Brothers Beer selling off bars & restaurants

Huge growth pushes Auckland brand to focus on brewing. PornHub-styled "Barely Legal" withdrawn from GABS. Conservative America loses plot over another beer. Hazy inventor laments state of hazy IPA.

Happy Friday beer lovers!

If you live in Auckland you’ll know Brothers Beer. And if you live outside the 09, you’ll be seeing more of them soon.

The brand launched at the City Works Depot in 2013 with a lo-fi grunge look that perfectly captured the craft beer vibe of the time.

They didn’t have their own beer at that point and the bar was a great place to try interesting beer, and I can well remember a night when a still-young Garage Project did a tap takeover and the queues snaked out the door and into the carpark.

Since then, Brothers have grown hugely, with five other venues (although one in New Lynn remains undeveloped) and after some struggles with quality and sophistication, the beers — under brewer Brandon Nash — have improved dramatically in the past few years.

But Brothers are now getting out of the bar and restaurant business to focus solely on beer — and now their six venues are up for sale either collectively or individually.

Brothers has outgrown its production capacity at the Mt Eden venue in Akiraho Street and has already started contract brewing at Steam. It wants to get out of the pub-restaurant game to focus on the expansion of its brewery operations to meet demand in New Zealand and Australia.

Founder and major shareholder Anthony Browne said the growth of the brewery side of the business was an unexpected upside from Covid, plus the purchase of a canning machine.

“We went into Covid with our beer largely distributed through our own pubs and some Auckland outfits. When the pubs had to close people said to me, ‘at least you’ll be selling heaps of beer through grocery’ and I was like ‘we’re not really in grocery’. So, we had to sell beer through new channels.”

Browne said the brewery also planned to phase out bottles while introducing cans, but the can sales took off so quickly it caused a rethink.

Brothers Beer now has a sales team of six throughout the country and Browne said the brand was in “1000 outlets throughout New Zealand and getting some good growth. People seem to be enjoying the beers.”

The sale of the restaurants and bars will fund the brewery expansion.

The brewery is located inside the Mt Eden venue and that will remain part of Brothers Beer, with the bar and restaurant at Akiraho Street to be sold as separate business.

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Beer of the week No 1

I’d like to say this was a coincidence, and it kinda is: I had this can in the fridge and was looking forward to trying it over the weekend, but I fast-forwarded my tasting to Thursday night as the news broke of the Brothers Beer pub sale. And, look, if Up & Away is the quality of the beer that Brothers will be pushing into the market, then I’m on board. This beer, a collab with Pink Boots, is labelled a US IPA. Not a West Coast IPA, please note. Nor a California IPA. So rather than spare, lean and skewed to hoppy this is a beautifully rounded beer, with a rich but unobtrusive malt structure that adds palate weight and flavour to an expressive hop bill and integrated bitterness. This is autumn drinking in a nutshell.

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Just a heads up that the New World Beer & Cider Awards will be announced on Monday. It’s an incredibly diverse and surprising Top 30 so check back on hoppiness.co.nz on Monday for the winners and some tasting notes.

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For lovers of the beer engine…

A hat-tip to Dallas Potz-Nielsen, the president of SOBA (Society of Beer Advocates) for his Great Kiwi Beer Engine Showdown being held at Three Sisters in New Plymouth this weekend.

At my chat with Richard Emerson in Featherston last week (which went very well, thank-you!) one of the questions from the crowd was about the lack of hand-pumped real ales in New Zealand. I hope that gentleman can get to New Plymouth this weekend, where the likes of Emerson’s, Galbraith’s, Cassels, Two Thumb, Three Sisters, Whistling Sisters, Blue Fridge, Fork, Ruapehu, Roots and The Beer Engine will be showcasing their wares.

You can get tickets here.