Cray-cray Beervana Festival Beers (may actually contain cray)

Beervana is a creative playground for both brewers and beer lovers - brewers get to pour their crazy, eclectic, flavourful concepts for beers into a glass, and beer lovers get to drink said frothy concepts. It can get a little cray-cray. Literally. Last year, there was a Crayfish Gose. 

These beers will rarely make it to retail or even on tap - the only place you will be able to try them is at New Zealand’s premier celebration of Good Beer! Here are 30 of some of the wackiest beers you’ll find at Beervana in 2021…. But with more than 430 pouring, we reckon you check them out yourselves! 

Whistling Sisters Beer Co - 8 Spice Thai Green Curry Beer - 4.8% - Ginger, lemongrass and lime leaf top notes support a base of coriander, cumin, chili plus other traditional spices. Pours a hazy light green thanks to spirulina algae with a rocky white head. Waitoa Social Club - Beerquet of Roses Rosewater IPA - 7% - A strong and bitter IPA featuring a delicate touch of rosewater. Perfect for your one true love.

Urbanaut Brewing Co. - Crystal IPA - 6.8% - A shimmering spectre of refreshment, this wondrous, translucent IPA is designed to focus all attention on the hop explosion - punchy and bitter with a clean dry finish. This beer has fresh-fruit notes of gooseberry and grape with super dank aromas from the Nelson Sauvin, Mosaic and Simcoe hops. Urbanaut Brewing Co first brewed this crystalline beer in 2021 as a vivacious glimpse into the possible future of the IPA... massive hop flavour, sparkling, exotic and supremely delicious.

The Occasional Brewer - Skyline Bush Beer Kānuka Ale - 4.7% - Inspired by the first beers brewed in New Zealand. Early European settlers explored their local bush for substitutes for homeland favourites. Oft used for tea, now used for Ale.

Rhyme & Reason - Crema di Limoncello - 6.6% - Smooth and creamy, dare we say, effervescent? A pinch of tart, a dash of sweet. A joy to sip, a pleasure to share. Our ode to Limoncello, delicately restrained sourness and a healthy dose of citrus combine for a delightful result. 

Renaissance Brewing Co. - 90 Hour Hazy IPA - 7.5% - Idiots or geniuses? We will leave it to you to decide that… Together with their mates at Freestyle Hops Ltd. Renaissance came up with what the thought would be a cool idea (hindsight says otherwise). They settled on a West Coaststyle IPA and decided to dry hop it every hour on the hour for 90 hours straight. The result was worth it: a massive tropical fruit nose with hints of passionfruit, pineapple and grapefruit with a juicy mouthfeel and, say the brewers, a lingering bitterness with notes of stupidity (Can you taste the sleep deprivation…?)

Parrotdog Brewery - Matt - Mosaic Lager - 5.5% - Blueberry, lemon peel, smooth, crisp. Made to celebrate the illustrious occasion of Parrotdog’s 10th birthday. Name for one out of the three Matts, who founded Parrotdog. 

Parrotdog Brewery - Matt - Hazy IPA - 7% - Orange peel, pineapple, smooth. Made to celebrate the illustrious occasion of Parrotdog’s 10th birthday. Name for one out of the three Matts, who founded Parrotdog.

Parrotdog Brewery - Matt - Bright IPA - 7% - Grapefruit, passionfruit, dank, firm bitterness.  Made to celebrate the illustrious occasion of Parrotdog’s 10th birthday. Name for one out of the three Matts, who founded Parrotdog.

Chinchiller - Watermelon & Lime Sherbet Oat Cream Sour - 4.5% - Where sweet meets sour, the use of lactose (milk sugar) in the brewing process married up with a sour yeast strain along with some watermelon in ferment, to top off your tasting experience they have added lime sherbet to the rim!!!

Mean Doses - Dark Star Peanut Chilli Porter - 8% - Here's that peanut chili porter that probably no-one was waiting for, but man, why weren't they? The booze, the malts, and the space freighter-load of Opotiki habanero - there's no escaping this one.

Garage Project - Two Tap Mocha - 7% - Two beers, brewed to be blended. Two beers, brewed to be blended. A strong shot of chocolate and coffee Imperial Stout topped up with a velvety smooth Milk Cream Ale poured on nitro. Served with chocolate powder and marshmallows.

Fork & Brewer - Calm As Cookies and Cream Session Maltshake Stout - 3% - Beervana Collaboration: Celebrating 10 years of love and happiness between Beervana Festival Manager, Ryan McArthur, and former Beervana Volunteer, now Fork & Brewer Head Brewer, Brayden Rawlinson.

Duncan's Brewing - Duncan’s Party Mix: Maple Cherry Berry Float - 7.6% - Stay afloat; this is nuts. Duncan’s Maple Scorched Almond Imperial Pastry Stout is topped with a slushie float of our Triple Cherry Berry Smoothie Sour. For the adventurous.

8 Wired Brewing - Celery Salt Hippy Sour Ale - 4% - Dry-hopped sour ale with celery and salt. Refreshingly zingy with a savoury twist.

Altitude Brewing - Banoffee Pie Amber Ale - 9.6% - Altitude’s signature mid-winter dessert beer this year is banoffee pie in a glass. They’ve taken every element of a good banoffee pie and infused it into this big bold amber ale. Malt biscuits get crushed directly in with the barley grains, more bananas than a monkey supermarket into the fermenter and finished with vanilla beans and caramel sauce. The result… Expressive banana and caramel aromas just like the baker likes it.

Boneface Brewing Co.  - Sliver Me Timbers Beer Cocktail - 9.6% - Rum-rested Sliver Mango Sour with mint and lime, turns Boneface’s new-release mango sour into a tropical mojito.

Choice Bros. Brewing - Can I Play With Madness? Bourbon Maple Walnut Imperial Stout - 10% - Stare into Choice Bros’ crystal ball and unlock a synergy of flavours in this boozy bourbon imperial stout. Rich walnut aromatics drizzled over gooey maple syrup.

Clear Head Drinks - SOBAH Finger Lime Cerveza - <0.5% - Made in Australia, this Mexican style brew is light, zesty, tangy and hoppy against a sweet yet nutty backdrop. The finger lime, aka 'gulalung' is an Australian native citrus fruit naturally occurring around Northern NSW and South East Queensland throughout Bundjalung Nations lands. The fruit is rich in folate, potassium and Vitamins C & E. It's a smashable brew for warm weather or after a sweat session! Vegan friendly!

Derelict Brewing - MonkeyMind Perky Nana Pastry Stout 8.5% - Go bananas for this Perky Nana banana, chocolate, and coconut cream!

Deep Creek Brewing Co. - Framboise Noir Barrel Aged Dark Raspberry Sour - 7% - Chocolate and raspberries always go well together. Deep Creek took the traditional Framboise Lambic style and added a twist by using darker malts. Another 12-28 months in NZ red wine barrels and second-use Kentucky bourbon barrels, then three months on raspberries, and eight months, bottle conditioned.

Double Vision Brewing - Hard Case Strawberry Lime Apple Cider - 5.1% - For all of you gluten free or beer-free rebels that attend the beer shows and get mad there is beer there, DVB have heard your suppressed gripes. We brought Hawkes Bay pressed apples, strawberry and lime together in one delicious drop.

Shining Peak Brewing - Skunk Juice Hazy IPA - 6.2% - The impressive brains in the natural gas industry once came up with a genius solution to a dangerous problem. The problem? Natural gas doesn't have an odour and hazardous leaks were going undetected. The solution? Skunk Juice! What is Skunk Juice you ask? It's a pungent brew or Sulphide and Methyl Mercaptan that can be smelled almost three kilometres from its source. It pongs so bad, it once shut down the town of Stratford for a whole day! Our version of Skunk Juice harnesses a hazy chemical brew of Mosaic and Citra hops, that unlike its namesake, gives off a beautiful tropical and citrus aromas, so you'll always know when someone nearby has poured themselves a glass of Skunk Juice!

The Beer Engine - Llews Morels Oyster Mushroom Stout - 5.6% - From the dark moist earth rise and grow, with magical purpose and incredible, complicated chemical process and development, beings that more resemble us than plants, organisms that fit every ecological niche, that can adapt to all environments and conditions... and then we chop their heads off and stick them in a beer. Llew from Wild and Wooly wanted to make an Oyster mushroom stout for his partner, Sarah. So we did - and whacked in a few extra kinds of mushrooms for good measure along with some rosemary and salt to round it out.

Three Sisters Brewery - Straight Outta Plumpton Imperial Pastry Stout - 12.5% - Plum and dark cherry Imperial Pastry Stout coming in at cheeky 12.5%, packed with layers of cacao, freshly roasted coffee beans, and plum notes. It melds seamlessly with complex chocolate malt notes and a tart cherry decadent pastry mouthfeel.

Lakeman Brewing Co. - Hillbilly Milk - Oat Cream Hazy - 6.5% - Brewed by a couple of uncouths in the valleys of Taupo. Stonefruit, grapefruit and berry notes. So velvety that it will slip right between your missing front teeth.

JuiceHead Beer - Inferno of Funk - Bird Eye Chilli-Infused Mind Funk Tropical Sour - 5.5% - The JuiceHead crew didn’t provide a description for this. But it speaks for itself and sounds pretty intriguing!

Non-beer

Buzz Club - Rātā Blossom + Feijoa Session Mead - 5.2% - The Rātā blossom is best known for its vibrant red colour. The smooth, buttery honey produced from Rātā nectar is a favourite by bees, and a range of native birds and insects. Paired with Waikato feijoas, the combination creates a smooth, soft and fruity session mead, with a floral nose and apple, guava and pineapple notes.

Peckham's Cider - HazyBite Snakebite - 6.5% - Both we and our good friends at Boneface are partial to a snakebite now and again; so we came up with a special collab for Beervana of pure Kingston Black cider blended with a fruity, hazy beer. We think it's pretty delicious and can't wait to share it with you.

Garage Project - Dirty Water Cherry Peach - Brewed Alcoholic Seltzer - 4.5% - With a gluten free grain, real fruit and natural flavours, this delivers a sparkling clean, alcoholic seltzer  with under 95 calories and less than 1g of sugar per 360ml glass.

Native Hard Sparkling - Pear & Hemp Hard Sparkling - 6% - Fresh juicy organic Central Otago pears married perfectly with the earthy and nutty tones of hemp then sparkled and lengthened with NZ mineral water.

Crimson Badger Brewing - Dark and Grizzly Alcoholic Ginger Beer Cocktail Specialty - 7% - Our classic Ginger Bear with a nip of spiced rum and fresh lime. A festival favourite... until they package it.