The crowd gets into the music at the Great Kiwi Beer Festival in Christchurch last year. Photo / Supplied
The crowd gets into the music at the Great Kiwi Beer Festival in Christchurch last year. Photo / Supplied
The brews are being chilled as the punters prepare to descend on Hamilton for its first beer festival.
The Great Kiwi Beer Festival has always made its home in Christchurch, however, event director Callam Mitchell saw the potential in Hamilton, which has played host to the World Sevens the past three years.
Spying its location and accessibility to Bay of Plenty and Auckland, his gamble on the Waikato will come together on Saturday as the festival kicks off after eight months of preparation.
Ticket sales are going well with about 7000 so far sold.
"That's pretty good for a first event in a new city. We're looking forward to growing this next year and beyond."
There are 39 craft breweries and cider producers who will be pouring over 300 different drops, and food from 17 different outlets.
The MetService is forecasting fine weather with light winds for Saturday's inaugural Great Kiwi Beer Festival in Hamilton. Photo / Supplied
The weather is also expected to play its part with a lot of sun on the cards as punters enjoy the stage and its line-up of Kiwi music talent from Dragon, Sons of Zion, Louis Baker and Lost Tribe Aotearoa.
"The music stage is set up on the lawn outside, so that'll be the place to be for chilling on the grass with a beer and some tasty food," Mitchell said.
Epic Brewing owner Luke Nicholas is a stalwart of the Christchurch event and was pleased to see the festival pop up in Hamilton.
"The Christchurch event is relaxed, it's in the sun and everyone has a good time. They seem genuinely interested in craft beer too and ask a lot of questions which is what we want, we want to engage people.
"It's quite educational, it's relaxed. It's a good time."
Among the eight beers Epic will bring to the festival will be the new West Coast IPA, Weaponized, featuring a new native American hop, Pahto, never used in New Zealand before.
There will be around 300 different beers and ciders on offer. Vilagrad Winery, from south of Hamilton, will be the only winery. Photo / Supplied
They're also bringing their new low-carb beer, Blue, as well as the popular Hop Zombie.
Greig McGill, owner of Brewaucracy in Hamilton, was excited to finally have a beer festival on his doorstep.
"It's been talked about that Hamilton has been without a beer festival for such a long time. It's going to be great."
The Brewaucracy stand is planning something special, he said, describing it as "interactive".
He believed Hamilton was the perfect spot for a beer festival as it was the only New Zealand main centre to have never hosted one.
The city was smaller and easier to navigate than Auckland.
The event will also boast a cooking theatre, featuring chefs from Hamilton, Cambridge and Auckland, while a craft beer academy will see the experts from breweries including McLeod's, Liberty, Parrotdog, Ghost and Brewaucracy talk about everything beer.
