Four cheers for Otago Brew School beers

Otago Polytechnic’s beer brewing expertise has come to a healthy head once again, with Otago Brew School winning four medals at the recent New Zealand Beer Awards 2022.

The Cromwell Campus-based Otago Brew School entered six categories in the New Zealand Brewers Guild Awards – and won a silver and three bronze medals.

A testament to the expertise within our brewing programmes, Otago Brew School’s “Klassenbester” Dunkelweizen won a silver medal and our “Dark Matter” Oatmeal Stout, “Brau-schule” Kolsch and “Hidden Number” Pale Ale claimed bronzes.

“I think the awards highlight the programmes, as well as our philosophy of teaching students how to brew beers that are true to style, all within a teaching environment,” says Geoff Collie, Otago Brew School Lecturer.

“The recipes and ingredients are what would usually be expected for each style. We then apply good brewing practice and processes to make the best beer we can.

“Students are involved as ‘understudies’ to our brewing staff in making these commercial beers,” Geoff explains.

“Our students also have the opportunity to brew on a smaller scale and develop their own recipes, a few of which have been produced on a commercial scale. Our Czech Dark lager is an example. It was developed by one of last year’s students and sold locally.”

Read the ODT article

Read more about Otago Polytechnic’s brewing programmes here