I guess that with this being the final issue of Craccum for the year it might be a good time to reflect back over the different beers I’ve tried this year, the different brewing attempts I’ve made and just the state of beer culture generally. There’ve been some new beers that I’ve really enjoyed this year, some old beers that I’ve rediscovered and some general good fun all round.

My favourite beers for the year would have to include the 8wired iStout and HopWired, two fantastically big, flavoursome beers that whilst not being for the uninitiated are very rewarding for those that have learnt the ways of craft beer. Another high point of the year in beer is the Karmeliet Tripel, a Belgian Ale that incorporates barley, oat and wheat into the malt rather than just barley. It can best be described as tasting Golden. I also cracked open some of my older beers from my cellar this year, including my last bottle of Emerson’s JP 2007, which was quite frankly amazing. I hope that the recipe will be resurrected in some way in the future.

I only managed to make time for a couple of batches of homebrew this year. The first was an imperial pale ale that tasted more like a wheat beer (but was still delicious) and the second was a double Irish Stout. I was particularly pleased with how the stout turned out; it had a very chocolaty flavour to it which made it quite fantastic as a dessert beer. Pity the ingredients I used to make it have been discontinued.

I’ve enjoyed becoming aware that I’m actually known to many people in the beer industry in New Zealand. It has been quite gratifying, in particular being featured on thebeerproject.com (a photography blog by Jed Soane) as a typical beervana attendee. I have also started a little bit of a beer blog of my own at www.bier.co.nz, which currently just has a collection of reviews I’ve written for Craccum over the last couple of years but I intend to expand it at some point.

My biggest regret for this column this year was not getting round to documenting the effect of terrible beer on the well being of your standard Education Vice President over the course of an evening. Ah well, maybe it’ll be a summer school special. For now this sad photo from the evening in question will have to suffice.