Neil Ganley's first pint of dark ale - on a trip to Britain more than 20 years ago - was an almost-religious experience. "I saw the light," he said, recalling his conversion from lager, his old drink of choice. On his return to Whangarei, the former ambulance officer dedicated himself to brewingthe perfect dark beer. Years of trial and error - and many an explosion in the basement - paid off at last weekend's Whangarei Winterlude festival, when his brew was named the best dark beer in a homebrew contest. Ironically, Mr Ganley wasn't keen on entering. His wife had to take a sample from his latest batch, aged eight months in the bottle, down to the Town Basin contest. "I wasn't going to have anything to do with it - Jude forced the issue," he said. Gordon Dackers, of the Whangarei Amateur Wine-makers and Brewers, had the onerous task of judging 23 brews in five categories. "Some of them were cloudy and in lemonade bottles, and you'd think, `Am I going to drink that?' "But most were quite drinkable." All five winners would have held their own in a national competition but Mr Ganley's dark beer was the stand-out. "It had a good nose, and a malty, burnt-grain flavour. "It was a really pleasant beer," Mr Dackers said.
