Derelict — we were lucky to have them
Much loved North Canterbury goes out on a high after shock decision to close. Brothers Beer buyer revealed. Parrotdog wins Smith's NZIPA Challenge again. Lion cease production of Canterbury Draught.
Happy Matariki beer friends!
Because of the public holiday on Friday, I’ve decided to go early with Friday Thursday Night Beers.
I’m starting this week still in a state of disbelief that Derelict Brewing in North Canterbury are closing after just six years in the business.
After the huge shock, and once I talked to founder-brewer Sam Cottier, who explained his decision, I now admire what he and wife Natalie have done — no matter how much I will miss their beers.
The decision to leave the beer business at the top of their game reminds me of athletes who retired at their peak.
In my lifetime, Bjorn Borg is one. He was only 26! Roger Federer retired at 41. Imagine the career Borg could have had. Lorena Ochoa had women’s golf at her mercy when she retired at 29. Nico Rosberg won the Formula One title and then took the first exit ramp, aged 27. Swimmer Ian Thorpe, admittedly he started young, retired at 24. Even footballer Eric Cantona was only 30 when he kicked the ball to touch.
There’s a bravery required to walk away from something you’re incredibly good at, and which brings so much pleasure to others, when you’re still at the height of your powers, rather than waiting for time to tap you on the shoulder.
And Derelict were at the peak of their game. They’d been New Zealand’s No 1-ranked brewery on Untappd for five of their six years, displaced only this year by Cell Division.
They’d stayed small and agile and produced some of the most intense beers I’ve ever tasted. And not many of you would argue with that, I reckon.
So all power to Sam and Natalie for doing what was right for them. They made the decision based on what they want to do with their lives and to have more time for their children.
I’ll miss Derelict beers but also want to take a moment to celebrate how lucky we were to have them.
Brothers Beer new owner confirmed
I caught up this week with Brothers Beer head brewer Dylan Adams, who confirmed the new owners of the brewery as Kasber Ltd, a China-based beer importer and distributor.
Brothers was the first New Zealand brewery Kasber imported and Dylan said they had a strong attachment to the brewery and didn’t want to see it closed.
Kasber have also imported other New Zealand beer from the likes of Liberty and Sawmill.
As part of the takeover, Kasber has decided focus on Brothers’ Mt Eden brewpub and as a result divested its other remaining venue at the Piha Surf Life Saving Club. Brothers had previously parted ways with venues at City Works Depot, Onehunga, Orakei, Birkenhead, and Commercial Bay during the voluntary administration period.
Brothers had been trading well under the voluntary administration but it seems they were forced into liquidation on a technicality that breached the terms of the administration, rather than any underlying structural issue.
Dylan, who was previously at Deep Creek, said the new owners were keen to invest in the brewery and he was already expecting some new equipment to land soon. A lot of the production from the brewery will now be for export but they will maintain their supermarket presence and the popular Mt Eden bar and Juke Joint restaurant will continue to trade as normal.
For a longer interview with Dylan, make sure you pick up the next edition of Pursuit of Hoppiness, out on July 29.
And remember …
Beer of the Week No 1
After talking about Brothers, and with Dry July just around the corner, I cannot recommend highly enough their new non-alc lager, Shoey.
The brewing skills are evident in Shoey, a non-alcoholic lager that’s designed as a complementary beer to their other non-alc, Fill Yer Boots, a hazy IPA.
Shoey is nothing short of spectacular. It smells like lager, tastes like lager, and drinks like a good lager — with a surprisingly full mouthfeel and wonderful lemon zest aftertaste.
It takes great skill to brew simple non-alc lager and Brothers Beer have nailed it. This is as good a non-alc lager as you’d find from a big brewery.
Parrotdog take out Smith’s NZIPA Challenge
For the second year in a row, Parrotdog have proved they are kings when it comes to the NZ-style IPA. They won the annual Smith’s NZIPA Challenge with Lyall Bay (L.B.) NZIPA (2024) — a keg-only release hopped with a can’t-miss trio of Riwaka, Nelson Sauvin and Motueka.
Double Vision took out the People’s Choice with Hop Drop 24, a hazy IPA dosed with liberal amounts of Motueka, Nectaron and Superdelic.
And Sunshine Brewing took out the best packaged product with NZIPA 24, which utilises a light pilsner malt base layered with Southern Cross, Wai-iti and Nectaron for “flavours of pine, lemon citrus and stone fruits”.
I haven’t tried any of these yet, but … Dusty has.
Dusty’s Beer of The Week
How’s the tin! Easy to see why this was people’s choice at the recent Smith’s NZIPA Challenge. Hop Drop 24 is exploding with Motueka, Nectaron & Superdelic. This hop grenade is packing big ripe notes of pineapple and peach initially followed by secondary blasts of strawberry and orange with a bit of “wet sock” goin’ on to please the dank heads. Mouthfeel is soft, creamy courtesy of the oat addition, all this sitting atop of a mellow chewy toffee malt base ... crusha! Hoppy Matariki!
Beer of the Week No 2
And while the Sunshine NZIPA (above) sounds amazing, I can also thoroughly recommend another new release from the pride of Gisborne: Drop In, which they describe as a Natural Pale Ale. I kinda like the audacity of using natural as “style” descriptor. In many ways, this is similar to a Mountain IPA in that it’s a hybrid style, with aspects of hazy and clear pale ales amalgamated perfectly. It’s unfiltered and initially there’s sweet orange that gives way to some pine and grapefruit zest. There’s a pithy, citrus bitterness which is pitched just right for the 4.2% ABV. And on that note, there’s a bag of flavour and texture for the relatively low ABV. In that regard it’s a triumph, in my book. Drop one in!
No more Canterbury Draught
Canterbury Draught has been poured for the last time, with Stuff reporting this week that Lion had ceased production of the local icon.
I’ll put a rejoinder on that story: it claims that Canterbury Draught was one of the country’s oldest beers, linking it to Ward’s — a brewery which operated in the region for 100 years until Lion closed it in 1955.
Ward’s beer lived on for a while, until it was reimagined as Canterbury Draught in 1990, which coincided roughly with me moving to Christchurch from Dunedin.
There was an often-bitter rivalry with southern neighbour Speight’s and as a recent emigre from the south, I once went to a low-key event at Lancaster Park innocently wearing a Speight’s T-shirt. A friend, who also happened to work in marketing for the Canterbury Rugby Union, told me plainly that I could not wear the Speight’s T-shirt inside the hallowed corridors of Lancaster Park and literally ripped it off my back and threw it in the bin. He went into a storage room and fished out a red-and-black Canterbury jersey and told me to put that on instead.
So yeah, I’m not sad to see Canterbury Draught gone!
Just joking … it’s a sad day when any beer goes out of production but we shouldn’t mourn CD as if it had been around for 170 years. It lasted only 34 years in reality.
“It’s always very sad to let go of an iconic brand,” said a Lion spokesperson, “however, with consumer choice increasing and tastes changing, it gradually declined in popularity and so was not commercially sustainable anymore.
“We would like to recognise Canterbury Draught fans. While we are no longer brewing Canterbury Draught, we are proud of the brand’s success and thankful for their support over many years.”
Of the regional breweries that blossomed under Lion’s ownership from the late 1980s, Speight’s has cemented itself, mainly thanks to the Summit variation. How much Gold Medal Ale gets sold these days is anyone’s guess. Lion Brown (which was Wellington’s beer) and Lion Red (Auckland) continue to hang on thanks to pricing.
This leaves some pressure on Waikato Draught … can the locals keep that brand alive?
The good news or the bad news?
The eve of Dry July seems the right time to ponder the most debatable aspect of alcohol in the 21st century: is it that bad for you?
Ever since The Lancet published research in 2018 stating there was no safe level of drinking there’s been a lot of debate about all the research that’s gone into civilisation’s 10,000-year-old preferred method of relaxing.
This week the New York Times took a good look at the subject and I have to commend them for the balance, clarity and nuanced reportage on an emotive and divisive topic.
I’ve linked to the story below and apologise if it’s paywalled. I shared it from my NY Times account, so hopefully that means you can read it.
But the nutshell part that I honed-in on was this:
How much time does a certain amount of drinking shave off your life? For those who have two drinks a week, that choice amounts to less than one week of lost life on average … Consume seven alcoholic beverages a week, and that amount goes up to about two and a half months. Those who push five drinks a day or more face the risk of losing, on average, upward of two years…
Of course, all those numbers are averages, the story noted, and it is impossible to predict the level of impact on an individual, but when I shared this with my wife, she was like: “Two and a half extra months alive or no beer … I’ll have the beer.”
One of the main sources in the story is Tim Stockwell, a scientist at the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research. He used to be in the camp that said a little bit of alcohol is good for you before doing a 180-degree turn and agreeing that there’s no safe level of drinking. However, he’s also one of those rare people who can articulate “risk”, noting that one or two drinks a week has so little impact it cannot even called “low risk” as it increased a person’s risk of mortality by a mere 0.1 percent.
“I think the three-to-six-drinks-a-week category would be more like what I would call ‘low risk,” Stockwell said.
Naturally, everyone has reasons for why they drink, or don’t drink, and what I love about this debate in 2024 is the fact that if someone says “hey, I’m not drinking anymore” for whatever reason, we’re all cool with it, and in fact celebrate it. Well, I do, anyway.
Is That Drink Worth It to You? - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
Tim’s Beer of the Week
A couple of years ago I visited Panhead brewery, the jewel in the crown of Upper Hutt’s Brewtown. As with all such visits, when it came to the taproom, I skipped straight past the core range and got stuck into tasting the experimental one-off brews that I wouldn’t find anywhere else. With their Batch range, Panhead are bringing this experience out of the brewery and to the entire nation, by selecting favourite former taproom-only exclusives for a canning run.
Batch 206 — a hoppy red ale (6.1%) — is described as a toast to malt, the backbone of all beer, and right from the deep coppery pour you can tell that’s what this one is about. Toffee and toasted grains adorn the aroma, alongside dried apricot, prune and sweet spice. The palate starts rich and full but grows more delicate and complex as the malt character unfurls and the drying bitterness tightens around the finish. Exceptional winter drinking. — Tim Newman
Back to Guinness for a moment
The other week I had some commentary around the gap left for Garage Project to launch their Tiny Stout, a non-alcoholic stout. With no regular and large-scale importation of Guinness 0.0 into New Zealand, it’s hard to get your hands on the zero-version of the black stuff.
I’d put a question into Lion, the Guinness distributor in New Zealand, about why they hadn’t yet seized on the huge popularity of the 0.0. I got this reply:
Guinness 0.0 is on our radar. At this stage, operational requirements mean importing from the UK risks aging stock and it’s not currently possible for us to make it here.
We are looking at options in conjunction with Lion Australia.
I can understand the risk aversion to be honest, given the early iterations of this brew had to be recalled because they became infected. Maybe soon we’ll see it in supermarkets, but until then, all power to GP.
Beer of the Week No 3
Speaking of stouts, I had a ripper the other day: ChinChiller Tiramisu Sweet Stout (5.8%).
And I think the reason I liked this so much is, despite the name and descriptor, this is actually a well-balanced, layered and even complex stout.
It’s super sweet on the aroma, and the first wave of flavour is definitely rich chocolate. But behind that is a great base stout with roast coffee flavours wafting out from behind the curtains to take centre stage late in the piece and providing some bitter contrast to the upfront sweetness.
Why Coopers shareholders said no to getting rich
I’ll finish this week with a great long weekend read from Forbes in Australia. It’s fascinating interview with Melanie Cooper, who runs the family company.
And it features a story that I wasn’t fully aware of: that Lion (our Lion) made a bid to takeover Coopers in 2005.
Lion offered huge money to get their hands on the boutique South Australian brewery. But as Cooper explained:
“As many of the shareholders said at the time, the money doesn’t mean anything to us. This is more about our history, heritage, and sense of identity … And as my father said, ‘I am Bill Cooper of Cooper Brewery. If I sell these shares, I just become Bill Cooper, owner of condominiums’.”
Melanie Cooper on keeping Coopers in the family (forbes.com.au)
Have a fantastic long weekend and catch you next week.
With Derelict it's very much a Dr. Seuss case of don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened. Better I be disappointed that they no longer exist than I be blissfully ignorant because they never existed.