Reflections on the state of the beer industry: 'Fame is not enough anymore'
Garage Project add Garston-hopped beer to "Valley" line-up. Oktoberfest travel guide. Mountain Ales close to selling out. Drunk-as-monkeys revisited.
Happy Friday Beer lovers and welcome to the latest dispatch from the Friday Night Beers desk.
After a whirlwind few weeks of news it’s a quieter rendition that greets you this week … and we could use a reprieve from time to time.
That said I want to start with a reflection on the modern state of beer. And this comes in the wake of Fortune Favours closing down and the imminent loss of Hop Federation — unless someone buys one or both of those brands.
And this story has a connection to New Zealand, with German brewery Schneeeule — that came out to Beervana last year — announcing they will close down at the end of this month.
Founder Ulrike Genz, who is recognised for keeping alive the traditional Berliner Weisse style, announced that September 30 will be her last day in business.
And her post to Facebook reflects the reality of the modern market now. Here in New Zealand, there in Germany, and everywhere else, and it’s this: in general, people want cheap beer and are not prepared to pay for artisanal products.
“Nine years ago, the Schneeeule took off,” Ulrike posted to Facebook. “As a niche within a niche, I brought Berliner Weisse back from oblivion, investing a lot of passion, energy, and money. But the pioneering years are over. In Berlin, this beer style is hardly known anymore – and few people are able or willing to afford it. Beer has to be cheap, but with artisanal production and high costs in Berlin, that’s simply not possible.
“Low-alcohol, sour beers are not in demand – people prefer non-alcoholic options. Even connoisseurs rarely treated themselves to a matured Weisse, although this is the true strength of the style: to age and present itself as a champagne-like drink. In gastronomy, positioning it as a wine alternative was difficult: wines today are sweeter than 20 years ago, and beer is not considered special.
“… I cannot continue like this. Maybe it will return one day in another form; I will remain loyal to the style. But for now, Schneeeule is retreating, waiting for better times – perhaps a stroke of luck will bring it back to life.
“On September 30, I will close... Thank you for all your support, the wonderful events, and conversations over the years.”
One of Ulrike’s replies to a comment on her post struck a chord with me:
“I need a break and a job for money. I need that for life. Just fame is not enough anymore.”
That line resonated with me in the wake of the announcement around Hop Federation’s closure, with so many people commenting on how much they loved the Hop Fed beers, specifically their fresh hop beauty, Green Limousine.
In that regard you could say Hop Fed had some fame, but praise and high-ratings on Untappd don’t pay the bills.
As previous liquidations of Epic and Deep Creek have shown us, the margins between success and failure, fame and famine (so to speak), are miniscule — especially in New Zealand where we simply don’t have the population base to sustain so many beer options. As a brewer-friend commented to me last week, we’re possibly seeing “the great craft beer reset of 2025”.
Following Garage Project’s decision to take over the space vacated by Fortune Favours I was talking with GP founder Pete Gillespie and he had the analogy of craft breweries as dehydrated desert wanderers stumbling from one oasis to the next … with the distances between them growing ever wider.
“At the very bottom of the volume scale, if you've got your own venue and you are making small quantities and you've got a great local community, you're in a great spot. Then there's a great big gulf in between for people who are trying to be a bit bigger — if you're trying to sell into supermarkets, and you're trying to sell into other bars, that’s the really difficult spot.
“It’s a long way between watering holes once you start heading out in that direction. And I feel like there's a lot of us out there in the desert trying to find the next watering hole.”
All that said, there’s still lots to celebrate in the beer world starting with …
Beer of the Week No 1
Throughout the New World Beer & Cider promotion one beer that has stirred up more commentary — and way more positive feedback than I anticipated — is Lush by Three Sisters.
This year at the awards, they introduced a Weird & Wonderful category as a way to capture beers that are tasty, creative and just a bit out there.
Boundary-pushing beers don’t always translate into being universally loved but Lush is tracking at 4.22/5.0 on Untappd, which is an outstanding result.
Everyone I’ve shared this beer with is blown away by the flavour. Brewed with pineapple, feijoa, guava and vanilla and a wheelbarrow of lactose this is literally beer juice. It would be an awesome breakfast beer if you were so inclined. Equally it could work as a cocktail base. It’s out-there, for sure, but it’s also well-balanced in as much as the fruit sweetness never gets away on you, with the tartness of the base sour just reigning in all the extravagance.
I watched this get judged during the awards and the whole package was so good the judges were happy to discount the vanilla seeds floating around in the beer … or maybe they just add to the idea of what you’re getting!
Into the valley of hops …
Speaking of top-rated Untappd beers … according to what Untappd tells me, Lush should now be in No 9 spot on the list of New Zealand’s top-rated beers. It’s passed the required 150 ratings so maybe Untappd needs a while to update.
At 6.5%, Lush would be one of the lowest ABV beers on that list which is dominated by 8%-plus beers with plenty in double-digits.
Anyway, that Top-50 list is totally dominated (as you probably know) by Garage Project. And one set of beers above all others sits at the top of the pile: the Valley series of beers.
Yakima Valley (4.33 rating) and Sunrise Valley (4.32) are No 1 and No 2 on that list, with Mātakitaki Valley (4.22) at No 8.
They’re all 8% double hazy IPAs.
Now Valley Day — on next Friday — has become a thing in its own right.
It started with Sunrise Valley — a collab with Trillium — with the name referencing the Freestyle Hops farm from where the hops were sourced. They used Nelson Sauvin and Rakau (the Pernicious Weed combo) for that brew.
It was so successful GP transported the idea to other valleys: Mosaic and Citra hops from Yakima Valley in Washington State, Australian hops in Galaxy Valley and then, with Mātakitaki Valley, it was Nelson Sauvin and Motueka grown on their Nelson Lakes hop farm near Murchison.
Willamette Valley last year featured Strata, Luminosa and Audacia from Coleman’s Alluvian Farm in Oregon.
This year the latest valley to be honoured is Nokomai Valley — about an hour’s drive south from Queenstown and home to Garston Hops, New Zealand’s (and possibly the world’s) most southern hop farm.
Nokomai Valley will feature Garston-grown Motueka, New Zealand Cascade and Nelson Sauvin which Pete Gillespie from Garage Project says “creates an intensely juicy burst of passionfruit and guava, an ironically tropical twist given the latitude of the farm”.
Nokomai and the other Valley beers are essentially a celebration of hop terroir and you can try them next week at a variety of venues around the country from next Friday.
I’m deep into fourth year publishing Friday Night Beers … I was spurred to look back at where it all started after reading the third anniversary post of Hop Takes by Dave Infante — a column I love reading even it sometimes gets too American.
I’ve quoted Dave here before — I like his irreverent take on things — and I’ll quote him again now, if only as a way to give myself a little pep talk.
I’d like to think I’ve hit [the] mark with most of the 158 (!!!) weekly columns I’ve filed … They can’t all be winners, of course, and they haven’t been. Publishing compelling and well-informed ideas about the beer business — or anything — every seven days is pretty hard, as I have come to learn.
Couldn’t agree more Dave! This is column No 181 from me over 3-1/2 years. I just looked back to see the first email dispatch of Friday Night Beers went to two email addresses — both mine. But social media shares brought in 127 new people.
Last week the email went to 1,860 people and combined with social media shares it had just shy of 4000 views.
It’s a weird point in the journey at which to say thank-you … but hell, thank-you! And a massive thank-you to everyone who is a paid subscriber. It means a lot. My aim now is to make it to five years and by then I’ll applying for my gold card.
Anyway, for now I’ll hand you back to Dave for his reflections on his most viewed columns of the past three years.
The Beer Business Has Changed More in the Past Three Years Than It Has in Decades | VinePair
Dusty’s Beer of the Week
New brewery for me — Coromandel Town Supply and their 4.6% Sun Soaked NZ Pilsner hopped with NZ faves Motueka and Riwaka, and utilizing NZ barley.
This leans into the more traditional Pilsner style with notes of pepper and crackers upfront, mouthfeel is crisp with a mineral salinity with late zesty citrus pops, a drying finish ties together a brew built for hammocks and warmer weather. — Dusty
Mountain Ales close to sold out
A shout out to my new local beer festival, Mountain Ales, to be held in New Plymouth on October 18.
The event is almost sold out, so if you want to have a fantastic reason to visit New Plymouth and the wider region, jump on the few remaining tickets ASAP.
The October 18 event features some great breweries — Garage Project, 8 Wired, Isthmus, Ruapehu, Two Thumb, DNA, Brew Moon, Sunshine, Three Sisters, and The Theoretical Brewer.
The $60 ticket gets you entry, plus 4x250ml pours and a $10 food voucher at a great ocean-side venue down at Taranaki’s port.
The Mountain Ales Festival is unique — it’s run by the still active Taranaki Society of Beer Advocates (SOBA) branch, which continues to fight on despite the SOBA national organisation and parent body folding last year.
The festival itself is just four hours long — 1pm to 5pm — but you can build a fabulous weekend around it. The walks in the region are stunning. As is the coffee and food.
There are three local breweries in the area with the best-known being Shining Peak and Three Sisters, which are not far from each other. A little further out of town is The Theoretical Brewer at Bell Block.
Mike’s still has a taproom presence and you can buy a Mike’s Mild and other Mike’s beers, but they are brewed now at Patron’s in Hamilton.
Anyone wanting help building an itinerary, hit me up or look out for the upcoming Pursuit of Hoppiness magazine, out at the end of the month.
Beer of the Week No 2
I was talking about coconut usage the other week in relation to Parrotdog’s Coconut Hazy IPA and I want to hand out another round of applause for correct coconut dosage this week: to Panhead Custom Ales for their Bounty Hunter Coconut and Chocolate Porter.
As the name suggests they’re going for a Bounty Bar interpretation of a beer, but this is no sweet kid’s treat. I found the base porter shone through — and it was really well made — with the coconut and chocolate delivering a strong, but not overwhelming contribution.
The coconut becomes more present as the beer warms, but through the drinking experience there’s layered flavours and a nice tug of war between sweetness and a dry-roast character.
Tim’s Beer of the Week
The method by which I pick a beer to feature here every week is extremely loose, but usually there’s an equation that balances between ‘interesting’ ‘relevant’ and ‘good’. Sometimes, one of those spokes dominates to such an extent that the others cease to matter, and if I’m lucky, it’s the good. This is one of those beers.
Part of a collaboration between Wellington’s Double Vision and Thai brewery Baan Bangkok, Thunder Struck joins the ever-expanding halls of craft beer that evoke weed in one way or another (a reference to the ‘Alaskan Thunder F*ck’ strain, which I was not remotely hip enough to be aware of).
A grab-bag of classic Nelson hop varietals drives an acutely Kiwi aroma of lime and tangelo citrus, with pine, white grape and pungently skanky gooseberry. While the aroma is great, where this beer performs a backflip is in the drinking. It’s a true double IPA at 8% ABV, yet it somehow goes down like smooth pilsner. There’s no hint of cloying sweetness, no gluggy viscosity, the smooth slippery palate never halts once as it slides along towards its compact, gently bitter finish.
What manner of brewing wizardry Double Vision engaged in order to pull off this one I could only begin to guess at, but however they did it, they’ve produced one of the most lethally drinkable strong IPAs in recent history. Contrary to my usual opinion, this one probably should not be put on tap. Or if it is, I should not be allowed near it unsupervised… — Tim Newman
Oktoberfest kicks off tomorrow
It’s not too late to get to Oktoberfest this year but it would be a mad rush — the 190th edition of the two-week Munich extravaganza kicks off tomorrow (NZ time) and runs until October 5.
But if you’re thinking of going next year, this is a pretty good outline from the perspective of the Kiwi travel writer.
Munich’s beer heritage: Exploring Oktoberfest and historic breweries - NZ Herald
Martin’s Beer of the Week
I've always been a big fan of Behemoth's Triple Chocolate Milk Stout, so how could I say no to a Quadruple version?! Despite the implication of the name (and the awesome can art), this isn't such an insane over-the-top experience as you might expect. It significantly ramps up the chocolatey-ness of the beer, but I don't think it loses fundamental beery-ness of the original. It's definitely a dessert beer, but it doesn't reach into pastry stout territory, in my opinion. Big, sweet, chocolate nose, lashings of milk chocolate on the palate and a hint of drying roastiness on the finish. A beer for sipping, not quaffing, but more approachable than you might expect. — Martin Bridges
Drunk as monkeys, again
I’ve ventured down this path before — the whole drunk-as-monkeys path — and I’ll go there again because I love the continuing revelations that modern research is bringing to the table showing that we’re evolutionarily-designed and biologically programmed to enjoy alcohol!!
This is from the Guardian this week:
Observations of the apes in the wild show them imbibing the alcoholic equivalent of a half pint of beer a day through the vast amount of fermented fruit in their diet.
Researchers arrived at the first estimates of wild chimp daily alcohol intake after measuring ethanol levels in fallen fruit that the apes gather from the forest floor in Kibale national park in Uganda and in Taï national park in Ivory Coast.
While individual fruits contained less than 0.5% alcohol, the chimps’ daily intake swelled as they devoured the ripe fruit pulp. The apes were particularly fond of figs, which contained some of the highest levels of alcohol the team recorded.
Chimps consume equivalent of a beer a day in alcohol from fermented fruit | Science | The Guardian
Beer of the Week No 3
I’m always talking about how I’m not a massive hazy IPA drinker but yet I managed to make a squealer of Good George Haze of Glory IPA disappear rather quickly!
This beer is building some reputation. From winning the Smith’s NZ IPA Challenge in 2002, to taking out a hazy & juicy trophy at the NZ Beer Awards the same year, to now popping up in the New World Beer & Ciders Awards Top 25.
It’s done so well, it’s earned a place in the Good George core line-up and is now available in 330ml cans — which is a way more suitable size for very crushable a 7% beer.
Brewed with a quartet of superstar hops — Nectaron, Riwaka, Nelson Sauvin and Superdelic — this is the beer I’d give someone in order to define that much-loved tropical fruit taste of Kiwi hops.
I will leave you with I can only describe as a fascinating read that lifted veil after veil to paint the portrait of a man who perhaps single-handedly changed craft beer, and potentially by accident!
It’s a profile of David Bruce, who started the Firkin chain of pubs in England. He’s just released a memoir called, The Firkin Saga, which is one of those books full of “business lessons”.
Bruce has invested in many pubs and breweries over the years, notably in America, where investments included Brooklyn Brewery and Elysian Fields.
The way the writer presents his story, it does sound like he was hugely influential in the US craft beer movement, and by extension that means he’s had influence here too.
“There are 10,000 craft breweries in the States now and the movement has gone global. Sometimes I wonder, did it start with me in London?” — David Bruce
What a Firkin’ Life — David Bruce’s Life in Beer — Pellicle
Thanks again for joining me, and tune in next week for episode No 183!
Michael
Little bit worried about your independence. I've never really rated Good George but was visiting Hamilton and thought I'd give Haze of Glory a go at one of their taprooms (after reading Friday's missive). Way too sweet. In this case, all of the criticisms levelled at overly fruity hazies ring true. If you like mango passionfruit cocktails - this is the beer for you. Liberty's Jungle Juice does a much better job.