How many breweries are in NZ, really?

In which I take on the fraught task of counting breweries. Plus outrage over Belgian giant's Russian links. Behemoth look to raise another $3 million in crowd-funding. And a beer-chugging paratrooper

Happy Friday Beer Lovers, and welcome to another edition of Friday Night Beers.

Before we get into the news of week, I’m starting this one by asking a favour of sorts: help me get to the bottom of the so-far unanswered question of exactly how many breweries there are in New Zealand.

I’ve always been bemused by various official looking reports that have our brewery total north of 200, and often as high as 220. So I took on what I thought might be an impossible task of trying to count them all. Almost certainly I have overlooked someone, and equally I’ve probably included a brewery that has subsequently closed. This is always going to be a fluid analysis, but I’d love to be able at a certain point in time, say this is how many organisations we have making beer.

So check out the story, where I’ve broken the breweries down into regions, which makes it easier to digest all the information I think, and let me know of any updates.

And just for fun here’s one of my favourite brewery counts ever: from the old New Zealand Breweries (the precursor to Lion) which by the looks of this had seven breweries operating in 1960, including in Palmerston North and Invercargill.

Source: National Library of NZ

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Leffe in strife over Russian links

While breweries around the world are making beer and selling it to support Ukraine, one famous Belgian brewery is in the gun for starting to brew in Russia after that country’s invasion of Ukraine.

Leffe beer is now being produced in seven Russian breweries by AB InBev Efes, a joint venture between AB InBev and Turkish beer producer Anadolu Efes, according to a tweet earlier this month by the Belgian-Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce in Russia.

The announcement, coming long after many Western firms shuttered shops and factories in Russia under huge public pressure, has now sparked a backlash online and triggered calls for a boycott, according to the website Politico.

Katya Yushchenko, the wife of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, called out AB InBev, even accusing the company of “supporting genocide”.

“How Western Europeans like to lecture others about corruption when they themselves choose money over morals. Boycott #Leffe beer,” she tweeted.

Reading between the lines, it seems AB InBev wants out of its deal with Anadolu Efes as it finds itself wedged between two strongmen.

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Beer of the week No 1

As I was prepping this email to go out I noticed a post on Facebook about my top beer of the week: “I've always found Good George lacking compared to the top tier NZ breweries, always considered them more of an ‘entry level’ crafty if you will. But far out man, they've come a long way with this beer! Massive juice bomb with tons of body, I can see why this was a winning beer.” And I think that captures what a lot of people might think about Good George. And admittedly they are largely brewing for their pubs which means beers that won’t stray too far from a safe spot. But this beer will make you reassess that. Haze of Glory was in the Brewers Guild Box of Champions and I was eager to crack into it given it had won two coveted titles this year: the Smiths IPA Challenge in Queenstown and then the Juicy/Hazy trophy at the New Zealand Beer Awards. So it had to be good right? It is. This is just pure juice. It’s so lush and rich with a mango lassi meets pineapple juice flavour offset by just enough bitterness to keep it real. I slammed the squealer in double quick time and I don’t even like that hazies that much 🤣.

It’s worth noting that our website now has more than 200 recommendations published over the past couple of years, so if you’re looking for more inspiration …