Lagers are some of the most popular beers in the world, offering crisper, cleaner flavours than most ales. Among them, pilsners are the cream of the crop with a pale hue and bright, palate-cleansing freshness.
We’re celebrating some of New Zealand’s best and brightest lagers and pilsners with 2025’s New World Beer & Cider Awards. To help you find your new favourite in this sparklingly fresh category, we’ve pulled out our top lagers and pilsners from Aotearoa.
Scroll down to find our top picks for 2025, complete with food pairings to complete your beer tasting.
Tiger Lager Beer
Type of beer: Lager
Brewery: Tiger
Flavours: Smooth and well-balanced lager.
Judges’ comments: In a word of global lager, the competition is intense, which also means the quality has to be super-high. Because it's brewed under licence in New Zealand by DB Breweries, one of Singapore’s flagship lagers is fresh and lively. It stood out among the other global lagers this year with the judges lauding the “delicate floral, herbal hop character”. There’s a good depth to the supporting malt sweetness. “Clean, well-balanced, smooth finish - a great example,” the judges concluded.
For more on this beer visit: https://www.db.co.nz/tiger/
Buy this beer: Visit online shopping
Judas Sheep Dark Lager
Type of beer: Lager
Brewery: Heaven's Brewery
Flavours: Chocolate, toast and delicate smoke.
Judges’ comments: Heaven’s Brewery is a hand-built brewery near Hikurangi, Northland. It was founded by Ben Heaven and his wife Jodi after they returned from a stint England where they’d started Bondgate Brewery, a tiny brew house supplying country pubs and beer festivals with “real ale”. Ben’s pedigree shows with this amazing entry onto the national scene. A dark Czech-style lager, it’s a meld of chocolate, toast and smoke, with a lovely roasty charry bitterness.
For more on this beer visit: https://www.heavensbrewery.co.nz/
Buy this beer: Visit online shopping
Black Sands Pilsner
Type of beer: Pilsner
Brewery: Black Sands
Flavours: Zingy, herbaceous, lemon-lime.
Judges’ comments: Repping West Auckland in the Top 25 for the first time, Black Sands is a second-generation business with brewer Craig Hebblethwaite at the helm of a brewery started by his dad Ian. This pilsner marries elements of the classic German version with New Zealand hops to create a zingy, herbaceous beer that expertly blends a lemon-lime hop character into a rich, resinous malt texture.
For more on this beer visit: https://blacksandsbrewing.co.nz/
Buy this beer: Visit online shopping
Lakeman Primate Pilsner
Type of beer: Pilsner
Brewery: Lakeman
Flavours: Bright, fresh, crisp and fruity.
Judges’ comments: Three years in a row in the Top 25 for this beer! That says a lot about the reliability and consistency of the team at Lakeman’s farm-based brewery in Taupo. They’ve worked incredibly hard on perfecting this recipe and it encapsulates what a New Zealand-style pilsner should be. The judges loved the “croissant” malt aroma, the “bright and fresh New Zealand hop” and the superb crisp and fruity finish.
For more on this beer visit: https://www.lakemanbrewing.co.nz/
Buy this beer: Visit online shopping
Mad Whale Helles Lager
Type of beer: Lager
Brewery: Mad Whale
Flavours: Lemon-lime hoppiness, crisp, fresh.
Judges’ comments: Mad Whale is a Kiwi export business focused on beer, wine, cocktails and ice cream — and this Helles (Light) Lager is their flagship beer. It’s brewed at Auckland’s Steam Brewing, This is a classic lager tuned to a New Zealand frequency, with lemon-lime hop character that lifts it above a run-of-the-mill lager. Crisp and bright.
For more on this beer visit: https://www.madwhalebeerco.com/
Buy this beer: Visit online shopping
The G.O.A.T Doppelbock
Type of beer: Doppelbock
Brewery: Sprig & Fern
Flavours: Toast, honey, chocolate-dipped raisins.
Judges’ comments: Back for another year in the Top-25 Nelson-based Sprig & Fern’s aptly-named The G.O.A.T Doppelbock is one of the most awarded beers in recent New Zealand history. They call this beer G.O.A.T because “bock” in German translates to goat. Think toast and honey overlaid with chocolate-coated raisins and spice.
For more on this beer visit: https://sprigandfern.co.nz/
Buy this beer: Visit online shopping
Thirsty for more top New Zealand beers?
If you’re after dark beers, lagers or more unique craft varieties, don’t forget to check out the articles linked below, or browse the Top 25 from the New World Beer & Cider Awards 2025.
Not sure what you like? Our craft beer guide will walk you through what makes craft beer special and the different styles and flavours you can find in Aotearoa.
Related articles:
Best New Zealand craft beers for 2025
Best New Zealand IPAs and pale ales for 2025
Best New Zealand stouts and porters for 2025
Best New Zealand hazy ales for 2025
Best New Zealand wheat, saison and sours for 2025
Best New Zealand ciders for 2025
About the author
Michael Donaldson is one of New Zealand’s most renowned beer writers and was named Beer Writer of the Year by the Brewers Guild of New Zealand for a third time in 2018. He has been the Chair of Judges for the New World Beer & Cider Awards since 2016.
His writing appears in North & South, The New Zealand Herald, Stuff and Drinksbiz. He is also the editor of The Pursuit of Hoppiness magazine published by the Society of Beer Advocates (SOBA). He is the author of New Zealand's definitive beer history Beer Nation - the Art and Heart of Kiwi Beer as well as The Big Book of Home Brew: a Kiwi Guide and The Hopfather, the biography of Emerson's founder Richard Emerson.