Brewery numbers in NZ fall below 200

Beautiful video tribute to Peter Lines. Kiwis reigning in Spain when it comes to beer. 8 Wired running fund-raiser for Matakana Oysters. Why rice could be the secret ingredient in better non-alc beer.

Jul 11, 2025

Welcome beer friends to Friday Night Beers, coming to you on another wet and wild day across Aotearoa.

We start this with my latest “role call” of New Zealand breweries.

I was inspired to revisit this story by two things. First, I bumped into Mike Selby, one of the co-founders of Forgotten 43 in Stratford, and we talked about the fact that brewery had closed and was in the process of being sold. Then I got an email from a reader who is drawing up a list of all the breweries in New Zealand he’s visited plus a bucket list of those he’d like to visit. I figured I better get my list up to date if he was to rely on it for guidance.

This head-count story started in late 2022 when there was a lot of media stating there were 220 breweries in New Zealand.

I was always skeptical but the last count in 2023 came up with healthy 208.

As you can imagine, that number has fallen in the past couple of recessionary years but only by 7% — I land on 194. That’s a net loss of 14 in just under two years. But there’s been way more closures than that.

There are 118 (down from 125) in the North Island and 76 (down from 83) in the South Island.

Since my last tally we’ve had 13 new breweries come on the scene, with 27 going out of business. And that doesn’t count the likes Salt District in Whangamata, which opened AND closed, since I last added these up.

Auckland and Christchurch remain strong growth areas and the region hit hardest by closures was the wider Otago-Southland region, which, to be fair, was possibly over-subscribed. That area lost nine breweries to fall from 26 to 17.

The list is broken down regionally at the bottom of the story and if I’ve missed anyone, or incorrectly put a line through someone, please let me know.

UPDATED: How Many Breweries In NZ? | Pursuit of Hoppiness

Tribute to Peter Lines

The funeral for hop farmer Peter Lines was held this week in Wakefield. As I wrote last week, Peter died in a freak accident — hit by a tree when he was clearing flood debris on his Wai-iti hop farm.

After his funeral NZ Hops Ltd released this lovely tribute video.

nzhopsltd

A post shared by @nzhopsltd

Beer of the Week No 1

In keeping with my promise to talk about non-alcoholic beers for those of you doing Dry July, there’s a new addition to the State of Play range — a spiced chocolate stout.

This is a daring beer, made in collaboration with Wellington artisan chocolate maker Baron Hasselhoff’s. I say daring because frankly a lot could go wrong doing a non-alcoholic, spiced, chocolate stout. There’s a lot of flavour strands to weave together coherently, and I think they’ve done an amazing job.

I’ll preface what follows by saying it won’t be to everyone’s taste and I’m going to put a firm emphasis on the “spiced” element, because if you’re not expecting it there could be some dissonance … the spice (I get cinnamon, clove, anise, vanilla …) is present on the aroma but slides into the background when the chocolate comes through, eventually taking a prominent role. It’s like a meld between chocolate-coated licorice and a spiced cola.

The head retention is minimal, making the cola comparison easier, and it could do with a bit more carbonation… but it’s interesting, flavoursome and goes superbly with Mexican food!

Rice could be key ingredient for better non-alc beers

I’m always fascinated by new trends with ingredients and techniques in beer and found an article the other day touting the virtue of brewing with rice ahead of barley to add mouthfeel and texture to non-alcoholic beers.

Rice as a brewing adjunct has historically come with preconceptions around quality — and a lot of that has to do with rice being a prominent ingredient in Budweiser.

But, in fact, rice has a number of benefits over malted barley in non-alcs, says science.

According to sensory panels who compared rice beers to barley beers, including beers that had varying blends of the two grains, the rice-heavy non-alcs were less “worty” thanks to lower levels of aldehyde compounds.

The panelists also noted that higher rice content resulted in beers with a creamier mouthfeel — likely because higher rice content was correlated with increased levels of larger alcohol molecules, which are known to contribute to a pleasant mouthfeel.

Rice could be key to brewing better non-alcoholic beer - Ars Technica

Tim’s Beer of the Week

When you’ve been around the biz this long, it’s an increasingly rare joy to happen upon a completely undiscovered brewery. Rare, but not impossible. Last week I was traveling south for Craftwork’s Bruxelles Oamaru beer festival (more on that later), and stopping off along the way I (in an act of wonton optimism) thumbed ‘craft beer Timaru’ into my phone…

To my surprise and delight, Ship Hop brewing showed up, and it just happened to be one of the two days a week that the brewery was open. After closing down just last year, the place (same name) has been revived with new owners and brewers, once more linking the chain of craft brewing south from Christchurch to Dunedin.

Maintaining my standard first contact protocols, I got a fill of the IPA, and I was not remotely disappointed. Big old-school malt meshes with classic pine and pithy grapefruit on the nose, with that particularly deep aromatic tone that lets you know the bitterness is on its way. The palate kicks in with rich caramel malt, followed by a distinctly cool hop character, both of which eventually give right of way to a pronounced and dominantly bitter finish. To compare it to a more widely circulated beer, this is a lot like Parrotdog’s Bitter Bitch, only bigger and bitchier. If that sounds like your thing, then seek this one out if you’re in the area. — Tim Newman

Kiwis pouring, and making, beer in Spain

Good story in the Waikato Times the other day about New Zealanders making their mark in Spain with beer.

The story focuses on Tony Culmer and Trish Wills who run a craft beer bar in Málaga called The Kiwi House of Beer.

At the other end of the country, in Girona, Michael Jones runs DosKiwis with Catalan partner Judit Piñol.

The Kiwis taking craft beer to Spain | Waikato Times

Beer of the Week No 2

I decided to theme my beers this week and we’re going with chocolate! To that end, Sprig + Fern have done a rebranding job on their Norty Porter but what’s inside the can remains the same as previous iterations and it’s a real chocolately treat. The Nelson brewery has done an immaculate job of creating a beer that veers strongly towards “dessert-style” but doesn’t give up its classic lineage. A sweet, yet dry and light, porter base melds with cacao nibs to create a beer that tastes like chocolate milk. What I like about this is the deep amount of flavour jammed into the 5% ABV. A fun beer.

8 Wired run fund-raiser for Matakana Oysters

If you’re from the 09 region you’ll know Matakana Oysters. They’ve been selling oysters from their famous green shed on the road between Warkworth and Matakana for 27 years. But they, like many other producers in the region, were forced to close earlier this year because norovirus was detected in the water around the area.

Tom Walters, who runs Matakana Oysters, is really well known in Auckland beer circles and 8 Wired are running the silent auction “to show our care and support for a man that has always given so much … we want to give back and raise awareness of the carelessness of WaterCare!”

The auction closes this Sunday and there’s an event on at 8 Wired Barrelworks from 4pm on Sunday. So if you’re in the area, get along for a good cause.

Fundraiser for Matakana Oysters | Free Online Silent Auction Fundraisers | 32auctions

Dusty’s Beer of the Week

Mount Brewing Co continue to slay the brew game in NZ and here's another example — Sol y Luna, their 7.7% scorched almond pastry stout.

Real pacific vibes here with Samoan cacao beans, Tongan vanilla, and Australian almonds. This decadent brew pours raven black with leading notes of dark chocolate and cacao providing sumptuous rich earthy notes, middle tier layerings of sweet vanilla and subtle nutty almond deliver a lux pastry mouthfeel. A highly recommended and polished brew. — Dusty

Forget waterbeds, how about a beer bed?

Do waterbeds still exist? Back in the 80s they seemed to be quite the thing. Personally, I couldn’t understand who’d want one, barring perhaps a sailor who couldn’t sleep on dry land …

And I know what follows is a gimmick but it’s also an intriguing concept: rather than a waterbed, a beerbed, with a kegerator built into the headboard.

American outfit Garage Beer — started by the football-playing Kelce brothers, Travis and Jason — Travis probably better known these days as the boyfriend of pop star Taylor Swift.

Anyway, the brothers are running a competition to win a one-off beerbed (assembly required … not sure who supplies the beer for it!)

A BeerBed with a built-in kegerator

Beer Cider of the Week No 3

Wow! When I read Peckham’s Cider were doing a chocolate and boysenberry cider, I was equally intrigued and doubtful as to whether such a combo could work in a cider. Oh, me of little faith … what a ripper. It’s a confounding combination of flavours, especially with the aroma of those traditional cider apples melding with the boysenberry and chocolate to create a nose not dissimilar to balsamic glaze. On the palate there’s lovely sweet boysenberry, a hint of apple and then the chocolate pushes the accelerator and comes through strongly at the finish. All in all, it had a real boysenberry brownie quality to it that ended up being way more more-ish than I anticipated. Another one that might polarise but worth it if you want a new experience!

One to Czech off the bucket list

Among my bucket-list beer drinking experiences is a trip to the Czech Republic — to the home of Pilsner.

And I’m even more keen to visit now after reading the following story about how the Czech government is engaging in “beer diplomacy”.

It's a strategy reminiscent of Thailand's Global Thai Program, a form of edible soft power that was launched in 2002 to promote Thai restaurants and cuisine abroad. That effort led to a boom in Thai eateries around the world and helped put Thailand on the global culinary map. At the programme's start, there were 5,500 Thai restaurants outside Thailand; by October 2023 there were nearly 17,500, according to some estimates. The Economist quickly coined the term “gastro-diplomacy”. And now the Czech Republic is following in Thailand's footsteps with its six-year-old mission of “beer diplomacy”. After all, the thinking goes, unlike Thai cuisine, Czech food isn't exactly a big hit with foreigners. But one thing the Czechs do well is make beer.

The European nation pioneering 'beer diplomacy'

That’s it from me, stay safe and dry and see you next week.

Michael