The Beer Festival on Saturday 31st March at the Cloud is New Zealand’s answer to Oktoberfest, just on a much smaller scale. Thread headed down for a mug of brown gold..
I haven’t always enjoyed the taste of beer. After a good friend came home from Germany one summer it was her drink of choice and it sort of rubbed off on me. There’s something I find so refreshing about it that I just don’t get from other beverages.
On a warm Auckland day we headed to the waterfront not really knowing what to expect. The Beer Festival on Saturday 31st March at the Cloud is New Zealand’s answer to Oktoberfest, just on a much smaller scale. Upon arrival we were given a plastic branded ‘Beer Festival’ mug, which was a great idea so as to not having glass bottles lying around. Then we were away to try and wrap our lips around as many different brews as we could.
The first beer I tried was the Wigram pale ale, which was a great thirst-quenching beverage to start the day. From there we headed outside to a buzzing atmosphere filled with food stalls, live music, and generally people enjoying themselves over a glass of the ‘brown gold’.
After doing the rounds I decided upon a bratwurst hotdog, which simply put, was delicious and complemented the beer perfectly. In fact, all of the options available appeared to be what I would consider great food to accompany beer: pizza, seafood, tacos, and pretzels just to name a few.
The second beer I tried was the Wigram Pilsner, which I enjoyed slightly more than the pale ale. Unfortunately I am not what one might consider a beer connoisseur so my critique of the beer is fairly limited!
I had a general observation that, as you might expect, the festival had a higher male to female ratio. For the non-beer drinkers there was wine available, and cider for a sort of middle ground between the two. The music was great which included The Feelers, Franco, Funkommunity and DJs Sam Hill and Dean Campbell.
My favourite of the day was the Invercargill Honey Wasp Pilsner, which was a bit of a hidden gem really. It not only tasted great but the line to get one wasn’t insane like the rest of them. Win-win. As the night went on the crowd eased up a bit, as everyone started to wind down from a day of drinking sensibly.
We had headed to the waterfront with the simple intention of trying some new beer and I think its safe to say mission accomplished. Although we could not try every beer on offer, from the ones I did try I was very impressed and my repertoire of beers has been extended.
By about 5pm the beer started to run dry. Perhaps someone underestimated how much kiwis love drinking their beer.
Words and photos by Teresa van Dugteren
4 April 2012
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