Marriage break-up sends brewery to Employment Relations Authority
Otago Brew School closes doors. Queenstown brewers making beer from recycled food. The economics of The Athletic, America's non-alc darling. New York City's craft beer crisis.
Happy Friday Beer Fans
Although we start this week with a couple of less-than-happy stories.
First, in breaking news: Otago Polytechnic has discontinued the New Zealand Certificate in Brewing (Level 4) course due to a continuing trend of low enrolment numbers.
This programme will no longer be offered from 2025.
The brew school was set up in Cromwell in 2018 and produced some amazing beers and a raft of good brewers. They even got a beer into the New World Beer & Cider Awards Top 30 last year, which is some feat.
In an email, Otago Polytech told me: “We’re currently working through what this means for our on-campus brewery and our Brew School products and will provide an update as soon as we can.
“This decision is an outcome of the work to support the Government's intentions to have independent regional Vocational Education and Training institutions. These decisions are never easy, but because of Otago Polytechnic’s importance to our region, it is essential to have a financially sustainable institution.
“This has been a very difficult choice for us, but we believe it gives us the best possible chance for the Central Campus to be financially viable into the future and for us to be a standalone institution. We are committed to trying to find a path that will best serve the Cromwell community and wider region, and to play our part in achieving a sustainable model for New Zealand’s tertiary education sector.
“We’re proud of the brewers we’ve trained and the products we’ve created and sold.”
In some ways the programme is the victim of circumstance, opening just as craft brewing was hitting its peak and probably not having enough time to get established before the one-two punch of Covid and the recent industry contraction.
It’s a great shame. I’m hoping someone can pick up their IP, including the recipe for the Klassenbester Dunkelweizen, which is a tremendous beer.
Marriage bust-up at a brewery
And now to a story about a marital break-up between a brewery-owning couple that ended up in front of the Employment Relations Authority after claims of an unjustified dismissal.
The story is set at Scotts Brewing in Oamaru — a fabulous brewbar just a stone’s throw from Oamaru’s more famed brewery, Craftwork.
Scott’s started in West Auckland — with their old brewery now pumping out Black Sands beers — but moved to Oamaru in 2013, where it’s enjoyed huge success.
Founders Phillip and Tyla Scott who owned 95% and 5% of the business respectively, split up last year the ERA heard. Their marriage break-up was affecting the workplace and Scott’s Brewing chief executive Brooke Kofoed asked the couple to take time off from November last year.
The Scotts agreed and in June this year Tyla’s lawyer wrote to Scott’s Brewing Ltd indicating she considered “sufficient time has passed” and it was “appropriate to restore her participation in Scotts and its management to 2023 levels”.
About a week later the company’s lawyer emailed Tyla to advise she was “surplus to requirement” and her duties had been picked up by other staff in a “restructure”.
Tyla argued the redundancy was motivated by an ulterior motive — that Phillip wanted to oust her from the business operation while they were still in dispute about their relationship property shares in the business and/or their respective roles in its ongoing operation.
She also claimed the restructuring was flawed in that she was given little or no information to feedback on; that the decision was predetermined with little time given to feedback; and that the decision was not justified because it was based on the above-mentioned ulterior motive and her role still remained and was necessary.
Scotts argued the redundancy was genuine and based on a fair process.
Authority member Antoinette Baker said Tyla had a seriously arguable case for unjustified dismissal.
“It is difficult not to conclude that Ms Scott has a seriously arguable and likely a strong case that [Scotts Brewing] proposal and decision to disestablish her role was more closely connected in timing to her indication to return to the workplace and the background arguments she was having with [Scott’s Brewing] sole director, Mr Scott.
“The timing and acrimonious familial separation context intertwined closely with the proposal and decision of redundancy to arguably support the ulterior motive claimed,” Baker said.
Pending a substantive decision on the unjustified dismissal, the ERA made an interim decision that Tyla should be reinstated on the same pay she was on last year but because of the acrimonious nature of the split she isn’t required to perform any duties.
The whole thing is rather grim, and the full ruling could act as a manual for the pitfalls of running a family business — with Baker repeatedly noting that Tyla’s role in the business was never adequately defined.
“Scotts Brewing has not at this stage provided any documentary evidence of what Ms Scott’s duties actually were in the role it decided to disestablish. There is no individual employment agreement.”
Add to that some poor communications and personal grievances and you have a recipe for disaster, or perhaps a very good TV show.
That said, it’s worth pointing out that there are dozens of successful breweries in this country that are run by husband & wife teams, or family businesses.
And I can think of one in particular that has survived a marital break-up but with both parties still working in the business — kudos to them!
Beer of the Week No 1
With all the skeletons coming out of the closet (above) where else could I go but the recently rebranded Boneface!
As I’ve noted before, I rate the revamped look that new owners Mike and Anna Neilson have created.
And I adore their first new beer, Slipped Disc — a Cold IPA.
I reckon this is a brilliant interpretation of the IPA variant. Often people complain about Cold IPAs being neither one thing nor another, but this is a seamlessly complete beer that is bright, crisp and smooth.
The hops deliver a lovely mellow tropical note — fresh papaya and grapefruit seemed to jump out for me. It is lager-light but has great length and real depth of flavour.
And there’s been some discussion as to whether the reimagined Hoptron APA — now known as Spinal Hop — measures up to the original.
I note that the ABV has changed fractionally from 5.5% to 5.7% so I imagine other aspects have been tweaked too but also, it’s been a moment since I had a Hoptron so making comparisons across the memory chasm is difficult.
If it has changed, to my mind it might be for the better, with a slightly heftier malt profile.
Mike Neilson knows a fair bit about brewing APAs and it shines through in this beer which is so well-rounded. It’s an exquisite entanglement of malt and hops that finishes with a firm but not excessive bitterness.
I poured Spinal Hop for a friend the other night without telling him what it was and the first words I heard from him were: “That’s delicious!”
Just remember that you can find these and other great beers at your home of craft beer, New World.
Bread and jam
Two Queenstown breweries have just released beers based on recycled food — it’s a small coincidence but not out of step with the region aiming to become a zero carbon tourism destination by 2030.
While neither Canyon Brewing and Altitude Brewing are tourism operations as such, they are definitely part of the wider tourism fabric, so it’s no surprise to see them doing good things.
Altitude’s new beer, released yesterday is called Jam Sandwich. Or put it another way, a beer made with bread and strawberries!
Altitude Brewing founder Eliott Menzies said when the brewery was approached by local food rescue legends Kiwiharvest last year about a beer, “a little seed in my brain has been germinating away before sprouting into a use for the literal mountain of bread recovered by these guys each week”.
Breweries have made beer with some bread in it before but, as Menzies noted, that wouldn’t “scratch the surface of these leftovers”.
Enter Kvass. This pseudo beer is a traditional eastern European drink from the middle ages where leftover bread was steeped and fermented with whatever flavourings could be found.
Modernising it, Altitude have taken the mountain of bread, soaked it in our mash tun overnight and collected the runnings. “We then bombed it with rescued strawberry puree and fermented it with our in-house yeast for a total cost of next to nothing”.
The result is described as a light, spritzy, fruity and refreshing beverage with a gentle pink hue. Lots of strawberry aromas and a kiss of wheat bread.
“We are stoked on the result of this new 'recycled beverage' and hopefully the message and idea resonate with the community as much as it does with us.”
The beer launched at Altitude Brewing’s taproom in Frankton yesterday and all profits from Jam Sandwich sales on the day are going back to Kiwiharvest.
Eddie Gapper from Altitude Brewing said the hope is to do the beer again as a packaged product and “get it back into Woolworths, because that’s where the most of the bread comes from — so full close the circle”.
Gary Hough from Kiwiharvest said they would love to continue to supply the bread needed. “If feedback is good we would love to pitch it to Woolworths to stock as they are one of our charity’s major backers and source of excess bread.”
And now to Canyon, which is best handled via:
Beer of the Week No 2
Wonky Wheat from Canyon Brewing is an intriguing hybrid style, an American-style wheat beer made with zest from oranges that are not pretty enough to sell. There’s also some coriander seed in there, so it’s got a nod to Belgian Witbier in there too.
Because it’s in the American-style, it’s quite clean and without the funky ferment character of a Witbier, and that lets the orange zest punch through.
The coriander adds a woody spice note and the overall effect is refreshing and vibrant.
The beer is brewed in partnership with Wonky Box and uses “cosmetically imperfect” oranges and mandarins from First Fresh in Gisborne. In fact, 80kg of fruit was zested for this batch.
“This collaboration is about much more than great flavour, it’s our way of tackling food waste and supporting sustainable agriculture right here in New Zealand,” say Canyon.
Good work and good beer!
The economics of The Athletic
I enjoyed this video feature below from the Wall Street Journal on The Athletic brewery in America and how they’ve run rampant through the non-alc space in the United States. There’s some eye-opening numbers in there.
Tim’s beer of the week
Forest & Bird’s Bird Of The Year is a competition so democratically dubious it could put American politics to shame. But, despite all the (actively encouraged) brigading, lobbying and HTML script abuse, it’s still mostly a good time. People’s Penguin NZ Pale Ale (5.4%) was brewed in celebration of Emerson’s getting their local beachside candidate, the hoiho, or more descriptively named yellow-eyed penguin, over the line for a rare repeat victory.
Juicy white peach and honeydew melon, with a gently floral undertone of citrus blossom create a lean and tight hop character which drives the palate, while a strongly characterful biscuity malt base lends weight. It finishes up sharp and clean with a sturdy bitterness.
Drinking exceptionally as the summer temperatures begin to kick in, this would be a perfect second-pint (maybe even a third?) beer for a breezy afternoon. — Tim Newman
Canned air now
Last week I had the story of gravy sold in what look like beer cans … well, this next one takes the cake: Canned Air.
I might be taking liberty with the beer connection here, but what the heck, it looks like a beer can to me!
The producers intend it as a souvenir from a holiday in Italy’s Lake Como but it prompted some people to remember the film Space Balls.
Dusty’s Beer of the Week
Whangamata’s Salt District Brewing have your spring options sorted with their 4.7% NZ Pilsner hopped with Nelson Sauvin, Nectaron & Wai-iti. Aside from the clarity it was the crispy mouthfeel that was initially noticeable leading into soft oily grapey gooseberry notes backed up mellow pineapple an underripe peach. An effervescent carb and limey, drying finish rounds out a tasty drop built for spring. — Dusty
Brewdog hit by Indian bureaucracy
In the continuing charting of BrewDog’s misfortunes, we can report the Scottish brewery has pulled the pin on its two flagship bars in Mumbai … which puts a serious dent in a plan to open 100 sites in India.
India is a definite beer market for the future and but it sounds like BrewDog got caught up in India’s famous bureaucratic spiderweb, according to the Financial Times.
BrewDog India COO and a director of Aloha International Brewpub, which operates the BrewDog India franchise, told the Financial Times the brewer was facing issues with the local government department which regulates and taxes alcohol in Maharashtra.
Chturvedi said the landlords had wanted the bars to close and that the franchise operator had filed legal cases to reclaim “business losses that we are facing”.
Chturvedi stressed the setbacks were temporary.
“Mumbai was an extremely important market for us, it is ground zero, it is where we began,” he said. “I am fairly certain that in the coming time, maybe in the next, say, three to four quarters, we will find a new location and start up in [Mumbai] again.”
He noted that BrewDog’s Indian arm was still operationally profitable, calling India a “booming craft beer market” as well as a “very lucrative, very profitable” one.
BrewDog India will focus on the north of the country for its expansion, and already has two bars in Gurugram and Amritsar.
Beer of the Week No 3
Tamarillo and Saison. With those two words, Heyday Beer Co had me hooked.
I know tamarillos are not everyone’s thing, they may be more divisive than coriander! But I love ’em — tangy, acidic, slightly sweet, textural and earthy. And did you know that it was the New Zealand Tree Tomato Promotions Council who decided that the fruit’s original name “tree tomato” sounded too similar to that of normal tomatoes, so gave them the more Spanish-sounding name of “tamarillo”. True story.
But I digress. The nature of a tamarillo is surprisingly well suited to a saison … they play in the same spicy, earthy, tangy space and the doubling down here makes for quite an intense, but wonderfully deep and long-lasting flavour. It’s got a pretty pink hue to it as well. I loved it, but I’ll be the first to admit, it might not for be everyone.
Sobering times in NYC
I’ll finish with a look what’s happening in New York City’s craft beer scene, courtesy of a story from the Bronx Times.
Like most place, NYC went through a craft boom in 2016-17 but in recent years there’s been a series of closures and mergers.
Rising rents, high labour costs, and intense competition are listed as the main reasons for the crunch. But oddly, in the sitting that never sleeps, it seems people are just not going out like they used to.
“Craft beer on its own isn’t enough to bring people in,” said Ann Reilly, director of the NYC Brewer’s Guild, which represents over 40 local brewers. “You need something to draw people out of their homes.”
In the early years, many breweries were so beer-centric, they ignored decor, food concepts and beverages beyond their own beer and refused to even hang televisions — an approach that is no longer effective, said Aaron Gore, who has consulted with over 70 breweries on three continents.
He said while the spate of New York City brewery changes now feels jarring, it’s actually a “typical adoption curve.” Approaching a decade since its peak, craft beer is now a “normal good” that can be found even at many dive bars, said Gore.
As breweries adjust to new expectations, many have renewed their focus on food — which Gore said is virtually required these days — as well as overall hospitality in an effort to become “better bars that just happen to brew beer,” he said.
“‘If you brew it, they will come’ — that doesn’t work anymore,” said Gore.
There’s a bunch more really good quotes and observations in this well-written feature:
Thanks for joining me in another romp through the latest beer news and I’ll catch you again next week.
Michael