Zeelandt closes doors for good
A year on from Cyclone Gabrielle, Zeelandt owner Chris Barber says it's too hard to get the business back up and running. North End brewer goes part-time to save business money.
Welcome beer friends to another wrap of beer news, views and reviews.
And we start with an all too common theme right now: a brewery closure.
Although this one is a little different … with a natural disaster playing a huge role.
A year after Cyclone Gabrielle destroyed his home, business and almost took his life, Chris Barber is calling it day with Zeelandt Brewing.
Barber said the last batch of contract-brewed beer was packaged this week and the decision to walk away from brewing was a bitter-sweet moment — a decision filled with as much relief as sadness.
Barber, his wife Luciana, their two children, Oliver and Sophie, and the dog, Barley, almost lost their lives during Cyclone Gabrielle as a wall of water and silt engulfed their house in Esk Valley. Chris bashed his way through the ceiling with one of Oliver’s toys to escape the rising water. The family spent the night in the ceiling cavity and were rescued the next morning by three men in a boat.
The aftermath revealed a house swamped by silt. Also destroyed was the brewery, the Cone & Flower taproom and the Petane vineyard run by Chris’s brother Philip.
Barber’s property was deemed category 3 by the Hastings District Council, which means it’s too dangerous to live there because of the risk of future floods. He and Luciana have bought a patch of land further up the valley and are building a new home, which he hopes will be complete by the end of the year.
Over the past 12 months, he’s tried to keep Zeelandt going by contract brewing at Crafty Brewing in West Auckland. In that time he’s been looking at whether he could rebuild the brewery and taphouse in Napier.
But the cost and time involved proved insurmountable and Barber is leaving the beer business to work in conservation.
“It’s good to have a decision made but it’s very sad. The brewery equipment is being cut up for scrap at the moment.”
Zeelandt started in 2012 and grew into a total family business, with Luciana leaving her job at Wattie's to do the marketing for the brewery and taproom, as well as bringing her food technology skills to manage inventory, food safety, and labelling. Petane wines were sold in the taproom and the wider Barber family was involved in strategy and decision-making.
The trauma of the cyclone and the way their lives stopped in its aftermath, was a time to re-think.
“We’ve got this opportunity, which we didn’t expect, to re-look at everything — do we stay in Hawkes Bay or not? Do we try to keep Zeelandt going?”
It was yes to the first, no to the second.
“The cost of rebuilding, finding new premises, the timelines … and then margins in beer have got so tight. I couldn’t make any numbers work. So, I had to say, `well, here’s an opportunity to rethink what I want to do, what else do I like doing?’.
“I’m 44, and I thought if I restart a brewery and bar and slave my guts out for 10 years will I have the energy to keep going for another 10 years after that? Or do I look at a second career?
Barber has always been keen on conservation and has volunteered on conservation projects in the Waitakere Ranges when he lived in Auckland and again in Hawkes Bay.
He did a trial day with Better Nature, a Hawkes Bay company specialising in pest and weed control, and will move now into that industry.
“It’s boots-on-the-ground work, but I hope to get a couple of years’ experience and move up.”
While contract brewing kept Zeelandt afloat over the past year, Barber said it wasn’t for him.
“Margins are really tight, particularly on kegs because of the freight involved.
“But the other thing is that I used to live and breathe beer. I was in the brewery every day, checking gravity, checking pH, tasting beer, I had my head in brew sheets, looking at numbers … and all of a sudden someone else is making the beer and you’re so removed from the process. It took a lot of the enjoyment out of it.”
The current state of the brewing industry was also a concern.
“At the moment, there’s a lot of doom and gloom out there — that also helped me make a decision. There’s tough times ahead. Not only with tight margins but hospitality is struggling as well and they’re the ones you’re selling to.
“Without the flood, 2023 would have been a tough year financially. It was tough before the flood and there’s some time to go before it bounces back. It would have been hard work getting people out to the garden bar and still paying all the staff wages.”
Zeelandt’s contribution to the industry will be hugely missed. As a brewery dedicated to making classic German-style beer, we’ll all be worse off with Barber’s great hefeweizens, rauchbier and Kolsch.
Without his own beer to drink, he’s resorted to ordering German beers online, but adds: “I’m not ashamed to say I do enjoy Steinlager Classic.
“I’m really going to miss brewing hefeweizen, dunkelweizen and Kolsch — those three styles are where all the ingredients come into play and there’s a balance between malt, hops, and fermentation character.”
With the decision made, Zeelandt is now looking to sell through all remaining stock:
• Four Stroke Pacific Pale Ale: 330mL / 440mL can and keg
• Jerry Rig Helles: 330mL / 440mL can and keg
• Good Thief Pilsner: 330mL / 440mL can and keg
• Guv’nor Extra Pale Ale: 440mL can and keg
• Revelry Oktoberfest: 440mL can and keg
• Brunhilde’s Fate Rauchbier: 440mL can and keg
• Black Monk Schwarzbier: keg only.
North End brewer cuts hours to help business
North End brewer Kieran Haslett-Moore is about to go part-time to help save the business money. Haslett-Moore posted to Facebook this week: “North End Brewing turns 11 today. It seems as a good a time as any to deliver some news. From the 1st of March I’m going part time for a while. I will still be head brewer but at least for the coming winter I will just be in for brew days and canning days and an admin morning here and there. My awesome assistant brewer Roger will be holding down the fort 5 days a week and admin powerhouse Donna will be making sure the orders keep getting filled.
“Things are pretty tough business-wise currently, I doubt you will find a brewer anywhere who says otherwise. So easing the wage bill is part of the reason. Also after 11 years I need to regroup and refocus. I’m going to treat it as a part time sabbatical. More time in the garden, more time to walk the dog, more time to write. A lot less income to waste on Netflix and its ilk.
“To be clear North End is still a solid business, but difficult times require difficult decisions sometimes. I raise my morning coffee to a brighter future.”
Beer of the Week No 1
Regular readers will know that I’m not a huge hazy IPA drinker. My wife loves them, however, so there’s always a handful in the fridge. I take the occasional sip, sometimes more, but it’s not often I’ll go a whole can. And when — if — I open a second can that means it’s super-good. And this hazy NZIPA, the 10th beer in Parrotdog’s ongoing limited release series is 10/10. With a fruit cocktail of flavours thanks to an entirely loveable range of New Zealand hops — Riwaka, Nelson Sauvin, Nectaron, Motueka and Southern Cross — they’ve covered all bases and this beer brings pineapple and peach undercut by zesty grapefruit and refreshing lime with a hint of fresh cut grass. Great texture to boot. Available now at a range of New World stores — and I must say here that at a time when supermarket shelves are increasingly given over to six-packs of craft beer, New World are doing a great job at actively seeking new-release 400ml singles for their shelves.
It’s only words …
When you’re a writer for a living, one thing you always do is critique other writing. Real estate copy-writing is a great source of frustration and amusement, ditto shop signs and fine dining menus.
The blurbs on the backs of beer cans are also grist for my mental mill.
So, I can relate to Jeff Alworth’s outrage at this particular word-soup:
Corkscrewing through the obsidian darkness of outer space, Juice Dust is powered by a fathomless palate squeeze of orange and citrus. This Space Dust alter ego wrings out vibrant bursts of juicy, fruit-driven flavor to help illuminate all your interstellar journeys.
Jeff does a great take-down of this release from Elysian:
Corkscrewing Through Inanity — Beervana (beervanablog.com)
Hat’s off to Xbeerience
One for Cantabrians, or visitors to the Rolleston area… there’s a new off-premise called Xbeerience that opened late last year.
Co-owner Phil Knight has owned Dunedin’s Inch Bar for the past nine years, and anyone who’s been there will know what that place means!
Knight has joined with Phil Stevenson in this new venture I like what they are doing, including offering a free “swap” service for home brewers, allowing them to get feedback from like-minded people by swapping out their own beers for someone else’s.
Plus Phil S has great taste in headwear as depicted in this shot taken by long-time colleague Peter Meecham:
Xbeerience: Craft brews with a difference | The Press
PS: You want a hat like Phil’s? … I still have some.
Old gold
I reported in this story a couple of years ago: the retirement village in Vienna where the pensioners make beer. It was a cute story when it first came out but now it’s turned into a reasonable “business”.
Brauwerkstatt has gone from a small “resthome brewery” and now produces around 12,000 bottles annually and is planning to double production this year. The rest home staff takes care of the more physically demanding aspects of the work, but Bernhard Wittholm, a trained beer sommelier who joined the team last year, recognises that the heart of the project lies elsewhere: “It’s not really about brewing beer but about companionship. The residents have a lot of stories to tell, and it’s good for them to get out of their bubble. You notice that they blossom when they’re here.”
The beer is distributed through a wider network of 150 resthomes in Vienna.
The Grandmas and Grandpas Brewing Beer in Vienna (reasonstobecheerful.world)
No, you’re not drunk …
This is, in fact, a real glass, designed for Sapporo to provide the drinker with “three different mouthfeels”.
According to design company Nendo, the shape of the glass emphasises different mouthfeels and flavours that are contained within the beer, “offering a way to savour multiple experiences within a single glass”.
The three mouthfeels are the “first sip”, the “middle” and the “last sip”.
Hmmmm. I suspect there is a fourth “mouthfeel” — the feeling of beer spilling down your chin and onto your shirt! Nevertheless, I would like to drink from this glass, once.
Beer of the Week No 2
I mentioned a couple of weeks back that Brew Union in Palmerston North were doing a re-brew of the famous Invercargill Brewing Pitch Black Stout. The team at Brew Union kindly sent me a rigger of this and I can confirm, that even in the height of summer, it tastes fantastic. I can recall using Pitch Black as an example, back in the day, to disprove the “myth” that all stouts are heavy. This is incredibly light-bodied, just 4.5% ABV, and with a nice balance of bitter coffee roast and malt sweetness. It’s slightly acidic, with a hint of crisp apple in the background, and finishes dry and quite refreshing.
Dublin’s 10-euro pint problem
Sean Golding sparked some discussion when he told Pursuit of Hoppiness that $20 pints were on the way because of rising costs. I’ve had feedback on both sides of the coin, so to speak, with many agreeing that it’s inevitable and others saying it’ll never happen.
Well, in Dublin’s Temple Bar area, the discussion is over 10-euro barrier, with some pints costing €10.45 which based on current forex rates is 18 Kiwi bucks...
Pints over a tenner in Ireland's pubs could become the norm (thedrinksbusiness.com)
Rare Beer Challenge
Fortune Favours are again running their Rare Beer Challenge, to raise awareness and funds for Rare Disorders NZ. It’s happening on March 8 and based on past experience there will be some great ideas hitting the taps. And while the following story is from America, it’s a one that connects beer and rare disorders there.
Milwaukee dad, brewer creates 'Zebra Hop' beer (spectrumnews1.com)
Pulverised by IPA
Staying in Minnesota, you may have seen the video this week of a brewery worker getting hurled across the brew floor when a tank burst open.
Here’s the background to that story (in which no-one was harmed but a lot of beer was lost…)
Brewer flung back across brewery by sheer force of beer (thedrinksbusiness.com)
Brewdog complaint rejected
Brewdog’s complaint about a damning BBC documentary has been rejected by Britain’s equivalent of the Broadcasting Standards Authority, Ofcom.
The documentary, which was broadcast on BBC1 Scotland on January 24, 2022, looked at BrewDog's marketing strategy and commercial practices in the context of claims about its corporate culture and accusations of inappropriate behaviour against founder James Watt.
Brewdog claimed the company and Watt were treated unfairly by the documentary, The Truth About Brewdog.
BrewDog said the programmealso infringed Watt’s right to privacy.
But the complaint has now been dismissed by the broadcasting watchdog.
Fruited Sours to take market share off IPA?
I’m often asked about what’s the next trend in beer and I’ve always had a cautionary lean towards fruited sours, but I have nothing more than a hunch, some anecdotal evidence and subjective assessment to back me up: ie I see more of them on the shelves and they taste nice.
But if the UK is anything to go by, maybe there’s some substance to this, with Tesco going hard on Cherry Chouffe.
Why the rise of Cherry Chouffe marks a move away from IPA trends (thedrinksbusiness.com)
Beer of the Week No 3
I was out the other night at Norma Taps, a new business operating out of what used to be Brothers Beer flagship bar at City Works Depot in Auckland. The incoming team have done a great job with the redesign, going to a minimal look with plenty of airiness in what used to feel like a slightly cramped space. The taplist was small but effective, Parrotdog and Sawmill dominating. But they also had “Lakeman XPA” on tap, and I figured this was their Hairy Dust (4.8%) which I don’t think appears in cans anymore. I’d always enjoyed this beer but hadn’t tried it for ages, and it was a good reminder about the effectiveness of the XPA style on a warm summer’s evening. Light, dry, fruity, refreshing.
Calls for government intervention in Australia
We talked the other week about the massive problems plaguing the Australian independent craft beer scene and our friends at the Crafty Pint have done a great job in pulling it all together in an analysis piece that focuses on the role of the Australian Tax Office (ATO) and the way they handle excise tax debts as well as calling on the federal government to do something to save small independent breweries from extinction.
“The biggest issues are structural and economic and only the Federal Government can address them,” said Kylie Lethbridge of the Independent Brewers Association. “The Federal Government needs to act now if it wants the sector to survive — and to show Australians they do care about local small businesses. We are simply asking for common-sense reforms that go some way to creating equity for small breweries in a market stacked against them.”
Where To From Here For Local Beer? - The Crafty Pint
Schooner, pot, midi, or pint
Staying in Australia … as a Sydney resident for a decade, I thoroughly endorse the sentiment in this Instagram post:
Which state’s beer name is right? #beer #australia #perth #melbourne | Instagram
Non-alc beers ranked (not by me!)
We finish this week with The Spinoff’s ranking of non-alcoholic beer in New Zealand, in which I am dragged over the red hot coals of beer opinions. Only joking … but obviously I disagree somewhat with some of their assessments :)
The new wave of New Zealand’s non-alcoholic beers, ranked and reviewed | The Spinoff
Thanks again for joining me for a Friday Night Beers catch-up,
