Brew Zealand

This is a post I've been meaning to write for a while, not just since I came up with the bad pun as a title.


One of the pleasing surprises I had when I first arrived was to discover that New Zealand has a thriving craft beer and micro-brewing industry.


There isn't a strong tradition of quality brewing in NZ. In the first half of the Twentieth Century there was an active Temperance Movement and right up until 1967 licencing laws were very restrictive. This created a tradition called the 'six o'clock swill' with pubs closing at 6pm. This didn't work as intended as everyone rushed from work, downed as many beers as they could before 6 and then headed home drunk. It's not very likely these guys cared greatly about the taste or variety. Things continued to worsen in the 1970s, with brewery consolidations reducing the number of options. Apparently almost all the beers that were around, right up until the early '90s were bland and pretty similar.


Fortunately, things are much better now. There has been an explosion of interest in decent beer, not only restricted to a sandals, beards and tankards following. I've enjoyed sampling the resulting variety from breweries that have sprung up right across the country.


NZ brewing reminds me of lots of the West Coast of the US. There's very little cask conditioned beer (although I've found a few bars with hand pumps). Most beer is nitro-kegged, making it colder and fizzier than UK ales. There's also a big focus on bottled beers, both from shops and even in bars, where often the choice on tap is limited but they have a wide range in the fridges. They also tend to be premium strength, with most coming in around 5-6%.


One area where Kiwis haven't gone as far as West Coasters is on the hops front. Although there are some pretty hope IPAs to be found, there isn't the same fetish about IBU ratings and super-hoppy flavours.


Style-wise, most breweries have created a range to suit different tastes. The most common include IPA, Pilsner lagers, Stouts (often just called Dark) and Golden Ales. I've come across a host of other styles including Bock, Helles, Ardennes and Imperial Porters. In most cases, the names refer to the style of hops being used but they often vary significantly from the 'true' styles they are named after. Some breweries have a better grasp than others. For instance Tui, a big mainstream brewer released an 'East India Pale Ale' only to get in trouble with a consumer watchdog as it was basically a pale lager.


There are quite a few pretty bland lager brands on offer in most bars - the aforementioned Tui (cheap and nasty), Steinlager, Export Gold and international brands like Heineken and Stella (which is weirdly seen as a classy Continental European beer!). Many bars also stock a selection of styles from one of the bigger brewers that has got more adventurous that just pumping out lager - including Montheith's, Macs, Speight's.

The Macs range

The Speight's brewery is down in Dunedin and was one of the sights we visited when we went down there to see England v Romania during the Rugby World Cup. My favourite beer from their range is the Old Dark, a rich, malty ale.

Inside the Speight's brewery

The real quality is when you start to get into the smaller brewers. They make up for not having a cask tradition by producing their ranges in bottles and some of the supermarkets in Wellington stock a great range and regularly champion new breweries. Among the ones I've come to know and love are Tuatara (a Wellington local that is getting quite big now), Mata, Number 8 Wire, Boundary Road, Epic, Moa and Yeastie Boys.

I've made it along to two beer festivals - Beervana and the Pacific Beer Fest - that have both helped my exploration of what's available. With 10 months of my trip gone I feel like I've sampled a good range of the local brews, but I still have a lots of tasting to cram into my last few months here.

Cheers!