The original Divine Wind was a typhoon that delivered salvation to samurai Japan by wiping out the invading Mongol fleet. Fortunately you'll get no such drama from this one. It's a clean, refreshing, Japanese-style lager with rice in the malt and a flourish of noble hops. More of a Divine Breeze and all the better for it. (5% ABV)

Speaking of shiny objects, this all-kiwi Pilsner, packing Nelson Hops and a Gladfield malt base, radiates star power from the pour, Pilsner obsessives can look forward to the heavenly glow of zesty lime citrus and tropical passionfruit balanced on rye-cracker of malts with a hint of caramel sweetness. (5% ABV)

This opaque, cross-country juggernaut matches an East Coast yeast style to West Coast hops and refuses to filter the results. The malt's deliberately soft so the Mosaic and Amarillo cones get to dictate terms, mostly by saturating your palate in passionfruit and pineapple. Welcome to the jungle and so forth. (6.6% ABV)

Two Liberty fan faves in one; easy-drinking Oh Bro, and Jungle Juice – the untamed, palate-pounding Hazy. With the best bits of each brew carefully blended and balanced by our hop savant, Juice Bro’s soft malts highlight the citrusy pomelo and orange stylings of Mosaic and Amarillo cones. (5% ABV)

It sounds Japanese but it's as American as having a BMI of 32. The Yakima Valley in Washington state, situated in the top left corner of the lower 48, is home to some of our favourite hop varieties, the tiny green flavour bombs that powered the whole craft beer renaissance from the get go. Liberty is what it smells like. (6%ABV)

Winner of the 2013 West Coast Challenge at the malthouse in Wellington - a palate-destroying smackdown you've got to experience to understand - Knife Party is a Swiss Army IPA featuring every US hop variety we could get through customs. If you heedlessly crave the hop, you've found the correct beer. (7.1% ABV)

Here's proof that it keeping things real shouldn't entail dumbing it down. Oh Brother is Liberty's idea of what a street smart pale ale should be. The coolly modulated US hop character of mangoes and passionfruit fused with biscuity malts makes it oh so easy to have one more. And maybe one after that. (5.1% ABV)

Pucker up Milk Bar Cowboys, this is American Graffiti Kiwi-style from a time before straws were eco crime. A Raspberry shake whipped up the old fashioned way with a kettle sour base, piquant raspberries and NZ milk lactose. Starting tart it demurs to a creamy finish – think Raspberry K bar with a mouthful of milk and beer. It shouldn’t work, but dip a chip in ice cream, it totally does. 440ml Can (6.4% ABV)

This crushing double IPA, named for the legendary hop that predominates it, is one of New Zealand craft brewing's original palate benders, famous for squeezing every last drop of flavour and aroma from its American namesake. Strong notes of citrus shouldn't surprise anyone who reads the label. (9% ABV)

By de-platforming the ubiquitous hop, Darkest Days inhabits a subterranean realm where toasted malts and oatmeal waft richly textured notes of bitter chocolate and espresso up through the grates. Best savoured straight from the cellar without resort to refrigeration. (6% ABV)

While insipid bootlegged ales were axed by the pious, sly grog shops and speakeasies continued to serve the good stuff. Those in the know indulged in tipples made all the more sweet by their illicit nature, like this richly textured Prohibition Porter. Secreted in charred oak bourbon barrels it envelopes your taste buds in chocolately brown malts before steamrollering them with a heady amalgam of oak and caramel. (12% ABV)

You hold in your hands a small miracle; a flavour bomb with all the power and glory of a full hop barrage, minus the prodigious amount of alcohol propping up most IPAs. It's full-bodied hazy satisfaction, but with a very sociable ABV, so you can always enjoy a little more.