For the first time in New Zealand, the GABS Hottest 100 Kiwi Craft Beers has been announced.

Number One: Panhead Supercharger APA

Created by the team behind the hugely popular GABS Beer, Cider & Food Fest, and supported by Liquorland and craftypint.com, the poll started life nine years ago in Australia as a way for craft beer fans to celebrate their favourite Aussie beers on Australia Day. Since then, the poll has grown to become, as described by Australian Brews News, “the largest and most influential people’s choice poll in the land”.

After staging the first GABS Auckland to much acclaim in June last year, the team then announced the launch of an entirely New Zealand focussed edition of the Hottest 100 Craft Beers poll. Excitingly, the Kiwi craft beer community responded with gusto, with breweries registering more than 550 individual beers to vote for. The fans have also embraced the opportunity to nominate their five favourite beers of the year, with more votes received in the first Kiwi poll than the organisers received in the first four years of the Aussie edition.

With so much interest, beer fans all over the country went online to follow the live countdown from #100 to #1 on Waitangi Day. What immediately became apparent was the dominance of Wellington’s Garage Project. Over the course of the countdown, the prolific brewers took out a record 19 spots, including third place on the podium with their ‘Pernicious Weed’ Double IPA and another four beers in the top ten.

In second place was Auckland-based Epic Brewing, with their Double IPA ‘Hop Zombie’. And taking out the inaugural title of the GABS Hottest 100 Kiwi Craft Beer was the incredibly popular ‘Supercharger’ American Pale Ale from Panhead Custom Ales in Wellington.

Co-founder Steve Jeffares, who is also behind Australia’s Local Taphouse beer temples and Stomping Ground Brewery, remarked, “It’s been incredible to see the response the Hottest 100 Craft Beer poll has had in its first year in New Zealand, and really demonstrates the vibrancy and diversity of craft beer in the Kiwi industry. It’s fantastic to see Panhead take out the title with ‘Supercharger’, particularly when that beer also just won the title of New Zealand’s Beer of the Year from the Society of Beer Advocates (SOBA). To get both that critical acclaim, plus the people’s choice of the Hottest 100, it’s a real indication of just how good that beer is.”

An impressive 18 new beers (brewed for the first time in 2016) made the list, including three from Behemoth: the ‘Triple Chocolate Milk Stout’, the ‘Tropical Mo Fo’ Fruit Beer, and ‘Dump the Trump’ American IPA.

Another Hottest 100 debutante is the ‘Jungle Boogie’ Soured Fruit Beer from Funk Estate in Auckland which first made its mark at the 2016 GABS Beer, Cider & Food Festival as one of the most popular Festival Beers (beers brewed especially for the event). It’s one of six GABS Festival Beers on the list. As a broader trend, increasingly Festival Beers that prove popular at GABS are making their way into a brewery’s permanent range and onto the broader Hottest 100 list.

GABS Auckland is regarded as the premier beer festival in New Zealand and takes places at the ASB Showgrounds on Friday June 16 and and Saturday June 17. Visit www.gabsfestival.com for more info.

1. ‘Supercharger’ American Pale Ale (Panhead)
2. ‘Hop Zombie’ Double IPA (Epic)
3. ‘Pernicious Weed’ Double IPA (Garage Project)
4. ‘Death From Above’ Experimental Beer (Garage Project) GABS
5. ‘Hopwired’ New Zealand IPA (8 Wired)
6. ‘Hippy Berliner’ Berliner Weisse (8 Wired) GABS
7. ‘Armageddon’ American IPA (Epic)
8. ‘Garagista’ Specialty IPA (Garage Project)
9. ‘Hāpi Daze’ Experimental Beer (Garage Project)
10. ‘Party & Bullshit’ American IPA (Garage Project) NEW
11. ‘BitterBitch’ Sp0ecialty IPA (ParrotDog)
12. ‘C!tra’ Double IPA (Liberty)
13. ‘Triple Chocolate Milk Stout’ Sweet Stout (Behemoth) NEW
14. ‘Quickchange XPA’ American Pale Ale (Panhead)
15. ‘Knife Party’ American IPA (Liberty)
16. ‘Flat White Milk Stout’ Sweet Stout (8 Wired)
17. ‘Sauvinova’ Specialty IPA (Tuatara)
18. ‘Imperial Nibs Cacao, Vanilla, Coconut Porter’ (Kererū)
19. ‘Dump the Trump’ American IPA (Behemoth) NEW
20. ‘Vandal’ Specialty IPA (Panhead)
21. ‘New Zealand Pilsner’ (Emerson’s)
22. ‘Kauri’ Double IPA (Birkenhead)
23. ‘Port Road Pilsner’ International Pale Lager (Panhead)
24. ‘Epic Pale Ale’ American Pale Ale (Epic)
25. ‘Yakima Monster’ American Pale Ale (Liberty)
26. ‘Lupus the Wolf Man’ Double IPA (Garage Project) NEW GABS
27. ‘Bird Dog’ American IPA (Emerson’s)
28. ‘BEER’ Pale Lager (Garage Project)
29. ‘Kapai’ American Pale Ale (Tuatara)
30. ‘Bookbinder’ British Golden Ale (Emerson’s)
31. ‘Thor’ Double IPA (Epic) NEW
32. ‘Lupulingus’ Double IPA (Epic)
33. ‘Los Lobos’ American IPA (Garage Project)
34. ‘Dirty Boots’ American Pale Ale (Garage Project)
35. ‘In Ya Face’ Double IPA (Behemoth)
36. ‘Reet Petite’ American Amber Ale (Choice Bros)
37. ‘Tomahawk’ American Pale Ale (Tuatara) NEW
38. ‘Pils’n’Thrills’ New World Pilsner (Garage Project)
39. ‘CHOMP’ Australian Pale Ale (Black Dog)
40. ‘Hops on Pointe’ New Zealand Pilsner (Garage Project)
41. ‘Dankomatic’ American IPA (Epic) NEW
42. ‘Gunnamatta’ American IPA (Yeastie Boys) GABS
43. ‘IPA’ International Pale Ale (Good George)
44. ‘6 Foot 5 IPA’ American IPA (Behemoth)
45. ‘KINGTIDE Pacific IPA’ American IPA (Bach)
46. ‘Double Trouble’ Specialty IPA (Tuatara)
47. ‘Angry Peaches’ American Pale Ale (Garage Project)
48. ‘iStout’ Russian Imperial Stout (8 Wired)
49. ‘Day of the Dead’ Experimental Beer (Garage Project)
50. ‘Venusian Pale Ale (VPA)’ Experimental Beer (Garage Project)
51. ‘Iti’ American Pale Ale (Tuatara)
52. ‘White Mischief’ Soured Fruit Beer (Garage Project)
53. ‘Stone Hammer’ American IPA (Epic) NEW
54. ‘Gypsy Funk’ Mixed-Fermentation Sour Beer (8 Wired) NEW
55. ‘Pacific Pale Ale’ American Pale Ale (Birkenhead) NEW
56. ‘Johnny Octane’ Red IPA (Panhead)
57. ‘Big Smoke’ Smoked Beer (non Rauchbier) (8 Wired)
58. ‘Kōwhai’ Double IPA (ParrotDog)
59. ‘Moa St Josephs’ Belgian Tripel (Moa)
60. ‘Sparkling Pale Ale’ International Pale Ale (Good George)
61. ‘Wild Feijoa 2015 Vintage’ Mixed-Fermentation Sour Beer (8 Wired) NEW
62. ‘ANZUS’ International IPA (Croucher) GABS
63. ‘Moa Session Pale Ale’ American Pale Ale (Moa)
64. ‘La Calavera Catrina’ Experimental Beer (Garage Project)
65. ‘APA’ American Pale Ale (Good George)
66. ‘CHUR! NZ Pale Ale’ American Pale Ale (Behemoth)
67. ‘Cabbages & Kings’ Experimental Beer (Garage Project)
68. ‘Tall Poppy’ Red IPA (8 Wired)
69. ‘Rogue Hop’ German Pils (Harrington’s)
70. ‘Mot Eureka’ New World Pilsner (Tuatara)
71. ‘Lady Danger’ Red IPA (Beer Baroness)
72. ‘Vanilla Coffee Porter (VCP)’ Porter (Mike’s)
73. ‘Halo’ New Zealand Pilsner (Liberty)
74. ‘Hopped up on Pils’ New World Pilsner (Behemoth)
75. ‘DeadCanary’ English IPA (ParrotDog)
76. ‘Tropical Cyclone’ Double IPA (McLeod’s)
77. ‘Donovan’s Rocky Road White Stout’ Sweet Stout (Good George) NEW
78. ‘For Great Justice Wood-Fired Toasted Coconut Porter’ (Kererū)
79. ‘Rocket Coffee’ Specialty IPA (Good George) NEW
80. ‘Godzone Beat’ New Zealand Pale Ale (Fork & Brewer)
81. ‘Tropidelic’ New Zealand Pale Ale (8 Wired)
82. ‘Red IPA’ (Hop Federation)
83. ‘Thunder’ American Pale Ale (Epic) NEW
84. ‘Forget-me-not’ American IPA (ParrotDog)
85. ‘Moa Imperial Stout (Oak Aged)’ (Moa)
86. ‘Tiramisu’ Oatmeal Stout (Tuatara) NEW
87. ‘Jungle Boogie’ Soured Fruit Beer (Funk Estate) NEW GABS
88. ‘Hardtail Henry’ American Stout (Panhead)
89. ‘Yuzu Pernicious Weed’ Experimental Beer (Garage Project) NEW
90. ‘Stonecutter’ Scotch Ale/Wee Heavy (Renaissance)
91. ‘Tropical Mo Fo’ Fruit Beer (Behemoth) NEW
92. ‘Lack of Faith’ Black IPA (Garage Project)
93. ‘’Murica’ American Pale Ale (Behemoth)
94. ‘Sour Poppy’ Mixed-Fermentation Sour Beer (8 Wired)
95. ‘Oh Brother’ American Pale Ale (Liberty)
96. ‘DUSKRIDER Red IPA’ (Bach)
97. ‘Sauvin Bomb’ New Zealand IPA (Liberty)
98. ‘Uranium Breath’ American IPA (Mash Palace)
99. ‘Amber Ale’ (Good George)
100. ‘DRIFTWOOD Pacific Pale Ale’ American Pale Ale (Bach)