DB lets Radler trademark expire
For the first time in 20 years, NZ brewers can make a legit Radler. Balsamic vinegar in beer — does it work? Tuatara shed more light on move to Brewtown. Vintage beer can fetches a record $NZ100,000
Happy Friday beer friends!
Exclusive: New Zealand brewers can, for the first time in 20 years, use the word “radler” to describe a beer-lemonade blend without fear of a legal letter after DB decided not to renew their trademark for the word.
For long-time beer fans, this is welcome news, even if it comes way too late.
DB registered “Radler” in 2004 after launching Monteith’s Radler. In 2009 they faced legal action from the Society of Beer Advocates who tried to stop DB from using the trademark. The fact DB had even trademarked a beer style name came to light when Dunedin’s Green Man produced a Radler and were ordered to remove the word from the label, which they did by taping over it with the German translation: “cyclist”.
The court case, in 2009, hinged on SOBA’s argument that a well-known beer style couldn’t be a trademark.
SOBA lost the case, and while DB did the decent thing and didn’t enforce the costs awarded, the trademark has persisted until now, meaning Monteith’s version has been the only legit Radler in New Zealand. The decision to allow DB to continue using Radler was based on the court’s view that Radler — while historic and well-known in Germany — was not widely known in New Zealand when it was trademarked.
The case did effectively stop other beer styles from being turned into registered trademarks by signaling to the Intellectual Property Office NZ (IPONZ) that they needed to do a better job when it came to such trademark applications.
I asked DB this week what the rationale was for letting the trademark expire.
“We decided to let the trademark expire as we believe the term ‘Radler’ should be open for use within the craft category.”
There you go, brewers, get on your bikes and brew a Radler, which by the way, can be a blend of beer and almost any other fruit juice, or soda, so I fully expect to see a few hit the market.
Missing in action
Last week’s email may have gone AWOL for some readers — myself included! — so apologies for that. It seems, according to the Substack platform help desk, last week’s post could have had too many links in it. Who knew?!
So, for those who missed it, I’ve re-upped it here. And if you notice an email not landing as expected, do get in touch. My usual delivery rate is 97% so it’s a reliable service as long as I don’t overdo the content, it seems.
Beer of the Week No 1
I feel like I’m going into unchartered territory here by recommending a beer that may not be everyone’s cup of tea, so to speak. In fact, I thought it might not have been my thing, but it’s so damn surprising and entertaining I have to share it.
Yes, Cherry & Balsamic Sour, from Heyday. At first glance balsamic vinegar seems like a weird ingredient to put in a beer, but not long after drinking this I was watching one of those baking reality shows in which a contestant was doing strawberries with balsamic vinegar as a dessert combination, so I guess that’s where Heyday are coming from.
Heyday, based in Wellington’s Cuba Street, are one of the more adventurous go-ahead breweries in the country right now, producing outstanding beer with great artwork on the tins to boot and this is an excellent testament to that.
The best way of thinking about this beer is to imagine it as being related to a sparking rosé wine. It’s got a similar flavour profile and acidity to a rosé — think vibrant cherry, strawberry and a pinch of citrus with an underlying, but quite subtle, tart balsamic note.
Goes superbly with food and available in select New World stores, your home for craft beer, and great supporters of what I do here at Friday Night Beers.
DB adds nutrition panels to beer
I put in a couple of calls to DB this week, as apart from the Radler thing, a reader tipped me off about their voluntary introduction of nutrition information panels (nips). Nips are not a requirement for beer in New Zealand but those who make low carb beer, and some non-alcohol beer manufacturers, do use them as they serve a useful purpose for punters looking for “better for you” options.
But DB has gone the extra mile, including the revelation — you won’t believe it! — that their flagship Double Brown features caramel colouring. (Thanks to Simon Cooke for this pic, by the way).
Given it’s not something yet required by law, I asked DB what the thinking was, and they replied:
We advocate for consumer transparency so that everybody can make an informed choice about the products they consume. That's why we provide ingredient and nutritional information that goes beyond the industry standard on our alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages.
Kudos to them.
How to be a beer judge
I super-enjoyed this story from The Spinoff’s Alice Neville, who came along to the New World Beer & Cider Awards the other week to learn what’s involved in being a beer judge. Alice has a great palate to start with, and is a former Brewers Guild of NZ Beer Writer of the Year, so she knows her stuff. It’s a good, enlightening read: Do you have what it takes to be a beer judge? | The Spinoff
Beer of the Week No 2
XPA as style seems to come and go in waves. Part of its waxing and waning is that it’s hard to say exactly what it is, or for customers to decide which X-factor they’re looking. One of the better marketing decisions recently was for Brave Brewing to rename their Extra Pale Ale as Bottle Rocket. Same great beer, different name, and no need to explain whether it’s an “extra” pale ale, or an “extra-pale” ale. But I digress. I’m here to tell you that Laughing Bones new Brut XPA, aka Bone Dry, has all the X-factor you need. I mean Bone Dry could be both the beer name and a descriptor of this. The malt structure is wafer-thin and all the heavy lifting in terms of texture and mouthfeel seems to come from the Nectaron hop dosage, with that hop’s high oil content helping to fatten out the beer. Anyway, it’s clever and good and tasty and I approve.
A bad year for UK breweries
The number of British breweries that went bust in 2023 was up 82% on the preceding year, rising from 38 in 2022 to 69 according to audit firm Mazars.
Using figures from the Insolvency Service, the company discovered that a large number of the breweries were smaller craft brands hit by the rising costs of production and excise duty.
As I’ve noted here before, what we’ve seen in New Zealand in the past year with high-profile liquidations and voluntary administrations is not out of step with the rest of the world, and, if anything, we seem to be better off than Australia, Britain and America, where nearly every day I see a story served to me by Google about a brewery “filing for chapter 11” — akin to voluntary administration.
In Australia, two more well-known breweries — Akasha and Deeds — entered voluntary administration in the past few days. A huge number of Aussies have entered voluntary administration, and most do so because they owe significant amounts of money to creditors, or the owners were forced to do it to get payment plans in place to clear tax debts — often those accrued during the early years of the Covid pandemic, The Crafty Pint reported.
That said, there are still plenty of new breweries opening up here, with the latest crossing my radar being Acoustic Brewing in Nelson and Gambit Brewing in Christchurch. There may well be others … so shout out if you see a new brewery near you as I try to keep an updated list of all the breweries in NZ.
On that note, Stuff did a nice piece on Acoustic Brewing.
Dusty’s Beer of the Week
Freshies are flooding the market, and I'm kicking off fresh hop Friday with one of my most anticipated drops of the season, Sawmill’s Fresh Hop Riwaka Hazy IPA. Off the tear it's greeny, danky and follows suit in the gob with additional oily passionfruit/grapefruit hits, a spikey bitterness and a juicy finish...crusha!
Tuatara shed more light on Brewtown move
You will recall that a few weeks back I reported on Tuatara’s planned move from Paraparaumu to Brewtown.
The Kapiti Observer today added more information on the move, noting that the current brew site had reached its wastewater discharge limit and therefore future growth was “constrained, making the site no longer fit for purpose”.
Kāpiti Mayor Janet Holborow said council staff had been working with Tuatara owner DB on a solution that would deliver staged improvements for managing wastewater.
“We had a plan that would enable both environmental and business outcomes to be met and had hoped we could work together to deliver that plan. We’re sad to be saying goodbye but recognise that businesses need to make tough decisions.
“It’s also fair to say Brewtown presents an attractive opportunity for DB and Tuatara to invest in a new, purpose-built facility, alongside other craft brewers and hospitality and events businesses.”
Beer of the Week No 3
I wrote last month of my visit for Sawmill for a beer-matching dinner with the Emerson’s crew ahead of the Sawmill rebrew of Emerson’s original “organic” pilsner.
Well, that beer has just been released. The main difference with the original Emerson’s version is the hop swap — using Motueka and Wakatu instead of Riwaka as they were the two varietals available as organic products.
So you don’t get that Riwaka-driven grapefruit-passionfruit-diesel flavour profile. This delivers intense lime zest coupled with an earthy rockmelon note. It’s quite pungent and dry, but the malt character hangs on for dear life to keep it in balance. Nicely bitter at the end, and definitely not like many modern NZ pilsners which accent sweet-over-bitter.
The beer kept me engaged and interested throughout and by the end I wanted another.
Vintage beer can fetches 100 grand
A vintage American beer can has sold for US$62,830 (NZ$103,000) setting a new world record.
The Perone Beer quart cone top can, described by Morean Auctions as “the only known example”, leapt in the bids from a US$25 start and reached US$51,500 (US$62,830 with buyer’s premium).
Perone was a brand of Otto Erlanger Brewing Co. of Philadelphia, and the can was dated to the 1940s, when the cone top format was in circulation.
Speaking about the sale, auctioneer Dan Morean described the item as “a Grail can for many a quart and Pennsylvania collector.”
Next week …
Friday Night Beers will be Thursday Night Beers next week, because of Easter, and it’ll also be short and sweet, with my regularly quarterly assessment of the best beers of 2023. Thanks for reading!
Time for an NZ radler competition.