Brews and barbecues: Marlborough brewer's summer BBQ picks

Soren Eriksen

Experts share their favourite holiday tipples around the barbie

Soren Eriksen - Marlborough brewer Soren Eriksen's modest goal for his 8 Wired is to produce mind-blowing beers to excite his fellow beer geeks. Over a cold one, he shares his important beer - and summer barbecue - philosophy.

The brew I'm favouring this summer is: The Semiconductor Session IPA, a beer that is designed to be quaffed in the sun, standing around the barbecue.

Best served in: This is the only beer in our range I would drink out of the bottle. Most of our beers are big and highly aromatic so are best served in glasses to experience the full aroma and flavour. Semiconductor will be great from a glass too, but the bottle suits the relaxed outdoor summer fun. The brown bottle also protects against the harmful sun much better than a clear glass: beer gets sunburned too, in most cases a lot faster than humans.

And goes best with: Barbecue for sure. Spicy southern style would be my pick but anything cooked outdoors would do.

My formula for a successful barbecue is: On my dream barbecue machine, my trusty old Weber 57cm kettle grill. This may be the oldest thing I own and it still works as good as new.

The best barbecue guests: Bring nothing but themselves. There's no need to bring meat or a salad, we have plenty of food for everybody. I usually do the grilling myself and let the guests relax, but I never said no to a hand with the dishes!

My never-fail barbecue: Most of my barbecues seem to involve pork these days, often classic southern style ribs and pulled pork. Both of these need to be cooked long and slow and smoke is as important an ingredient as the meat itself. To sauce it all up I like to use a reduction of fruit juice (usually apple and pineapple), flavoured in various ways. The reduced juice adds both sweetness and tang, nature's own sweet'n sour. But no two meals are ever the same in our house, we like to experience new flavours and evolve old classics.