Four southern breweries gained a third of the trophies and nearly a third of the medals awarded last week at the annual BrewNZ beer awards.
Nearly 50 breweries from New Zealand, Australia, the United States, Malaysia and Singapore entered 206 beers in the competition and only one trophy went overseas.
Dunedin-based Emerson produced the best wheat beer (Weizenbock) and Green Man just tipped Emerson to the best experimental beer, while Invercargill Brewery produced the best classic New Zealand style (Biman) and the best fruit-flavoured beer (Boysenbeery).
The experimental beers are not available, but Green Man's will be available about the end of this month.
Emerson won gold for its relatively low-strength (3.7%) Bookbinder (available in plastic from the brewery) and the Weizenbock (made from wheat and roasted malt, a warming 8% with hints of fruit and spice), silver for JP, Piny Stout and the experimental beer (Motueka Special) and bronze for London Porter.
Green Man won gold for Celt and silver for the experimental Enrico's Cure.
Invercargill's two trophy winners, Biman (a pilsner designed to go with Indian cuisine) and Boysenbeery, won gold.
Speight's in Dunedin scored a silver for Pale Ale and a bronze for Pilsner, while Dux de Lux, with breweries in Queenstown and Christchurch, scored gold for Ginger Tom and silvers for Alpine Ale and Hereford Bitter.
Among well-known successful brands were Mac's Gold and Sassy Red (gold medals), Steinlager Classic (silver) and Monteith's New Zealand Lager and Winter Ale and Mac's Great White (bronze).
More little honeys Two more made-in-England honey beers have arrived.
Wychwood Brewery's Beewyched Honeyd Ale (5%) presents an explosion of various flavours - floral, roasted malt, honey and grapefruit and ends with roasted malt and hop bitterness.
This is a nice winter drink at garage temperature because the malt flavour is rich and warming.
Fuller's Organic Honey Dew (5%) is probably the sweetest but not cloyingly so - of the several tasted in the past month.
It has a honeyish hop aroma and the malt flavour and bitterness are wrapped in honey tones.
At garage temperature in winter, a nice drop; well chilled in summer, a refreshing drop.
This and Invercargill Brewery's Alpine are my favourite of the honey beers tasted.
Honey Dew's back label (one of a series of 12 with beer-food match ideas) suggests that this one will refresh the palate between mouthfuls of delicately spiced Thai food, leaving a bittersweet aftertaste without overpowering the many flavours of such a dish.
As a lover of Thai, I agree.
Both Poms are in 500ml bottles and cost $7.50 to $8 a bottle: expensive, but well worth a try.
The Fullers and Wychwood beers are available from Fresh Choice and New World supermarkets and liquor outlets Henry's, Munslows, Meenan and Castle Macadam.
