Te Anau pub takes out top award
Mac Hops celebrates 125 years of hop-growing with special brew. The rise and rise of fruit beers. Famous Toronado bar in San Fran sold to "crypto bro". More fresh hop events ...
Welcome to Friday Night Beers, the last one for the financial year … if that’s a date that matters to you!
And because we’re deep into autumn now, there’s a lot of fresh hop material in this dispatch! And lots of South Island focus too, with Mac Hops in Motueka celebrating 125 years with a special beer; a fresh hop beer with Canterbury-grown hops.
But we start today in the deep south, with the annual Top 50 Gastropub Awards, and huge congrats to the Fat Duck in Te Anau. They took the top prize after being named the best in the lower South Island.
The Fat Duck, owned by Cam Davies and Selina Wright, was acknowledged for its innovative cuisine using local produce. Judges recognised its “outstanding culinary offerings, service, and commitment to creating a warm and inviting atmosphere”.
Sharing the news of the award on the pub’s social media accounts, the pair joked about the recent magnitude 6.9 earthquake felt in the area: “If the earthquake yesterday didn’t rock your world… this will! Thank you to our amazing team and to our Fiordland and Southland community, we truly appreciate all your support.”
The regional winners were:
Upper North Island: The Franklin, Pukekohe
Lower North Island: The Thistle Inn, Wellington
Upper South Island: Strawberry Tree, Kaikoura
Lower South Island: The Fat Duck, Te Anau
And you can see all the finalists, voted for by the public, here.
Radio NZ had a nice interview with Cam Davies on Thursday night.
Mac Hops celebrate 125 years
Today I had a great chat with Brent McGlashan from Mac Hops, the family farm in Motueka that’s celebrating 125 years of hop growing this year.
I’ll bring you that full, and fascinating, story next week, but for now I’ve picked the eyes out our discussion to focus on this year’s hop harvest, which was an unusual — but very good — one.
“This year we had a lot of dull days, a very dull, grey summer around that Christmas-New Year period right through until the end of January,” McGlashan explained.
“That’s not really expected here in the sunny old Motueka but it seemed to help out the older varieties. Wakatu, Pacific Jade, Green Bullet, Southern Cross … those were some of the best yielding varieties we’ve had for the last several years.
“Before this year, we were getting to a point thinking, ‘are these older varieties not handling the current weather and conditions or are we growing them differently compared to how we used’.
“But obviously it’s weather related. We've proven that this year.”
That weather pattern also resulted in a more consistent crop among new varieties and also a very high quality. Usually, aroma and flavour can change depending on which block of land a crop is grown on, and when precisely it’s picked, but this year there’s more evenness.
“In terms of aroma, I think it’s a lot more balanced this year. There’s not as many extremes on either end. I think that's a good thing.
“And the quality is really, really up there. We’ve had plenty of top end brewers who are saying that.”
McGlashan said the Superdelic crop was one of the best yielding and across the board oil levels were higher than normal (which is good for drinkers who love those resiny, oily characters).
The bitter irony is that many hop growers had estimated for an average to below average crop this year and ended up with more than they can sell.
“So we’ve harvested what we needed to and the rest will get cut down and put into compost. So, yeah, unfortunately the good year hasn't been rewarded, let’s put it that way.”
Beer of the Week No 1
After that chat with Brent, I have to talk about the collab beer Mac Hops has done with Hop Federation.
It’s called Generations XPA. I almost mistyped that as Generous XPA because frankly that’s what it is, generous amount of flavour!
This beer is right in my wheelhouse — light, 4.5%, hoppy — and the first note I wrote was: “Could drink 17 of these!”
OK, 17 might be exaggerating (don’t do that at home, kids) but this is definitely in my “best of the year” category right now.
Hopped with Taiheke, Motueka and Nelson Sauvin, all grown by Mac Hops, it’s punchy but delicate and super-enjoyable, which is what Brent was after.
“We wanted to make it an easy drinker — something that after a day’s work on the harvest you would go in and crush a few jugs and have really a good time with your mates but wake up in morning and still be able to do a day’s work.
“We wanted to have a beer that people could have one and go, ‘oh, I like that, let’s have another couple more’.”
Couldn’t agree more!
This beer gets released this weekend and there’s a limited supply of cans, so watch out for it.
Staying with fresh hops
A few more fresh hop events have popped on to my radar since last week.
On April 12, Canyon Brewing will be hosting their annual fresh hop tap takeover, with a raft of breweries lined up, including:
Urbanaut, 8 Wired, Beer Baroness, Double Vision, Rhyme x Reason, Behemoth, Two Thumb and the hosts, Canyon.
The event is at the Canyon Restaurant, 1 Arthurs Point Road.
And in Auckland, the crews at Twofold, Galbraith’s Alehouse, The Lumsden, and Small Gods have created Fresh Hop, Skip and A Jump with 20+ fresh hop beers on tap between the closely (enough) connected venues in Mount Eden, Newmarket and Parnell. It’s on April 26.
Fresh Hop Beer of the Week No 1
Thanks to the team at Two Thumb for literally making me an “early bird” with a fresh-off-the-canning-line delivery of their Early Bird Hazy IPA.
I was dying to try this: my first fresh hop beer brewed with Canterbury grown hops (that I know of!).
Maury Leyland and her husband John Penno bought Okuora Farms in 2020 and almost immediately diversified into hops.
They’re based in North Canterbury on the banks of the Hurunui River close to the lovely beach village of Gore Bay.
And I think they’ve got something good going here, adding to the hop-growing regions outside of Nelson-Tasman and bringing us different expressions of hops we know and love.
Early Bird is brewed with fresh Motueka hops.
First up, this beer is LUSH. I couldn’t believe the viscosity of it when I poured it, so you hazy lovers out there will eat this up.
The aroma is rich citrus, the traditional lime and lemon notes of Motueka are out in force, but there’s also a sweeter orange note that lingers on the palate.
The creaminess of the haze is offset by a lovely prickly mouthfeel — just the textural element you want from a freshie. Curiously, for the lushness, it finishes quite dry and bitter, and because it’s so fresh, there’s just a hint of spiky hop greenness that broadens the entire profile.
Really nice aftertaste, I might add.
Very enjoyable and available from early next week!
Pink meets green for a special Fresh Hop Beer
New Zealand’s Pink Boots Society has brewed first ever fresh hop drop, Denise Garland reports.
Fifteen Pink Boots members from around the country spent a gorgeous, early autumn day in Nelson, picking hops straight off the bine and brewing a Bright IPA in collaboration with Sprig + Fern and its master brewer, Tracy Banner.
The Pink Boots’ chair, Aynslee Rodger, says it was a memorable experience, starting with an 8am mash in.
“We fortunately had an extra pair of hands for the day, with Callum being left in charge of the brew so we could travel off site to Korere Hop Farm. Andrew and Rebecca gave us a tour of the production facilities and the farm, and once we got to the kilning rooms we were able to load our hop bags up with Riwaka.”
They then drove the hops back to the brewery, arriving 40 minutes before they were due to be added to the brew. “Hop addition time is back into the lauter tun after boil, so everyone got to add a bag or two while transfer was happening,” Rodger says.
The Pink Boots members also got the opportunity to take part in a sensory spike session, going through four different off-flavours common through the fermentation process (diacetyl, sulfur, acetaldehyde and DMS), and capped off the busy brew day by going to watch the White Ferns cricketers beat Sri Lanka.
“Being able to go and share this experience with a Master Brewer was pretty special,” Rodger says, and added that it couldn’t have happened without the additional support of the other donors: Gladfield Malt, Lallemand, Clayton Hops, and Konvoy Kegs.
“We are very thankful for the support already that our industry provides us, and purchasing our brews when they become available leads us to being able to do more fun and unique, educational experiences for our members,” she says.
“Pink Boots provides a space for women in the fermented/alcoholic beverage industry, in a bid to inspire and encourage career development through education.”
So what can drinkers expect from this Field Trip Bright IPA collaboration? “Big citrussy, tropical notes from the fresh Riwaka hops, brilliant clarity — all-in-all a quality Sprig and Fern recipe with a Pink Gumboot or two thrown in.”
Kegs are available from March 31 in 30L and 50L. Inquiries can be sent to Kathryn at sales@sprigandfern.co.nz
Fresh Hop Beer of the Week No 2
The crew at Sunshine Brewing have been working with brewing consultant Sam Williamson lately, and this is a collaboration between Sunshine and Sam.
It’s a described as a Brite Ale, hopped with fresh Motueka. It’s only 4% ABV and with a biscuity malt base that reminds of pale ales from another era, with some chewy sweetness to the malt.
The hop oils and texture of this beer along with the malt profile make it seem like it’s higher than 4%.
The fresh hop character is well-integrated into the wider package and on top of the usual citrus punch from Motueka, there’s definite fruitier note like a dried apricot.
Anyway, it was delicious. Very delicious.
Fruit beers the new industry saviour
Fruit beers are the fastest-growing beer trend of the past 15 years, according to British supermarket chain Tesco.
Britain’s biggest supermarket chain said demand for lighter (4%-ish) fruit-driven beers had grown by 250 per cent over the past year, with shoppers choosing from flavours including mango, raspberry, passionfruit and citrus, often in IPAs but increasingly in lager as well.
The audience for these? You guessed it: drinkers in their 20s and early 30s.
Jubel, which was launched in 2018 by Jesse Wilson and Tom Jordan, is the trend-leader. It makes peach, mango, blood orange, lemon and grapefruit lagers and they’ve grown 300 per cent in the past year.
The pair got the idea during a skiing trip to France where their group of friends discovered a local beer served with a shot of peach syrup.
Ben Cole, Tesco’s beer buyer, told the Sunday Times: “The demand for fruit-led brews, particularly lager, has taken the UK drinks market by storm and is the biggest trend to hit the beer scene since the craft boom started more than 15 years ago.
“The trend actually has its roots in the craft beer movement because it introduced beers with tropical fruit profiles to more drinkers than ever before. For many people, the craft movement changed the perception of what a beer could taste like and opened many drinkers’ palates to a wider range of styles.”
Drinks Business did further analysis of the category, noting that among the fruit flavours, raspberry rules. “[T]he raspberry segment dominated the industry with the largest revenue share of 29.3% in 2024” which means “it is expected to witness significant growth in the coming years”.
Assessing other favourites within the fruit beer sector, analysts “cherry-flavoured beer is primarily expected to expand at the fastest [rate] over the forecast period”.
Seems those Belgians, who have been making raspberry and cherry beer for centuries, were onto something!
Tim’s Beer of the Week
Is there such a thing as a cursed beer? I would have said no, except for the existence of this uniquely tortured series from Auckland’s Behemoth Brewing Company. This range has been released in a variety of forms since way back in 2016, yet its Sisyphean task only gets harder.
Commiserations to the brewers aside, it is (and typically has been) a solid IPA. Not exactly West Coast in its style, bearing a good hop haze and softer fruitier qualities, so the otherwise unusual moniker of simply ‘American’ IPA suits it well.
A cooling menthol burst accentuates the nose, with sweet orange and grapefruit citrus supported by mango and apricot. The menthol freshness continues into the palate, refreshing the fulsome malt base and ripe hop character. Like (nearly) all Behemoth IPAs, the bitterness is finely balanced into the finish; rising imposingly but pulling back just before it becomes overly dominant. The 2028 edition is going to be a doozy…
Famous Toronado bar reportedly sold to ‘crypto bro’
If you’re like me, and you visited San Francisco, there was one bar that had to be on your to-do list: Toronado.
It now seems San Francisco’s most famous — and famously cash-only — bar may soon change hands and with it become a crypto-currency bar.
The Toronado, which opened in the Lower Haight 38 years ago, is in contract with a new buyer. The business and the property at 543-547 Haight Street were listed together for $1.75 million in January. The real estate transaction has yet to close.
The San Francisco Chronicle today said a deal was in place but it had not yet been finalised.
The new owner is believed to Orion Parrott, a fund general manager at Orange DAO, which funds cryptocurrency startups, and that he plans to launch a coin related to the Toronado, ToronadoCash for which there is now an account on X.
“We’re not really ready to talk about it, but I am buying it,” Parrott said in one interview. “We want to preserve its legacy.”
Toronado founder Dave Keene announced his retirement in January. Keene had built the bar into one of the country’s most revered beer destinations, known for stocking rare and sought-after brews for its 50 taps. It’s also a dive, with walls covered in brewery stickers and a cash-only policy.
Plenty of beer fans are outraged. One person, with knowledge of the deal, told the San Francisco Standard: “I think it's probably antithetic to the impression I had of the bar. It's emblematic of a larger problem in San Francisco: tech bros coming in and buying a 40-year-old institution and making a coin out of it and all that stuff.”
And I loved this from the Standard:
Two neighborhood residents who were mounting their own bid echoed that sentiment. Reacting to the news of the sale, Aaron, 41, and Cody, 37, who have lived nearby for about 10 years and describe themselves as “skate buds,” said the sale to a crypto investor who wants to launch some kind of coin feels like “bringing a Tesla to a hot rod meet.”
The two said they submitted an offer letter to buy the bar and signed a contract to be a potential buyer, but they weren’t able to come up with enough money in time.
Beer of the Week No 2
I was away last weekend in Dunedin and paid a visit to Moons, the brewpub that’s home to Dogstar Brew Lab.
It used to be Zucchini Bros for those who know Dunedin.
Anyway, they had on a beer from Heyday called Odd Assembly, an Enkel.
And look, I confess I had to look up Enkel. The best way to describe it is probably a session Tripel! It translates to “single”. It’s also known as Patersbier, the beer the Trappist monks would drink.
This is 4.5% and full of those amazing Belgian yeast-driven esters that I — and many others — love.
If you’re into Belgian styles and want something incredibly well-made and tasty at a sessionable 4.5% ABV: do try this. I adored it.
Sydney Beer Co owes almost $10 million
I wrote a couple of weeks ago about former cricket star Brett Lee’s Sydney Beer Co hitting the rocks.
Well, it’s been revealed they owe almost $10 million to creditors, including their chairman, the Australian Taxation Office and the McGrath Foundation.
The company’s largest creditor is an entity operated by Sydney Beer Co chairman David Catterall, which is owed $6.2 million via a related party loan. The ATO is owed $1.29 million, while business finance group Spenda Co, listed as the only secured creditor, is owed $280,000.
The McGrath Foundation, a charity group that raises funds for breast cancer and support in the community and is spearheaded by Glenn McGrath — a former Australia and New South Wales team-mate of Lee’s. The McGrath Foundation is owed $33,000.
Lee has been a co-owner of the beer group since 2022. The company, which was founded in 2016, was exporting beer to Malaysia. It had recently expanded into the United States, with Catterall posting about that move on LinkedIn three months ago.
Lee is one of Australia’s most successful fast bowlers, snaring 310 wickets in 76 test matches between 1999 and 2008. He also played for Australia in cricket’s limited-over formats and remains a commentator on the game for media outlets around the world.
OK, I’ve run out of space … off to do my Xero for the end of the financial year!
Catch you in April.
Michael