CT Column 15/06/2011: Beer in Focus

THE beer world is a multifaceted community. Brewers, drinkers, educators, activists, retailers, writers and suppliers all have a part to play. I tend to play all the roles at times. Recently another role has appeared in the form of documenters. While I have already written about Luke Nicholas and Kelly Ryan’s internet TV show NZ Craft Beer TV there is another person who is going to great lengths to capture the people who make the beers we love.
The Beer Project is the creation of photographer Jed Soane. Back in 2009 Jed accompanied a friend to the Great New Zealand Beer Festival at Waitangi Park. The festival that year was a wash out with Wellington’s weather gods making themselves unmistakably known. The wet conditions and mud however made for some great photographs. Jed decided the photos were some of the best he had ever taken and after talking with Yeastie Boy Stu McKinlay, Jed decided he would embark on a project to photograph the nation’s craft brewers. His predominantly black and white photos are not only incredibly good but will one day be of historic importance when we look back to burgeoning adolescence of our craft beer industry. Jed has travelled the country trying to photograph as many brewers as he can.You can see some of his work at http://thebeerproject.com
And on the topic of the Yeastie Boys the post modern brewers currently have two tap only releases out, Fools Gold which is a hoppy sessionable English style ale supercharged with NZ hop varieties and Rescue Red a hoppy Amber Saison brewed as a collaboration between the Yeastie Boys, 8 Wired and Renaissance to raise money for the Brewers Guild Christchurch Earthquake Fund and the Brisbane Flood Relief Fund.
Cheers