Devastation for Zeelandt in Esk Valley flood
Inside Parrotdog's capital raise. GABS Hottest 100 hot takes. Police investigate supermarkets selling super-discounted beer. How not to pour a beer. The best Cold IPA I've had.
Wow, another Friday Night Beers at the end of another dramatic week. My heart goes out to all those hammered by Cyclone Gabrielle, from Piha and Muriwai, to Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay — the loss of life and total devastation is almost too much to grasp.
Earlier in the week I saw this post from Zeelandt in Esk Valley, with their Cone & Flower taproom almost underwater.
What I didn’t realise at the time was that Zeelandt owner-brewer Chris Barber, his wife Luciana and their children came perilously close to drowning as the flood overwhelmed their house. There’s a video in this story of Chris talking about how he managed to save his family by breaking through the ceiling to climb into the roof cavity as the waters rose. It’s pretty harrowing.
I checked in on Sunshine Brewery in Gisborne as that area was also hard hit and owner Martin Jakicevich said the brewery taproom had served as focal point.
“We are continuing to service the local market (great having a regional brewery) and the taproom is operating on a cash or honesty system which is providing a well-needed community catch-up and stress relief base.
“There is a great attitude and feel of togetherness in there at the moment. It just shows how important a brewery can be to community in a time of angst and emergency.”
Parrotdog valued at $25 million
Cyclone Gabrielle briefly affected the launch of Parrotdog’s crowd-funding offer. It was due to go live on Wednesday with Snowball Effect but that was put on hold for a couple of days and it went live today.
They are looking to raise up to $4 million. There’s some interesting information in the documents attached to the offer, such as the power of their Birdseye Hazy IPA, which in 6-pack format is the No 1 selling craft beer in the country by value, ahead of Boundary Road Haze of Our Lives (12-packs and 6-packs), Panhead Supercharger, Mac’s Green Beret, Mac’s Apparition and Mac’s Golden Hour. When you look at the power behind those other brands (Lion and Asahi) it’s a pretty amazing feat.
They’ve taken what seems to be a conservative view of the company value, using a current revenue multiplier of 1.47 to give a valuation of $25.44 million. Behemoth’s capital raise last year used a revenue multiplier of 3.37 for a $35.9m valuation.
They have both a low-carb (Greyhound) and a non-alcoholic (Watchdog) beer due for release this year which given the market growth in that “better for you” sector will surely boost their market share.
An Auckland venue is also on the cards: “Auckland is currently being considered as a location for establishing a second Parrotdog bar, which we see as the largest growth opportunity for the brand at present. We will commit to this initiative once we identify a site that reflects the Parrotdog brand and local community, and subject to the right market conditions.”
A listing on the New Zealand and/or Australian stock exchange is possible in the future.
GABS Hottest 100 hot takes
Confessional: I’m not really that enamoured with the GABS hottest 100. I’m not against it but, well, it’s an Aussie outfit running it for starters and I reckon we could and should do our own version here. I thought we did a pretty good job of a Hoppiness 100 at the end of 2022 with a variety of very cool beer. Maybe we’ll up that to a people’s choice system this year. Watch this space.
Secondly, while I respect the “people’s choice” element of any beer-related contest, I also think that it’s open to skewed voting. Some breweries do a very good on hustling their fans to vote. So yes, it’s a popularity contest and a marketing contest, but once you’ve taken all that on board the results speak for themselves. And within that, there are exceptions that stand out like the proverbial dog’s anatomy.
First up, congrats to Behemoth Brain Smiles Hazy IPA for breaking the lock Wellington breweries previously had on this event through Panhead, Garage Project and Parrotdog. One could write an entire hot take on how this means Auckland is now the centre of the brewing universe, but that would be a bad hot take, so I will refrain from that kind of commentary.
Parrotdog Birdseye and Garage Project Sunrise Valley filling the podium is business as usual. And Panhead Supercharger in fourth is more of the same, but really that feels very 2019 people … time to move on.
Where it got interesting for me is Cassel’s Milk Stout popping up in fifth place. That’s up seven places from last year. I love this beer, but I would never have expected it to be ranked in the top-5 of any sort of popularity contest that featured 15,000 hazies. Could this be the breakthrough moment that dark beers have been waiting for? Is the boom in pastry stouts responsible for this new-found love of milk stout? So many questions, so many hot takes to be written.
There’s another measure of popularity I’d like to address and that’s the number of comments on the GABS Facebook page when they posted the results. Brain Smiles got four comments, Sunrise Valley four, Birdseye one … but in 10th place GP’s Pickle Beer got 79 comments. Admittedly it was mostly people tagging other people but I’m sure there’s some significance to this high level of engagement and it probably stops and starts with pickles.
New World entries kept open
In light of the recent weather events, the closing date for entering the New World Beer & Cider Awards has been extended to 5pm this coming Sunday, February 19. New World says: “We’re keen to support as many breweries to enter as possible and understand many of you may have been directly affected. If you’re keen to enter but just can’t make the revised deadline of Sunday, we can also accept late entries. Just get in touch at nwbca@foodstuffs.co.nz.”
Beer of the week No 1
Well, we have a new top dog in the hazy 6-pack contest. Lakeman 5 O’clock Somewhere is a stunner of a beer, the mouthfeel is velvet smooth yet intertwined with a nice prickly buzziness from carbonation and bitterness. The flavour bulges with sweet orange juice and zest. So be warned, if you want your hazies all pineapple and fruit salad, this might not be for you, but if you want a really good beer with heaps of lovely citrus and a playful kick, this is a winner. It’s one of the best beers I’ve had this year because it’s got something distinctive about it — character, or X-factor, which frankly you can’t say about every hazy. And for anyone keeping tabs at home, the top hazy six-packs we’ve encountered so far are this one, Emerson’s Hazed & Confused and Parrotdog Birdseye.
Buy a hat, help me build a wall
Now that the sun is back out, does anyone need a hat? I have some fantastic Hoppiness hats for sale on the website. There’s a limited number so you’ll be in elite company wearing one. The funds will be well-used: fixing the big slip in front of our house. Admittedly I’d have to sell around 4000 hats to pay for the repairs, but hey, every little bit helps!
And finally, if you haven’t already subscribed to the full newsletter, or if you want to gift a sub to a friend … you know what to do! Every sub comes with a complimentary subscription to the Pursuit of Hoppiness print magazine, home-delivered so it’s a steal of a deal if you love beer…
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