New Zealand’s most popular beer festival is coming back to Wellington and this year promises to be bigger and better than ever. Celebrating its 15th year, Beervana is a celebration of New Zealand craft beer and has been attracting some of New Zealand’s brightest stars in the beer brewing world over the past 15 years. This year, there will be over 60 breweries serving up over 300 different beers over the weekend of the 12-13 August and it’s an event you should not miss out on. Held at the Westpac Stadium, you can guarantee a cracking atmosphere, plenty of banter and some great food and beer. All the makings of a perfect winter weekend in Wellington.
Beervana 2016 – quick facts
12th and 13th August, Westpac Stadium.
11.00am – 4.00pm and 6.00pm – 11.00pm
- The biggest year yet
- 56 breweries and cideries exhibiting
- 5 visiting breweries from Oregon
- 13 of Wellington’s finest eateries and also Rockwell & Sons from Melbourne
- Beervana is going the whole way around the stadium
What’s on at Beervana?
Beer being poured at Beervana 2015. Image Credit: Beervana
Beervana is a celebration of all things craft beer. Primarily, it’s about the drinking, tasting and enjoying a huge range of craft beers from up and down New Zealand, however there are also a number of events taking place at Beervana which bring beer and other goodness together so pop your glass down for five minutes and come and check out some of the great activities taking place at Beervana:
Restaurant Pairings
This fad seems to be growing bigger and bigger each year and for good reason. Beer and food are great together. What’s better is understanding what food goes best with which type of beer and at the restaurant pairing event, you can sample some of New Zealand’s tastiest morsels along with some of our amazing craft beer. Winner.
NZ’s Hottest Home Brewers
An iconic Beervana beer glass – will your homebrew take home the title! Photo Credit: Beervana
Home brewing is another growing trend and more Kiwi beer lovers are brewing from home than ever before. In the past, Beervana have challenged these top home brewers at the Black Rock Home Brewing Competition, however this year they are mixing things up in New Zealand’s Hottest Home Brewers. They are inviting teams of two to four people to test their brewing skills in the biggest brewing battle New Zealand has ever seen. If you brew your own beer, you need to get involved!
Find out more about NZ’s Hottest Home Brewers.
Pucker Up Bar
A new Beervana initiative this year is ‘The Think Tank’ – a 20 tap, speciality bar dedicated to showcase a new style, trend or curiosity that has caught the eye of the Beervana organisers in the last 12 months. This year, the hottest argument on everyone’s lips is sours. Dividing opinion across the country, you’ll be able to try, taste and compare a huge range of sours beers and get a better understanding of this unique style of beer. For better or worse.
Best of the rest
Panhead will once again be tasting at Beervana 2016. Photo Credit: Beervana
These are our top three tips but there are heaps of other things going on across the two days of Beervana – here are just a few to catch the eye:
- Expand Your Mind – Beervana seminars where you can learn more from the master brewers
- Oregon Mash Up – Beervana’s sister city in beer bring some of their top brews across to NZ and you will be able to sample some of these at the interactive bar
- United Colours of IPA – a chance to try some of the country’s finest IPA brewed up by Pink Boots
Book your accommodation for Beervana
If this sounds up your street then you need to get yourself down to Wellington for the weekend and come along to try some of the delicious brews. Here at the Willis Wellington, we’ve still got some availability for the weekend and some great Winter Warmer rates available. Book you accommodation today and find out more about this fantastic event.
For up to date information and pre-event news make sure you follow Beervana on Facebook and other social media platforms.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/BeervanaNZ
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BeervanaNZ
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beervananz/
Snapchat: @beervananz