Jim Poppelwell: Beer Day 'as big as we want to be'

Jim Poppelwell (right) says Beer Appreciation Day is a bespoke-brew boon for the Bay. Photo / Supplied

Beer Appreciation Day (BAD) event manager Jim Poppelwell will be front of house for today's celebration at Duart House. The craft enthusiast chats to Mark Story.

What's new at the event this year?

BAD is all about the beers and ciders, and this year we have eight new breweries bringing some amazing brews. There will be a heap of new releases too, from local favourites Brave, Giant, Sneaky, Zeelandt and Edgebrook and out-of-town legends Brewaucracy, Garage Project, Sunshine, Mean Doses, Bach Brewing, Boneface, Duncan's, Lakeman and The Rogue Bore. We usually have a one-offs and new releases section in the tasting notes, but this year there are so many it would almost be a repeat of the entire line-up.

Tell us about how it all started.

I started BAD with my old mate Hugh Grierson of Hopscotch Auckland fame back in 2011. There wasn't much happening in the Bay back then in terms of craft, but it was about to take off. Our first BAD featured Roosters, Hawke's Bay Brewing and Croucher giving a well-received guided tasting from a small but enthusiastic group of appreciators. From there we were able to get more breweries on board and now that we're all so spoilt for choice, both locally and beyond, it's a matter of bringing together the best line-up of beers and ciders possible while keeping the boutique festival feel. We don't want to be one of the big corporate festivals, we're about as big as we want to be.

In recent years beer brewers seem to have blurred the lines between beverages, ie, co-fermentation with wine juice, brewed in tequila barrels, etc. Are the rules becoming too loose?

What rules? For me it's all about taste, and variety. People want expertly brewed beers that they love, but they also want to try new things that they may love, or may not like at all. For every out-there beer that blurs those lines you refer to, there's a classically brewed traditional style that celebrates brewing's rich heritage. There's no need to make or adhere to rules, in the end the people will vote by buying the beers that they want to drink.

Winemakers here boast their product's Hawke's Bay provenance; can craft brewers here claim the same? Specifically, with no hops grown here, can local brewers really say their craft beer is unique in terms of flavour and style?

Possibly not, which is why I don't see any local brewers making that claim. But having said that, New Zealand does stand apart from the rest of the world with our own unique hop varieties, so if you take a less provincial point of view, we are brewing beers here with a uniquely New Zealand provenance.

Speaking craft beer, are we witnessing a silent coup in the province formerly known as Wine Country?

An interesting idea, but I don't see beer competing with wine in any sense. Most winemakers I know say it takes a lot of beer to make good wine, and I've certainly seen that in practice. And in terms of skills, there is a lot of crossover amongst the fermentists among us. Both industries provide local people with an avenue to express their passion, and more great reasons to visit what we like to think of a special part of the country, however that may be labelled.