Craft beer bounces back
Altitude on a high at Lagerfest. Meet the new brewer at Alibi. Moa picks up deal with Crusaders Super Rugby team as well as widespread Canterbury venues. Two big Aussie craft breweries merge.
Welcome to another packed edition of Friday Night Beers, including some good news for craft breweries.
Before we get to all the news … if you’re going to the Great Kiwi Beer Festival in Christchurch tomorrow, do make the time to check out the Craft Beer Academy tent where I’ll be hosting a series chats tomorrow.
The schedule is:
12:00pm: Joe Wood — “Liberty Brewing: Innovating with Bold Flavours, Burgers and a Twist on Hop Water”
1:00pm: Me in an “ask me anything” session as I reflect on 15 years of writing about beer.
2:00pm: Cameron Burgess — “Southpaw Brewing Makes Waves: New Brighton’s First Brewery and Taproom Opens at Pierside”
3:00pm: Rachael Norcross — “Punky Brewster & Distro: Bringing the Best Brews to Christchurch, One Customer at a Time”
4:00pm: Mike Neilson — “From creating a runaway success at Panhead to starting all over again at Boneface”
Each session will feature some hand-picked beers from the guests.
Craft beer fights back
After a bitter couple of years in the beer world, it looks like the end of 2024 saw a craft beer bounce-back.
We touched on this last week with some data from Grant Caunter at State of Play, and since then I’ve been accruing more anecdotal information from the grocery sector.
Without going into super-detail a couple of toplines grabbed me and that was the decline of both Mac’s and Boundary Road towards the of the year.
The top three craft brands in grocery — Mac’s, Monteith’s and Boundary Road — all did quite well when money was tight due to rampart inflation and higher interest rates. Their lower pricing saw a lot of people switch from what’s called “premium” craft back to “mainstream” craft.
With inflation coming back to more normal levels and interest rates coming down as fast as they went up, it seems there’s more money in people’s hands and as a result, when they went to buy beer before and during the festive season, they spent some of that on premium beer.
The next thing to watch for is whether this pattern holds outside the holiday/summer window.
Among the other trends worth noting are the rise (finally) of lager (yay!), increased sales for ginger beer and also fruit-flavoured beers (but not necessarily the sour varieties), the continual dominance of IPA, and tanking of pale ales (very sad!).
Altitude hit a high note at Lagerfest
The Rising Tide Lagerfest has been going only a couple of years but I get a real sense that this could be an event that just keeps growing. The theme, the time of year, the location — in sunny Mount Maunganui — make for a great combo.
Big shout-out to Altitude Brewing for taking out the Lagerfest surfboard-shaped trophy last weekend. And also to newcomer Neck of the Woods for winning People’s Choice with their brilliantly-named Neckable Lager.
Altitude won with their West Coast Pilsner. Hopped with Peacharine, a newish variety from Freestyle Hops, and some Nelson Sauvin hop oil, the beer is described as “a monster aroma of stonefruit, citrus and white grape”.
Neck of the Woods isn’t open yet, but they got their lager brewed by Ed Bolstad at nearby Alchemy Street Brewing.
West Aucklanders Black Sands took second place with Forbidden, a black rice lager, while the home team, Mount Brewing. took third with their rice Lager.
Beer of the Week No 1
Staying with lagers … I love a great Bohemian-style Pilsner and this one from Alibi Brewing on Waiheke Island is a cracker. A spot-on example of the style from the bread-like malt flavour to the noble hop character and a textural softness from a long conditioning period. And it finishes dry and sharp. It’s everything you’d want from this style of beer. Loved it.
Meet the new Alibi brewer
On that note, I had a great chat with new Alibi brewer Jody Thomas recently.
Jody’s got an impressive beer CV, most of it in Australia in recent years, and wasn’t fully aware of the reputation of Alibi’s former brewer Bernard Neate, who left to start Twofold with John Austin.
“I think I had some awareness of Bernard’s success, but I didn’t realise that there was this deep indie culture.
“And it probably only dawned on me, like, maybe six or seven or eight weeks into the job, that there was this thing going on … and I was like, oh, shit.”
Tim’s Beer of the Week
‘What’s Epic up to these days?’ is something I’ve been wondering recently. While the fate of Epic post-liquidation and purchase by the Russell Group probably warrants deeper investigation, I can confirm that whatever else might be going on, they have re-brewed one of my favourite IPAs ever.
Right from the radiant copper pour, Lupulingus (9% ABV) makes it entirely clear that it’s a West Coast-style IPA — one that doesn’t get brewed that much anymore. And finding out it’s apparently made with 40% more hops than Hop Zombie, one can begin to understand why…
The pine, citrus and stone fruit aroma hits with an incredible immediacy, and clings to the olfactories long after nosing. The palate on the other hand, is a slow and meandering journey where the oozing malt richness is gradually overgrown by the creeping hop character, while the thunderous bitterness gathers inevitably overhead.
This is “Big IPA” at its most deliciously exposed. No gloves, no safety guards; just the edge… — Tim Newman
Moa becomes the official beer of the Crusaders
Kudos to Moa owner Stephen Smith for securing a deal with the Crusaders Super Rugby franchise.
Moa will have a range of products for sale at Crusaders home games but are also amping up their sub-brand Southern Alps.
While Moa is seen as Marlborough-based business, as that’s where the original brewery and taproom is located, most of the beer gets brewed at McCashin’s in Nelson and Smith lives in Christchurch now.
The Crusaders deal comes just days after Moa announced they had been named the preferred pourage partner for Venues Ōtautahi — covering the major city venues across Christchurch.
This includes the new One NZ Stadium, as well as Apollo Projects Stadium, Wolfbrook Arena, the Christchurch Town Hall, and the Air Force Museum.
It’s a massive piece of success for Moa and as Smith noted, these types of partnerships had often been locked up by larger, internationally-owned breweries.
“Our family and locally-owned business is privileged to have this opportunity to partner with Venues Ōtautahi to help create first-class guest experiences across Christchurch. Brand provenance, local sourcing and connection is a major consideration now — particularly with food and beverage products.”
The two deals are entwined with the launch of Southern Alps Ultra Low Carb Lager, brewed using Gladfield malt from Canterbury and Garston hops from Southland.
Crusaders CEO, Colin Mansbridge, said: “We are always focused on building the best fan experience possible, and Moa are the perfect partner to help elevate this in 2025 and beyond. I've had the pleasure of trying the new Southern Alps low carb lager and know that this will be warmly received by our fans.”
Dusty’s Beer of the Week
Another trip around the sun and what a way to ring it in with Parrotdog’s 1st limited release of 2025 — a 6.8% WCIPA featuring a four-punch combo of Simcoe, Mosiac, Centennial and Idaho 7 in the hop department. Saturated apricot leads here followed by a torrent of passionfruit & soft red berry. A mellow carb and slap of citric bitterness makes way for a resiny oily mouthfeel and finish...one crackin’ Westy! — Dusty
Big merger in Australia could be the start of a trend
Two of Australia's best-known indie brewers have joined forces. Hawkers, in Melbourne, and White Bay, in Sydney, have merged to form the Social Drinks Group, raising $1.5m in new capital and appointing a new CEO.
These kind of mergers have been common in the US for sometime, and to an extent they’ve been tried here with breweries sharing spaces — Mount Brewing and Funk Estate did it briefly in Mount Maunganui, and many years go in Christchurch Raindogs and Eagle shared premises.
In Christchurch, Renaissance and the revived Funk Estate also come out of the same spot under the Brandhouse umbrella.
But Hawkers and White Bay are next level in their union.
In a statement, they said the move would see them “combining their deep expertise and passion for innovation to deliver even more exceptional beverages.” The new CEO is Judd Michel, who has worked in beer for many years, including stints running beer and beverage businesses at both CCA and Heineken.
The founders of both breweries told The Crafty Pint they had each been looking for ways to secure their future for some time, given the significant and ongoing challenges facing the independent beer sector, and concluded they had businesses that could be stronger together.
“We have two complementary businesses,” Hawkers co-founder and CEO Mazen Hajjar says. “One is very strong in Sydney and one is strong in Melbourne, and has a bit more national distribution. We can rationalise distribution channels, e-commerce, and will be able to produce more at scale, reduce costs, and increase market penetration.”
They already see this as a start of something new and see themselves bringing new partners into the mix.
Beer of the Week No 2
Well, after those stonking big West Coast IPAs from Tim and Dusty, I reckon my palate needs a rest … and that’s just reading about them let alone drinking them!
But I’ve got the almost-perfect beer if you’re looking for a balanced combo of hop intensity and lower ABV.
Baylands in Petone are proven masters of hoppy beer and that’s obvious with How Low Can You Go — a 2.5% hazy pale ale (and I applaud the pale ale descriptor rather than going with the ubiquitous IPA).
This is only slightly hazy, so slight you can barely notice it, but the NZ hop-driven flavour is superb. There’s a real renaissance going on in the mid-strength category and this is one of the best of them.
And remember, you can find this and other great beers at your local New World supermarket — your home of craft beer.
Americans getting frothy for this Czech-style
The Czech-style mlíko pour is apparently gaining traction in America as bars there start utilising the unique Lukr taps that make it possible to pour a beer that once upon a time would have lost a bartender their job!
You can read the story here, or watch it below ⤵️
Beer of the Week No 3
This is a bit of a shout-out to the teams at Froth Tech and Emerson’s … because this beer was a fair bit past its “best before” date of July 2024, but potentially tastes better than it did on release, with a softening and melding of flavours. It’s got a great phenolic character — light banana, apple, pear —a hint of vanilla and spice and it finishes dry and clean.
The original beer was released in October 2023 but I do recall the launch being delayed slightly, so there’s every chance the date stamp on the bottom indicates it was brewed in the middle of 2023.
Anyway, if you see one somewhere and wonder if it might be out of date … as long as it’s been stored OK, I recommend it. I have one more of my original six-pack and will try that later this year to check on the progress!
Belgian breweries struggling
A farmhouse ale is as good a segue to the final story of the week which looks at the brewing scene in Belgium. From afar, countries such as Belgium and Germany, with their deeply ingrained, centuries-old beer-drinking culture, appeared immune to the shifting trends in alcohol consumption.
Sadly, they are not immune, as Will Hawkes reports in the story linked below.
“Everything [that is] a little bit historical is struggling [to sell]. Lambic beer is harder to sell these days; same for saison and dark beers. People seem to [be going] towards easy-drinking options.”
Thanks again for reading and I’ll be back next week, same time, same place, with more beer news and reviews.
Michael
The Mliko is apparently called ein Schnitt in Franconia. It's typically the last beer of the night where you're waiting for others to finish up and/or you're willing to take pot luck on how much beer you're actually served.