How's your State Of Play today?

You have judged.? We have the highest-rated beer in New Zealand.?

Dish Mag Loves it too!

Zero Zone at WOMAD? ParkRun (New Plymouth) time 29.12 min

It's been quite the week!

Highs and a low.??

High. I was invited to Foodstuffs HQ on Monday for a craft beer forum of store owners and liquor managers.? Great chat.??

Craft zero in supermarkets is big business, with the highest growth out of all other liquor segments - plus it comes with shoppers that shop more often, with bigger spend and enjoy buying premium products.??

Low.? Then I realised I had not sent in beers for the NW Beer & Cider awards.? What an idiot.?

High.? Nek Minute I received an email from Untappd announcing that Nectaron Unfiltered was awarded First Place for non alc pale ale in NZ!? This is from thousands of submissions across 2023.? For a new brand with an even newer beer this is a great result.

The Story Behind Nectaron Unfiltered Pale Ale

A bit over a year ago I was driving back from Motueka to Nelson and came up to the cooperative - NZ Hops Ltd.? I had an idea about a new beer to join the original IPA.? So I took my chances and pooped in on a cold call.

Dave Woods was running operations and a heap of other stuff. He welcomed me in.

'Hi Dave, I have a new brand and I want a new brew with a new hop to win in a new segment in the oldest FMCG category'.

He said, 'you need Nectaron'

This Hop was a new realease from the breeding program.? 20 years in the making.? Named after Ron Beatson - a legend of the hop breeding program at NZ Plant & Food.? The product of crossing 100s of selections each year - enhancing the aroma, yield, alpha & beta acids - and eliminating poor and unwanted traits.? Then voila - a new hop - NECTARON.??

It is absolutely bursting with tropical aroma and complex bitterness.? Pour this beer into a glass and it fully releases stonefruit, lychee, and guava.? ?Totally yum.

I left with a new partnership and a new recipe brewing in my head

The recipe for this beer was simple to write. ?Keep it simple the key.

All barley malt and all Nectaron Hops are added at three different stages of the brew. ?Let the ingredients sing - yes, very loud.

3 months later the trial brews completed, design done and packaging ordered.

The naming for the new beer was simple. Nectaron Unfiltered. The hop in all its glory. You could call it a Hazy, I preferred unfiltered as that was what I wanted for this beautiful hop

Let. It. Sing.

It’s the greatest hop on the planet.? More on hops next week - I headed down for hop harvest!

And Yvonne at Dish Magazine agrees too!? The dish team reviewed all the zero beer, wines and spirits available and come up with a great list - with two State Of Play Brews in the list with great tasting notes.? Click on the picture for the full story.

A Weekend in New Plymouth

This weekend we headed down to New Plymouth for WOMAD What a great place.? After a soggy Friday night headlined by the truly amazing Gilberto Gil, I was up with the sparrows for Park Run at East End.? Is there a more beautiful 5k run in New Zealand?

Stopped to chat with a few State of Players - this was really cool - so cool we took selfies.

WOMAD Changing the Game

So good that a big event like WOMAD.? State Of Play signage and IPA across ALL the bars at the festival.

Plus the team put in the extra effort to produce and promote a totally alcohol free zero zone bar.? It was fully stocked with beer, wines, and spirit mixers.

The true test in the end will aways be, did it perform commercially, was it worth the effort?

The answer:? definitely, yes, totally, awesome.??

And it will grow for sure each year.? I'm sure the licensing authorities give it bonus points for better drinking too.??

Here is a picture of the queue of happy thirst punters delighted that this bar made their WOMAD experience more special.

The lesson here - with good choice, comes great change, plus happier patrons, and more dollars in the bank!

State of Play at Smales Farm Market (near Takapuna, Auckland)

This market is on the second Sunday of each month.? It's great to sell some beers, but mainly natter away to State of Players and introduce non alc beer to lots of people.

I got some new signage - on reflection I think I may have gone a bit over the top last week!??

Also, I use my stand-up computer desk as the beer display.? It was four years ago today that while based in Amsterdam I got the email to not come into the office because of the pandemic.? I bought that computer desk to get off the kitchen table.

Four years later I still have not returned to the office.

Thanks for the reviews and the pictures enjoying a State Of Play on Instagram and Facebook!

Why reviews matter.? If you have a minute it would be great to hear from you

Here is the link to the review tab for? Nectaron Pale Ale

Here is the link to review Sunbreaker Ale

Here is the link to the review tab for IPA

And if you have a cool photo you can post it on one of your favourite social channels and tag @stateofplaybeer? #stateofplaybeer

TOGETHER WE ARE BREWING A REBELLION!