Gisborne running out of Gold
Should you invest in Parrotdog? 60 beers for 60 years. Hop production exceeding usage in US. Bill Gates bets big on beer. Champions of the beer mile. A belter of an ad from Balter.
Happy Friday Beer Lovers and Happy Birthday to me. (And apologies if you didn’t get this email yesterday I think I made an error somewhere so I am resending)
It’s a milestone for yours truly, as I’ll explain a bit further down, but to celebrate my birthday I’m gifting this edition of Friday Night Beers to everyone whether you have a subscription or not.
But also, if you’d like to buy me a birthday present, subscribe now so you can stay fully informed on everything going on in the world of beer. Your subscription gets you a lovingly curated compilation of beer news, reviews, insights and occasional humour.
As one subscriber told me recently, they really enjoy this newsletter for the “insight and intelligence”.
Plus, you get free home delivery of the Pursuit of Hoppiness magazine.
And you get to hear first-hand news like this: Gisborne is running out of beer.
Well, more truthfully running out of Gisborne Gold. The devastation of Cyclone Gabrielle is going to take a long time to recover from. At one extreme, there are people in west Auckland who just got power back on after 10 days without it. Others cannot get back to their homes in Muriwai or Piha.
We’ve seen what happened in Hawke’s Bay with Zeelandt Brewery. The Brewers Guild has started a benevolent fund to support Zeelandt, and have set up a Give-A-Little page that anyone can donate to — check it out: https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/zeelandt-brewery-cyclone-recovery and remember every little bit counts.
You’ve probably heard that Gisborne had no connection to the modern world for a few days and an ongoing broken water pipe means water restrictions for many industries, including the local brewery.
Martin Jakicevich from Sunshine Brewing updated me on the latest news today.
“Currently outside it is cold, grey and the rain is pelting down. Water, water everywhere but not a drop to brew with…
“Yep, the water emergency here continues, we have not been able to brew and are rapidly running out of beer.
“It was bad here when the cashless society crashed, real dark and somewhat dangerous, but I can’t image what it would be like if we ran out of Gisborne Gold. We would be tarred, feathered and run out of town.
“We have begged the Gisborne District Council to grant us an exemption to brew today. Begging a public servant for the right to brew, just think about that.
The entire food processing industry is on hold. What is left harvestable after the cyclone is now in threat of rotting in the fields because we can’t process it. Pretty frightening when you consider that over half of NZ’s fresh broccoli and packaged lettuce comes from the Gisborne region let alone all the corn, tomato paste, maize feed for cows and future seasons seed stocks, apples, grapes and many more.”
60 beers for 60 years
So, today I am 60 years old. Ridiculous to think about it. But I thought I’d have a bit of fun and celebrate the milestone by looking back on a life in beer through the lens of 60 beers.
Should you invest in Parrotdog?
I noted last week that Parrotdog’s capital raise had just launched. It’s been going a week now and as of this afternoon they have almost $1 million in the kitty. With three weeks to go, I think they’ll easily get their minimum target of $2 million. I had a little dabble at reasons why you might want to invest in Parrotdog and what some of the risks might be.
Beer of the Week No 1
This recommendation comes from Tim Newman, who was super-impressed with the latest release in McLeod’s 802 series.
I’ve reviewed a McLeod’s 802 series release before, and I’m certain I’ll review it again. That’s the beauty of the batched release model of which 802 was such a pioneer. This 49th edition (6.8% ABV) showcases the new Australian hop Eclipse, alongside the ubiquitous American craft darling Mosaic. Big pithy grapefruit and tangerine lead the nose, with softer mango and rockmelon tropicals crammed in behind. The distinctly citrus dominant palate starts off sharp before rapidly plunging into a bitter orange and aromatic pine. The malt character shows briefly before the immense bitterness crashes down on the finish. Very much in the old-school American style, this is an extremely bitter IPA for extremely bitter IPA drinkers, and consequently one of my favourite iterations of 802 yet.
Athletes of beer
The Beer Mile, aka the Chunder Mile, used to be a rite of passage at universities around the country — a bit like doing a yard glass on your 21st. But there’s a side of the beer mile that’s actually quite serious, with rules (a chug zone, the beers must be 5% or more), as Mark Dredge explores in this story about the Beer Mile world championship in which runners have to complete four laps of a track, drinking a 330ml can of beer on each lap.
Athletes cross the finish line, gasping for breath and clutching their stomachs, faces contorted in pain. It might not look like it, but they’re about to experience the ultimate runner’s high. “There’s this moment that happens,” explains Price, away from his commentator’s microphone. “The beer hits you. It’s one of the best buzzes you’ve ever had. It’s immediate euphoria.”
Hāpi Symposium returns
Garage Project’s Hāpi Symposium returns a month from today, March 24, at Te Papa.
It’s back after a three-year Covid-enforced hiatus. The original 2019 event included a festival, but this time it is purely a symposium aimed at the beer industry. I mean, if you’re a totally dedicated beer nerd or deep into homebrewing you might want to attend. I think there will be some fascinating stuff there, including two speakers talking about yeast and fermentation, which is the new frontier for getting flavour out of hops.
And I’ll be intrigued by what James McNamee (Garston) and Richard Wong (Nelson Lakes) have to say about the new regions opening up to hop growing.
Other speakers include Stone Brewing’s senior manager of brewing and innovation Jeremy Moynier, Other Half Brewing co-founder Sam Richardson and The New IPA author and founder of Sapwood Cellars Scott Janish.
In lieu of the festival the symposium marries up with Wellington’s annual arts and music festival CubaDupa and Garage Project will be running a live music stage and beer garden out of their Wild Workshop brewery over the weekend of March 25-26.
And Garage Project will be bringing back the popular Hāpi Sessions beers, a collection of collabs with some of the American breweries in attendance.
Rare Beer Challenge
Before that event, the other cool event on the calendar for Wellington is the Rare Beer Challenge.
This was a great success last year, raising money for Rare Disorders NZ, and delivering a fascinating array of weird and wonderful beers. It will again be hosted and judged at Fortune Favours, but this year there’s an Auckland extension, with Auckland’s 16Tun pouring some of the beers thanks to a family connection, with 16Tun owner Ewen Thorpe the brother of Fortune Favours CEO Shannon Thorpe.
The concept is simple, to use rare ingredients and unusual brewing techniques to produce a rare or unusual beer. There are no specific rules and last year's winners Choice Bros produced an Imperial Isotonic Sports Beer.
And a reminder that next week there’s Marchfest in Nelson and Kegkoura in Kaikoura.
I was remiss to announce the winners of the Marchfest ticket giveaway the other week. We had a huge number of entries, so thank-you to everyone who entered. The the winners were Pierre Hammond, Matt Sutherland, Philip McFarlane, Roger Wilde and Peter Anderson. Congratulations and enjoy.
Beer of the Week No 2
You know that feeling when you buy a single beer and when you drink it you love it so much you end up kicking yourself because you didn’t get more? This was me with Eddyline’s Dank Matter. A big and bold West Coast IPA which, after their triumph at the Malthouse West Coast IPA Challenge makes me think that when it comes to dank and bitter and well-rounded West Coast Style IPA, Eddyline is fast becoming a go-to. This beer uses a combo of Nelson Sauvin and Rakau, which are the due used in Garage Project’s Pernicious Weed, and they seem to work together really well, plus there’s some Simcoe for that dank, piney element.
Hops in over-supply
Right, rounding back to hops for a moment, it seems unbelievable to think, given the great hop shortages of less than 10 years ago, that there might be an over-supply of hops in North America.
According to Brewers Association (BA) chief economist Bart Watson hop supply in the US has outpaced hop usage for more than six years, a disparity that is “unsustainable” and will ultimately be corrected with reduced crop in the future.
Over the last few decades, US hop production has gone through “three big periods,” according to Watson: The ’90s to early ’00s, when crop production was static or declining; 2010 to 2018, when the “craft boom” caused a sharp increase in production; and 2018 to now, where production is relatively static, but at a record high (more than 50 million kilos annually).
The irony is that while we’re seeing more hop-forward beers (thank-you hazies) they’ve coincided with less hop usage.
Watson says it’s because, on one hand, everyone was forecasting growth in hoppy beer so there was more planting, but the brewing industry was being warned of hop shortages, so everyone was putting in forward contracts for fear of missing out.
Those contracts built a hop “infrastructure” that resulted in hop suppliers having increasingly more supply than brewers needed. The story is similar internationally, with global hop acreage increasing for eight consecutive years through 2021, according to global hop supplier BarthHaas.
Another reason hops are not being used as much as previously is a better understanding of efficiencies — there’s a certain point where throwing more hops in a kettle (or more likely a fermentation tank) doesn’t have any extra gains for flavour or aroma.
In a weird way, as we approach harvest in New Zealand, where we’ve had increased hectares planted in recent years and new varieties introduced, there’s not really a fear of oversupply. NZ hops are in incredibly high demand and because we make such a small volume of the international market (around 2 per cent) there’s always demand for the likes of Riwaka, Nelson Sauvin, Nectaron and now Superdelic, which according to NZ Hops Ltd, has had a phenomenal response. The driver for NZ hops is FOMO and that will continue, I think.
Bill Gates bets big on beer
What does it tell you about the future of beer when one of the world’s richest men spends nearly a billion dollars to buy a big chunk of one of the world’s biggest breweries? And Bill Gates doesn’t even like beer that much. But he now owns 3.76% of Heineken.
Gates purchased 10.8 million shares, worth 883 million euros ($939.87 million) at current market prices, triggering a disclosure requirement under Dutch stock market rules.
In a 2018 “Ask Me Anything” chat session on Reddit, Gates said he was “not a big beer drinker”.
“When I end up at something like a baseball game I drink light beer to get with the vibe of all the other beer drinkers. Sorry to disappoint real beer drinkers.”
Gates was not available for comment on why he’s gone big on Heineken, said Reuters.
PYO — Pour Your Own
In a story that has me thinking “what could possibly go wrong” some British sports venues, including Twickenham, are moving to self-service for beer. As someone who hates the queuing that’s involved in ordering a beer at a big sports event, this seems like a good idea.
Beverage technology company Drink Command installed self-service tap walls at Villa Park, Twickenham and Cheltenham.
Director of operations and sales, Peter Robinson, said one of the reasons it’s being introduced is because many businesses are struggling to retain and employ staff, so “it is inevitable that self-pour will become more and more prominent”.
The self-serve systems reduce wait times for customers, they say, with a total interaction time of less than 30 seconds allowing punters to avoid the long queues and get back to the action with a pint in hand. The company revealed that, with a cashless payment system, guests follow the instructions via a touchscreen system and pull a pint in seconds, whether that be a stout or a lager.
Now curiously an image I found promoting this was for a Guinness self-serve, presumably that would be at Twickenham, home of English rugby, with Guinness the major sponsor of Six Nations rugby this year.
We all know that pouring a pint of Guinness is not a 30-second affair, so I’ll be interested to see how those queues behave!
I have used a self-service wine pouring system before and found it a good idea if a little soulless. But I’m guessing it could catch on where hospitality venues really struggle for staff — at big events, festivals, sports venues etc.
Beer of the week No 3
I’ve previously included Good George Haze of Glory in my recommendations because it’s hard to ignore a beer that was the Smith’s IPA Challenge winner and a Trophy Winner at the NZ Beer Awards last year. In fact, it was one of my fave beers of 2022. But I’m re-upping it here because I saw it in 330ml cans the other day, which is an ideal serve size for a 7% flavour-rich, thick and juicy beer. I’d previously had it in the 946ml squealer and while that’s great value it was possibly too much for me to have in one sitting. Another reason to re-introduce it is the fact it’s made with a quartet of NZ Hops superstars (Nectaron, Riwaka, Nelson Sauvin and Superdelic, formerly NZH-102).
A belter from Balter
Balter are one of Australia’s most recognisable craft beer brands after being set up by a bunch of surfers including Mick Fanning. They sold to Carlton & United in 2019 and in turn that business was on-sold to Asahi. You can say what you like about corporate ownership but one thing they do well is make good advertising and I couldn’t help but love this new campaign, aimed at acknowledging beer’s diversity across culture, gender, and ability. It’s got that Australian larrikin character and a feel-good vibe.
Beer weed harmony
We don’t have this issue yet in New Zealand but I’m always fascinated by what’s happening in the cannabis-beer relationship in US states where both are legal. This was a good read-through on the subject from Dave Infante.
As efforts to reclassify cannabis for recreational use play out on a state-by-state basis, new data are emerging about how marijuana products and beverage alcohol go together. Good news for apprehensive brewers big and small: A recent study from researchers at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Public Health has found that they do, indeed, go together. Sort of. It’s complicated.
Beer’s health push
I’ve written a bit lately about the growing “beer is good for you” movement. It’s driven mostly around the benefits of non-alcoholic beer in terms of vitamins, minerals and probiotics without the damaging element from ethanol. And it does feel as if the moderate use of beer is good for you movement has some big backing behind it as the industry tries to change public perception about potential benefits. And mostly it feels like beer is trying cut in on the ground that wine carved out for itself so successfully around good stuff in vino while somehow glossing over ABVs of 12-14%. This piece from Men’s Journal doesn’t reinvent the wheel, more it keeps the ball rolling on this aspect of beer marketing.
Beer of the week No 4
A bonus beer this week for birthday week: as I noted in my 60 beers for 60 years piece, one of the early influences on my craft beer journey was the Hallertau No 1 Kolsch. These days we talk a lot about hybrid styles such as Cold IPA (IPA made with lager yeast) and NZ Pilsner (often made with ale yeast) but in some ways, Kolsch is the original hybrid, an ale brewed as if it’s a lager, with a long conditioning time. The effect is a smooth, clean and very drinkable beer. I’ve started to see a few pop on the market in recent months as part of what seems to be a revival in classic European styles. If you’re keen to further explore these historic corners of the beer world, Sloth by Badass Beverages is a great place to start. This beer is the epitome of easy drinking with a clean profile and plenty of ooomph for 4% ABV. And a few weeks back I touted their Flasghip Lager as a great drop. Seems I’m not alone as they’ve just done a rebrew of that one.
Truly a bad idea
I will sign off this week with a take-down of Truly Seltzer, owned by Boston Beer Co. The brand has been tanking recently prompting a rebrand and rethink. Within it, there are messages for craft beer in terms of wearing people out with a constant stream of new, new and new.
The makeover, which includes transitioning to RTDs in the form of flavoured vodka drinks (something we are well familiar with here in NZ), comes as Boston Beer projects malt- and sugar-based hard seltzers to collectively decline between -10% and -15% in 2023, while spirits-based seltzers are forecasted to grow around +3%.
Among the things that didn’t work for Truly was the continual introduction of new flavours, with customers getting tired and overwhelmed.
Dave Burwick of Boston Beer said Truly had grown well “until last year, when this whole idea of innovate and innovate and having to lap the innovation finally collapsed on us.”
“We’ve innovated arguably a little bit too much and not built the core business enough,” Burwick said.
Still, Burwick cautioned that the growth of the RTD segment in America could be temporary, and has been “three-quarters driven by retailers jumping on it and pushing it and one-quarter by consumers saying this is what it should be.”
“This wave could come crashing down a lot faster than hard seltzer in my opinion,” Burwick said. “I think it’s been propped up by wishful thinking.”
The difference between New Zealand and America is defined in this RTD v seltzer business. Here we’re big on RTDs and seltzers bombed when they were introduced, while Americans didn’t really have an RTD market (until now) and seltzers have thrived.
On that note it will be interesting to see the state of the RTD market here versus beer and wine when NZ Stats releases the 2022 data for alcohol available for consumption.
Until then, have a great weekend — the last of summer!
