Tuatara finally moves into cans

Baylands tries pay-it-forward model of crowd-funding. Industry insights gleaned from Behemoth's capital raise. Is your favourite bar an Instagram Trap? The year of the Saison. And much more.

Happy Friday Beer Fans,

First thanks to the many new people who have subscribed to this email in the past week. Welcome.

We’ve got a lot to cover this week, including a really deep dive into the NZ Beer Awards where we analyse all the classes to see what styles are on the up, and what the trends are. The awards were a couple of months back, I know, but it takes time to get all the data pulled together especially when there’s beer festivals to attend in the interim!

First up, it was a few emails back that I predicted we’d soon see Tuatara move into cans. (See, if you subscribe you get the low down before it happens!).

The DB-owned Paraparaumu-based brewery has been in bottles since they started in the hills above Waikanae 22 years ago.

Until now they’ve steadfastly held out against cans but the market demanded they move, so they’ve released two new beers in six-packs of 330ml cans, a hazy IPA and a West Coast IPA. The branding has an edgy look including a slightly blurred brand name…

The distinctive lizard-skin bottles will still be around for a while yet, said senior marketing manager Sam Forrest, who noted that almost 60% of craft beer is now sold in cans.

“But don’t worry, the famous lizard-skin like embossed bottles are not fossils yet — they will continue to exist in the core offering and limited, 500ml seasonal releases.”

Naturally, after I’d noted on Twitter that it was their first time in cans, I was informed of this historical one-off:

Kieran Haslett-Moore @southstarbrew

@hoppiness_nz I mean this totally isn't their first time in can.

We will come back to the future of cans later in this email …

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Buy now, beer later

Who remembers the film Pay It Forward? Maybe we’re not even allowed to mention it considering it starred Kevin Spacey? Haley Joel Osment and Helen Hunt were the other stars and the concept was a bit new-age, about doing favours for people, paying it forward rather than paying it back.

Well, it’s a concept that Baylands Brewery in Petone are using to get their new taproom across the line. It’s similar to what Three Sisters did with their original crowd-funding campaign: you pay them some money now and in return you get beers, with interest.

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Beer of the Week No 1

This is actually a brewery of the week, because last Friday I was in Gisborne for Sunshine Brewing’s annual long lunch, where they gather dozens of industry people, locals and friends to share a lunch prepared by star chef Rex Morgan (ex Boulcott St Bistro among others). The food was amazing and the beer was so en-pointe, there was not a bad drop. I could have stayed on the Gizzy Golds all day without trouble. The Mexican Lager and Saison du Brut were delicious, and there was a super-tart peach-infused American Wheat and a Scorched Almond Stout. But Sunshine have a special release to mark their 33rd birthday this month, which they’ve called Double Gold. I’m not sure it’s actually out yet but if you see it buy it. Described as a Helles Bock, it’s strong, malty lager — with so much depth and flavour.

At this point, if you’re not a paid subscriber, I’d encourage you to think about it, if only to keep me motivated :)

But seriously, there’s lots of good material for paying subscribers … take a seven-day trial to check it out.