On a night where the majority of our beer scene were in Our Nation’s Capital (and let’s be honest; Our Nation’s Beer Capital too) attending the BrewNZ Beer Awards; the rest of us not fortunate enough to be in Wellington were tracking down Indian Pales Ales for the cause of International IPA Day.

Thursday always tends to be a pretty hectic day for me, with sporting commitments disrupting the flow of the evening, but I was lucky enough to squeeze three new IPA’s into my repertoire.

The always welcoming doors of Galbraith’s on Mt Eden Rd beckoned me in with promises of a tasty collaboration brew between Yeastie Boys and Liberty Brewing. It was always going to be hard to ignore after @GalbraithsAles had tweeted earlier that week “Yakima Warrior by @yeastieboys just hit the taps….it’s so very good. IPA of the year?”

I had already bought myself two newbies that were sitting in the fridge at home in preparation for IPA Day, but those plans had to be postponed, lest I missed out on what could be ‘IPA of the Year’.

So While Yeastie Boys took the mickey out of DB and 8 Wired took the Champion NZ Brewery, I had myself three new IPA’s from three different countries; Sierra Nevada Torpedo, Baird Brewing Suruga Bay and Yeastie Boys/ Liberty Brewing Yakima Warrior.

All three were great beers with big bitter backs on them as you would expect from an IPA and each had their own merits. Once again I won’t proclaim to be no beer connoisseur, but I found the Baird Brewing to have a a sweeter taste than the other two. I was very impressed with Yakima Warrior, it seemed to be very well balanced and I could see where Galbraith’s were coming from with their ‘IPA of the Year’ call.

The Winner on the #IPAday? New Zealand by a country mile, good work boys and good work to all those other brewers who picked up awards at the BrewNZ Beer Awards.
Cheers.

I bogarted Dave The Beer Guy’s photo for this post, so you should go read some of his beer articles for Victoria University.