased at the event, with many of these being experimental brews made just for the festival.

Rotorua-based brewery Croucher Brewing is using merlot barrels to create a seasonal chocolate cherry porter for the cooler months, which has been left to age for 18 months prior to the event.

And this is just the tip of the beverage iceberg. The brewers at Auckland-based Funk Estate are infusing blood orange, lemon and passionfruit to create a pink, hazy Soured Fruit beer.

Festival Co-Director Steve Jeffares said the only limitations to the festivals beers are the imaginations of the brewers.

“They can submit any beer they like as long as they’ve never brewed it before. This year’s Festival Beers incorporated everything from peanut butter, rice, spiced rocket leaves, blueberries and apricots to strawberry jelly, with an increasing number fermented and aged in old wine and spirit barrels.”

Local brewer Soren Ericksen from 8 Wired Brewery said GABS Beer, Cider & Food Festival is one of the leading beer festivals in the Southern Hemisphere, and holding the event in Auckland will help support the national craft brewing industry.

“GABS Beer, Cider & Food Festival Auckland will not only raise the awareness of good beer here but also help raise the profile of New Zealand beer in Australia, which is an important export market for many small breweries," says Ericksen.

The festival was started in 2012 by Steve Jeffares and Guy Greenstone, owners of the multi-award winning Local Taphouse beer bars in Melbourne and Sydney, and is run annually in each city. This is the first time the festival has come across the ditch to New Zealand.

GABS Beer, Cider & Food Festival Auckland will be held on Saturday 18th June at the ASB Showgrounds in Greenlane.

More information: www.GABS.beer

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