Lion to close the Mac’s Brewery in Wellington

Lion Nathan has decided to relocate the Mac’s Craft Beer production capability from Wellington to the Canterbury Brewery, Christchurch and close the Mac’s Brewery in Wellington.

The Wellington Brewery is a higher-cost facility relative to our other breweries but up until now we considered this a component of our investment in building the Mac’s brand and its reputation for brewing innovation.

However the brand has developed to a point where consumer adoration for Mac’s no longer depends on the Wellington Brewery underpinning the brand’s reputation for brewing innovation. The maturity of the Mac’s brand and the introduction of the Mac’s Brewbars throughout the country have contributed to this change in consumer attitude, to the extent that we can now no longer justify the expense of operating the Wellington Brewery.

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Boysenbeery beer back for summer season

Invercargill Brewery’s award-winning Boysenbeery beer is back on the menu.

The colour of fine claret, Boysenbeery pours with a frothy pink head and is styled in the finest traditions of Belgium fruit beers. Its strong colour and flavor is all natural.

“We don’t use colouring or perfumes in any of our products. The art to brewing is seeing what you can achieve by using malt, hops and yeast and the brew process itself,” head brewer Steve Nally said.

“When we do use additional flavours they’re 100 percent natural too – like orange peel, Kamahi honey, herbs, spices and naturally reduced fruit concentrate – nothing that comes out of a chemistry lab.”

Boysenbeery gets its strong flavor and colour from fruit concentrate – each batch contains the equivalent of 15% berry by volume, more fruit than many branded fruit drinks sold in NZ.

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Tuatara Brewery tastes Fast 50 success

Wellington’s award-winning Tuatara Brewery has tasted double success on the latest Deloitte Fast 50 list. Last week, Tuatara was named as the fastest growing manufacturing business in the lower North Island region and the 37th fastest growing business in New Zealand overall.

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Row over name leaves DB in froth

The trademarking stoush between a multinational brewery and a bunch of Kiwi beer enthusiasts over the use of the beer term "radler" is starting to froth.

DB Breweries, which is now wholly owned by Singapore-based Asia Pacific Breweries, last week signalled its intention to fight a legal application filed in May by the Society of Beer Advocates (Soba) to invalidate its trade-marking of radler, in what is shaping as a David and Goliath beer battle.

Soba's strategy would be to establish that New Zealanders, particularly brewers, were aware of the generic nature of the term before that date.

"We may soon require the assistance of all brewers in New Zealand in our quest to show that DB are either malicious in registering a trademark they knew was a generic brewing term, or incompetent in not knowing it was, when every other brewer worth their salt did," Mr McGill said.

"One outcome means they lose the trademark, the other means they lose huge amounts of credibility by being a brewer without a clue about beer."

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Mystery ale sparkles despite lack of fizz

It's not your average message in a bottle, but its contents got the noses and palates of Blenheim's beer boffins mildly aroused.

But somebody, for whatever reason, discarded a bottle of the amber fluid on the Wairau Hospital grounds presumably decades ago. During excavations for the hospital redevelopment the bottle was found one and a half metres underground by excavator Owen Kennedy of Simcox Construction.

The Marlborough Express asked our beer expert Geoff Griggs for his opinion on the bottle's age and viability.

"It might taste OK," he said. "After all beer, like wine, should be cellared at a cool, even temperature, away from light." The bottle was embossed with the ABC logo, the Auckland Bottle Company which had bottled beer since the early 1920s. Mr Griggs suggested a tasting might be in order so enlisted the help of the brewers from Renaissance Brewery.

But exposure to the air may have been too much for the old bottle, as the fizz was now gone. Peeling the corroded cap off, Mr Griggs noted the carbonation had already evaporated through a rusty hole. "I've got an idea this isn't going to be pleasant."

First impressions of the brew drew comments from Mr Griggs like, "some sherry quality", "like chewing on cardboard". Brewer Andy Dewchars' verdict? "Not particularly pleasant but not terrible."

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Epic Beer - Made From New Zealand

Iconic brewery sale welcome

Neighbours of the Lion Nathan brewery are optimistic about its sale.

Mr Amiri says manufacturing beer doesn't belong in the city centre.

"Sometimes the smell is bad, and there's always lots of trucks going in and out."

Mr Brewer will encourage Lion Nathan and AMP to leave behind a reminder of Newmarket's brewing past, such as keeping the Captain Cook statue on Khyber Pass Rd.

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Brewery Worker/Bar Person - Galbraith's Alehouse

Galbraith’s Alehouse requires a fit and motivated person to assist in the day to day running of our small brewery and to help out on the bar in our busy pub. Initially 2-3 days will be spent in the brewery with the rest of the week being spent on the bar. Bar work will require some nights to be worked.

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