New brews to peruse at Marchfest 2021

The hoppy and the hazy styles are ready to pour but among the 15 special batches of beers at Marchfest 2021 are some interesting new flavours, including one that is touted as almost too good to be true.

This year’s event – the 14th in its history – will be held at Founders Heritage Park on Saturday March 20 from noon to 9.30pm.

The event will feature 11 top of the south breweries joining Waikanae’s North End brewery, Wanaka’s Rhyme and Reason, New Plymouth’s Shining Peak Brewing and Lower Hutt’s Abandoned Brewery – in specially-commissioned beers which have never previously been tasted by the public.

A sell-out in 2019 and 2020, tickets for this year’s Marchfest were pointing to another busy Saturday.

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Visitors can head to The FlexiTenz Tasting Bar and Cryer Malt Brew Zone to learn about the ingredients and process involved in making beer, as well as Brew Talks with a range of commercial craft brewers answering questions about their approach to making great craft beer.

The 11 top of the south brews on offer feature a familiar list of producers unleashing new tastes on the public.

This was none more evident in the offerings of Marlborough-based breweries Renaissance and Funk Estate.

Funk Estate’s Mojito Braggot Highballin Hoax, uses loads of honey, lime and mint, added to a complex malt base and has been created in collaboration with Beehave Meadery.

Head brewer at Renaissance and Funk Estate Sean Moss said the idea for emerged from a meeting with the Beehave crew at Beervana festival and trying their session mead, based on a mojito cocktail.

“I tasted it and thought it was really good, so I started coming up with a recipe in my head – we’ve basically taken his mead and transformed it into a beer. I’m really happy with how it’s come out.”

“It’s a style of beer that not many people know about but it sort of opens up the realm of bridging the boundaries between mead and beer.”

Renaissance’s brown ale creation Dez Nuts on the other hand, combines its traditional style of brewing with hazelnut flavour to make “nutella in beer form” and a drop that Moss described as “quite sessionable.”

Moss said part of the fun of Marchfest was bringing together an unreleased design beer and seeing the response from punters.

“Some of them have taken off, some haven’t – but that’s the whole thing about festival beers – you’re creating something that you’re not necessarily going to find anywhere else, and I think that’s one of the draws for people.”

2021 will be a first-time affair for Waikanae’s North End Brewery and head brewer Kieran Haslett-Moore is looking forward to spending a day amongst top of the south beer lovers.

“It was nice to get the invite, so we’re keen to rock into town, drink some beers, show off our own and have some fun.”

A cheesemonger in another life, Halsett-Moore said food went hand in hand with his brewing enterprise, specialising in traditional European beer styles that tend to go well with food – as opposed to following the “adjuncty” trends of craft beer.

North End’s Marchfest debut creation is a brown porter London-style beer which drew inspiration from the dark and stormy cocktail – a Caribbean combination of rum and ginger beer.

“We’ve never done a porter before, but we like using rum oak flavour in many of our beers.”

Tickets are $47 up until the day of the event. Gate sales will be available on the day, unless sold out prior.

More information on Marchfest, including tickets and full brewer notes can be found here.