BUSINESS: Paddy's Pudding pulls in the beer judges

6th August 2005

A beer brewed with potatoes and cherries among the ingredients caught the attention and the taste buds of the judges at this year's BrewNZ New Zealand Beer Awards.

The affectionately-named and highly appealing Paddy's Pudding beer handed Hawke's Bay brewer Chris O'Leary one of the six awards he picked up.

The annual awards, staged last weekend in Wellington, proved successful again for his Hastings-based Limburg Brewery which has tasted success at the prestigious event every year since first entering in 2002.

Limburg picked up a gold medal, two silvers and three bronzes, as well as being named class winner for the Experimental Beer category.

It was Limburg Paddy's Pudding, with its infusion of potato and cherry, which had the judges giving it the thumbs-up.

"Last year I did a potato and coffee stout and called it Paddy's Up-and-Go," Mr O'Leary said.

"So this year we did Paddy a pudding," he added with a smile.

But it was his vintage ale-style brew called Oude Reserve which really had the judges fizzing, and which resulted in a gold medal in the Experimental Class.

The remarkable brew, a strong, warming 10.5 percent "barley wine" vintage ale, was effectively awarded "Best in Show" and has prompted Mr O'Leary to brew it annually from now on, as a vintage reserve.

The judges declared it "complex, rich and world class."

Mr O'Leary said he held back from entering classes his ales had previously picked up awards in.

It was like a case of "been there done that" he said, adding that an award for a particular brew always stayed with it so he preferred to look at other categories.

Which is what he did by going for other styles this year, and again he came up trumps.

His other successes were silvers in the Experimental Beer category class with Paddy's Pudding and with Hopsmacker Pale Ale in the Packaging class; and bronze for Rosie's Red, Rosie's Amber and the Limburg Pilsener.