As almost every­one is aware Beer­vana kicks off tomor­row. It’s very excit­ing for someone like myself who makes homebrew & has a lot to learn and it’s excit­ing for people who like beer and it’s excit­ing for people who like Wel­ling­ton busi­nesses doing great things and it’s just all very excit­ing!

Last year the Brew­ers Guild of New Zea­l­and Awards had already occurred and we could tell you who had scooped up prizes. How­ever this year the Awards are tak­ing place as I type. I’ve seen via twit­ter that Gar­age Pro­ject has picked up an award, I have no idea what for, but they have an award so con­grats to them!

Tomor­row and Sat­urday every­one has the oppor­tun­ity to head to the West­pac Sta­di­um and talk to brew­ers, taste their wares, learn about beer, taste more beer and gen­er­ally rev­el in one of the greatest con­coc­tions that is made from only four ingredi­ents. Beer­vana is not just for the beer boffin or the hop (h)officianado, while many per­ceive ‘craft beer’ (whatever that means) as elit­ist I’ve found that most Wel­ling­ton brew­ers are more than happy to talk about beer and dis­cuss the mer­its of what it is they are cre­at­ing. They aren’t all try­ing to brew some­thing that tears the tastebuds from your tongue in a fit of hops, many of them are try­ing to be more cre­at­ive, to push bound­ar­ies and to chal­lenge long held per­cep­tions of what beer should taste like.

Speak­ing of which – this year the Fest­iv­al Brew that many brew­er­ies take part in twists the found­a­tion of what a beer should be made of with the “3 out of 4” theme, where one of the four core ingredi­ents has to be sub­sti­tuted for some­thing else.

Beer­vana not only offers a great chance to taste great beer and dis­cuss it with the people who make it, it often gives people chances to drink cer­tain beers, the Fest­ive Brew and Media Brew for example that only exist for the dur­a­tion of the fest­iv­al.

If you do head along to Beer­vana make sure you take the time to head along to the sem­inars avail­able, you won’t regret it.

I’m head­ing along tomor­row and can­not wait to learn more about this beau­ti­ful bever­age.