Brothers Beer sold, brand lives on

Auckland brewery rescued from liquidation by mystery buyer. Huge programme of Auckland Beer Week events released. The best beers of 2023, part 2.

Jun 21, 2024

Welcome to the mid-winter edition of Friday Night Beers!

I say mid-winter, but we all know that there’s still some chillier days to come, but we’ve just clocked up the shortest day of the year, and as has become my routine, that’s time to look at the second installment of my beers of the year (so far).

But first, good news for Brothers Beer (again), with the liquidator Stephen White revealing exclusively to Pursuit of Hoppiness that a buyer for the beleaguered Auckland brewery has been found.

If you recall, Brothers Beer, and its ultimate holding company, Brothers Beer Holdings Ltd, went into voluntary administration last year. But a restructure of the business and the closing of numerous venues around Auckland was not enough to keep Brothers in the black and they went into liquidation last month at the behest of secured creditors.

It now turns out the business has been sold and will continue to operate.

White from PWC told me in an email: “We have sold the Brothers Beer business, but under the terms of the Sale & Purchase Agreement I'm unable to provide specific details on the transaction. I can say that the purchaser is intending to continue to operate the Brothers Beer business as a going concern from the existing Mt Eden site, which is positive.”

It’s my understanding the new owner is a China-based beer importer.

That’s another good outcome in terms of keeping brands alive with three of the four brewer liquidations in the past year ending with the brand staying alive: Epic, Boneface and Brothers. The major exception was Deep Creek.

Beer of the Week No 1

I got a message from a reader, Nick, last Friday, raving about the quality of Three Sisters Roses & Rivets Imperial Red Rye IPA, noting it was a contender for his “beer of the year”. Coincidentally I’d reached for that very beer when I opened my fridge last Friday but put it back thinking: “It’s too early for an 8.4% beer”. So, I made time for it on Saturday evening and what a great decision. It’s a fantastic beer, and one that hides its ABV incredibly well. Rich, toffee-fruity, spicy from the rye and with a fantastic hop profile thanks to the change to Strata and El Dorado Cryo hops. Earlier iterations of this beer had a different hop profile and I think the hop additions here, particularly the Cryo El Dorado, make for a smoother more integrated drinking experience than I remembered. Really good beer and well worth seeking out.

Auckland Beer Week brings a buzz

The dates for Auckland Beer Week have been announced and huge kudos to organiser Maree Shaw for pulling together what can only be described as an epic, densely-packed programme. For out-of-towners it’s almost worth the visit to Auckland!

There are some cool events not the least of which is a Speed Dating Beer Tasting hosted by Saint Leonards on Sunday July 21.

With seven rounds, each new date comes with a different Saint Leonard’s beer to taste, accompanied by beer notes from the brewers to spark conversation.

The catch? You must sign up as a pair with a friend of the opposite gender. So bring a drinking buddy and take a chance on love. If you and someone special hit it off and decide to go on a first date, the first beer is on the team Saint Leonards.

A guess-the-beer blind tasting at Birkenhead Brewing Co also appeals. It’s a chance for all beer nerds to showcase their skills: over a series of rounds you have to guess the style, the brewery and the name of the beer. There’s a prize of $200 at stake.

A guided tasting of Karamu Barrelworks beer at 16Tun is another highlight, with brewer Daryl Bryant showcasing his spontaneously fermented beers.

Urbanaut are also doing a literal fresh beer tasting, where you’ll be able to drink beer fresh from the tank.

There’s so much on, from July 20-28, you’ll need a spreadsheet to plan it.

2024 Auckland Beer Week presented by Brewaucracy

Pacific Coast taproom opens, Alibi come ashore

It’s all happening up north right now, or so it seems! In developments this week, Pacific Coast have finally opened their taproom in Mangawhai, just in time for the Matariki long weekend next weekend.

Pacific Coast beers have made a real splash in the year since they opened but it’s been a long wait for the taproom but it looks worth it.

Meanwhile popular Waiheke Island brewery Alibi are coming to the mainland and opening a pop-up taproom in downtown Auckland.

Beer of the Week No 2

I don’t mean to be fixated with the northern part of the country, it’s just the way the cards fell. But it was a good news-bad news story for Waipu’s McLeod’s this week. First came the news that the drawn-out repair of the slip-hit State Highway 1 over the Brynderwyn Hills is finally set to open ahead of Matariki weekend following a four-month closure.

The vital transport link was meant to be closed for nine weeks from February 26 to May 12 to repair damage caused by multiple storms including Cyclone Gabrielle.

But just as that reopening news came through, the McLeod’s team got caught out literally mid-brew when the power went out across Northland thanks to a fallen pylon in Kumeu.

So, I figured either way I’d raise a glass to the crew at Waipu after a tough run! And this Far North Chili Pils is just the ticket with a perfectly pitched Kaitaia Fire chili hit. One of the best spiced beers in the country.

Best of Beers of 2024 Part 2

I apologise in advance for the large number of fresh hops beers in this list — but that’s to do the exceptional hop season we enjoyed.

Duncan’s Fresh Hop Pilsner — The Eggers Special hop varietal, a variation of Riwaka, made this beer the ultimate autumn drinking experience for me.
McLeod’s Forest of Giants — The all-NZ hopped West Coast IPA that tastes like it was made in the USA. Superb.
8 Wired x Small Gods Desperate Glory — I was lucky enough to try this beer several times over the course of the New World Beer & Cider Awards — from the early days of the judging, again when I was writing the notes, as part of a social media shoot, and at the awards launch. It’s amazing.
Brave Brewing Helping Hands — Another fresh hop pilsner and one that I went back to 3 or 4 times. Stunning beer.
Garage Project x Alvarado Street Nelson Sun Club IPA — A fresh hop, Hāpi Sessions beer that delivered a Nelson Sauvin sensory overload. Impeccably good, elegant and refined.
Twofold West Coast IPA — The new Parnell, Auckland, venture Twofold opened in style in late April with two beers, a lager and a WCIPA. The latter, brewed at Duncan’s in Paraparaumu as Twofold awaited their on-site brewery to be commissioned, is one of the best I’ve tried this year.
Mount Brewing Muito Bom — A brilliant take on a Witbier, with extra citrus zest and ginger to create a sensory-laden experience.
Sprig & Fern The G.O.A.T — This multi-award winning Doppelbock should be compulsory drinking every autumn-winter, in my opinion. It’s a showcase for how classic styles still rock.
Bach Brewing Sticky Buds — This offering from Bach was my favourite fresh hop hazy of the season. Yes, even ahead of McLeod’s fresh hop 802. This is a hill I will fight on, but maybe not die on!
North End Brett Grisette — Zesty, lively mix of dill, white pepper, flowers,
bread, and funk with citrus zip on the palate. Such a vibrant beer.
Baylands Van da Tsar Boysenberry Maple Imperial Stout — Baylands have taken their already legendary imperial stout and remixed it with boysenberries and maple syrup and it tastes as good as it sounds.
Canyon Farmhand Elderflower Saison — This is a fantastic hyperlocal beer. Canyon use their farm-grown barley malt, local honey, handpicked elderflower, Garston-grown Motueka hops and Froth Tech’s Wilding yeast. Great story, even better taste.

And just a reminder, if you’re looking for great beer, the first port of call should be your local New World, you home of craft beer.

Insight into beer’s future from GOP chair

As mentioned last week, Garage Project are the first local brewery to come out with a non-alcoholic stout. Their chairperson, Mike O’Donnell, is also a Stuff columnist and in writing about the beer the other week he had some compelling insights into the local industry — and he should know what he’s talking about!

He noted that non-alc beers in the Tiny range now account for around 1/6 of all Garage Project production. Or put another way, imagine that every six-pack of GP beers featured one non-alc beer.

“Tiny beers now account for 16% of all Garage Project beers sold — a surprising figure when you are talking about a brewery that made its maverick reputation for hoppy heavyweights like Pernicious Weed and Sunrise Valley,” he wrote.

On a wider scale, he noted that we still have too many breweries in New Zealand — which I’d dispute.

“[O]ne craft brewery for every 22,000 drinkers is still too many.”

One reason I’d argue with that position is that there are plenty of states in the US with a higher number of breweries per head of population than us: it’s not a pure numbers game and is more driven by the type of breweries that make up those numbers. Where we do seem to have too many is at the “national” level — the brands competing for the supermarket shelf space.

But we also have heaps of small, viable, regional, and hyper-local breweries who look after their patch and do it successfully.

I agree with Mike’s assessment that breweries need to go where the customers lead them, not the other way, which was the case in the craft boom. In those days, it was a “build it (or rather brew it) and they will come” mentality.

Now, as Mike notes: “meeting the consumer where they are rather than trying to drag them back to where they used to be is critical to the industry’s success.”

Slender stout a sign of the times as craft brewers face perfect storm | The Post (thepress.co.nz)

Dusty’s Beer of the Week

Been chopping a few of these this week in Raglan! Chop Hop is a 5.7% APA from Workshop Brewing loaded with multiple additions of American hops. It's crisp, dank, resiny yet has a light mouthfeel with notes of grapefruit mandarin pawpaw and melon on an effervescent carbonation. Big flavours, beautiful drop, banga!

Singapore craft brewery closed by Heineken, but theres a twist

Archipelago — Singapore’s second-oldest brewery, dating back to 1933 — is to close following a decision by ultimate owner Heineken.

An analysis piece for Channel News Asia (CNA) reads like a cut-and-paste of what’s going on in the rest of the world … and belies the view that Asia may have been immune to the retracting beer market.

After lying dormant for many years, Archipelago was given a new lease of life in 2006 as the craft arm of Asia Pacific Brewing, which is owned by Heineken.

Heineken cited a desire to streamline their portfolio amid “declining craft beer market realities and high operational costs”.

These pressures include the toll taken by conflict in Eastern Europe —Ukraine has historically been a major source of wheat and barley — and inflation, which is driving up the price of everything from ingredients and packaging to shipping.

As CNA reported: “Rising interest rates are also impacting brewers who have borrowed to fund their business or acquire property, while cost-of-living pressures are decreasing demand. With diminished discretionary spending, people are simply going to the bar less frequently, and may find mainstream beer at S$15 (US$11.10) per six-pack more appealing than niche ales costing S$15 per pint or more.”

But the twist this tale comes via the opinion that Archipelago paid the price for being corporate-owned, which is at odds with the viewpoint elsewhere that being corporate-owned provides some kind of insulation from the “market realities”.

Archipelago likely suffered from its association with APB, maker of mass-market beers, CNA opined.

“There is a bit of a backlash against craft beer brands that are owned by big companies,” said Daniel Goh, one of the founders of Chinatown craft beer purveyor Smith Street Taps.

“People think, why should I drink that [corporate-owned] craft beer, when they are plenty of perfectly viable, independent craft beer alternatives the market has to offer?”

Tim’s Beer of the Week

There’s been quite a few beers bouncing around recently that have showcased trial hops from the NZ Hops Ltd’s Bract Brewing Project. They’ve run the usual gamut of quality, but in terms of styles, it’s been IPLs that I’ve found best demonstrate the exact characteristics of the hop on display — and Hop Federation’s Deep Space NZ104-hopped IPA (5.5%) does it maybe best of all.

Bright citrus aromas up front, with white nectarine flesh, then softer tropical fruit and a curious herbaceous character that’s closer to eucalyptus than pine. The palate is short, sharp and quite remarkably juicy, with a mild bitterness that allows the ripe fruit to linger.

Whereas other releases have put NZ104 in the spotlight, this puts it under a microscope, and after my tasting I feel I’ve refined my personal profile of the hop. Fingers-crossed for more IPL versions of NZH104 and her sisters in the future. — Tim Newman

Beer of the Week No 3

Mid-winter is milk stout time and it’s been a while since I had one as good as Brave Brewing’s.

The sweetness is pitched perfectly for me; right in the Goldilocks zone. The chocolate flavour is mellow and there’s a slightly tart fruity note which seems to come from the cacao or could be dark malt-derived … I’m not sure, but it gives the beer an added dimension and plays into the balance. Exceptional with food, I found! A very easy-drinking, palate-pleasing, heart-warming beer.

Beer [still] has a sex problem

I’ll finish this week with a post from writer Katie Mather … it’s longish and takes a slightly circuitous route to the main point, but her main point is that beer has never been able to separate sexiness from actual sexism.

To delete sexiness from beer entirely and in every instance in the name of appealing to women and assuring our valued place within the industry assumes that women and their male allies aren’t interested in sexy things, only bad men are. And yes, if the male gaze is always the standard inspiration for this, then it would certainly seem that way. So, how can we include women? How can we make beer sexy, without being sexist?