The 2015 Rugby World Cup is finished and [SPOILER ALERT]

The point of Halloween has always escaped me. Are we supposed to like being scared, tricked, intimidating strangers into giving us candy at their own front door, dressing up like Wonder Woman, or reminded that we might all die in a horrifying Zombie Apocalypse? [1]

Things be getting real at the Rugby World Cup. After a tournament that seems to have lasted six months featuring minnows such as Namibia, Uruguay and England, we are down to the final big four.

As the great Australian (Sir) William "Bill" Lawry would joyfully shriek, "it's all happening!" [1] The Rugby World Cup moves into the knockout stage, one of the country's most poignant beers arrives in the fridge, Elvis enters the building, the new Beer Writer of the Year was there too, the Hunt for the Red October continues and a "terrifyingly tasty tap line up" is promised at Malthouse for Halloween.

I had a pint of fresh 8 Wired HopWired IPA in one hand, a steaming bacon butty in the other, World Cup Rugby was on the big screen, England were getting knocked out of their own tournament and it was quarter to nine in the morning. It Was a Good Day. [1]

If you are even an associate member of the Burgeoning New Zealand Craft Beer Community (BNZCBC), unless you have been living under a particularly large and sound-proofed rock [1] you will be aware that the 2015 Brewer’s Guild of New Zealand Beer Awards took place in Auckland recently.