Nelson - Brewery Heaven!

Far too soon, dawn was upon us again and we crawled out of our cramped camper cabin and readied ourselves for the crawl over the Takaka hill back towards Nelson. We were heading towards Golden Bear Brewing in picturesque Mapua, just out of Nelson. This stunning brewpub was set up by Jim and Anne Matranga, originally from California and also offers Mexican food which Jim told us he really missed from his homeland.

Being from California, Jim is a massive fan of big flavoured IPAs and his beers certainly reflect his love of these. His standout brew was Anniversary Ale at 6.26%, a lovely hoppy pale ale, formerly known as Patriot’s Pale. The Graf Vienna was also a great example of this type of lager and Jim’s use of hops was perfectly executed.

Jim’s brewhouse blew our minds! This has to be one of the coolest looking breweries in the country! Engineered by Chris Little, this is stainless steel porn. At 1200 litres, the brewhouse is compact and has great little features such as a window in the mash/lauter tun, an underback and a great rake. Hehe.

Jim is also doing something pretty cool with wort that he brews on his kit. He hot-fills plastic bladders with the wort and boxes them up to be made available to homebrewers. This saves homebrewers from having to boil up extract or do full-grain mashes. All they have to do is add their own strain of yeast, ferment out, condition then keg or bottle. An awesome, innovative idea that will hopefully help with the popularity of homebrew. Even cooler is people can buy these wort kits online through companies like Liberty Brewing.

I was pretty excited about the next brewery we were about to visit. I’d heard a lot about Tracy Banner over the recent years and was lucky enough to have tried some of the Sprig and Fern Brewery range on a previous visit to Nelson. Back then, the beers had really impressed me and with Tracy’s brewing pedigree and the joy she seemingly had when we chatted to her about making beer, it was easy to see why. Originally from Liverpool, Tracy has spent close to three decades brewing beer, so definitely knows her stuff!

The Sprig and Fern range is diverse, running from berry and apple ciders through to porters, IPAs, and ginger lagers. Tracy proudly told us that they have a range of 18 products and have never run out of any. That’s a mean feat for any brewery, especially a craft brewery the size of this. A testament to her brewery management skills.

We were short of time, as we always seem to be on this trip, so quickly went through a couple of her recent award winning brews. Tasman Lager was first up and Luke and I were blown away by this superbly crafted 6.5% lager. Hops dominated the nose, hints of Nelson Sauvin and Riwaka in all of their passionfruity, tropical goodness. The balance in the mouth was exquisite, the hop bitterness and alcohol/malt sweetness accompaniment was definitely one that would help you tap into your inner air guitar. This was beyond drinkable and easily one of the better lagers of the trip.

We went dark and tried the Scotch Ale next. This rich mahogany brew had big caramel characters and a lovely, clean malt sweetness. Again, at 6.5% it was tough to find any big alcohol notes, making this a pleasure to drink and better than any Scotch Ales I have tasted whilst living in the UK. It was the next beer though that I had been dreaming about for almost a year. The Sprig and Fern Doppelbock was one of the standout beers of my trip back to NZ in February 2010 and I was stoked to find out that it wasn’t just a seasonal release, but a regular brew. At 8%, the promise of flavour is instantly apparent. A rich, cereal malty aroma comes from the nose and once the dark liquid hits the tastebuds, the mixture of caramelised malts comes alive with hints of dark fruity malt and alcohol sweetness combining to create a smooth, silky taste sensation. I love this beer. It’s great to see the sparkle of excitement in Tracy’s eyes as I tell her how awesome it is. She’s proud of what her team has achieved and it’s great of her to bring that to our attention. She doesn’t ever talk of her beers, she talks of her team’s beers. I think this is something we forgot about at times when it comes to brewing. It’s not just one person that makes a beer, but a bunch of them. It’s awesome that Tracy reminds us of this.

Dick Tout is a real character. A smile from ear to ear and a big, manly handshake greet us as we arrive at Lighthouse Brewery in Nelson. The first thing Dick asks us is if we want a beer or a hot drink or a refreshment of some kind. There must be something in the water because Dick also has a real gleam in his eyes. His passion is instantly recognisable and straight away it’s apparent how much Dick loves his job. This is one of the smallest commercial breweries in the country and with a brew kit size of only 200 litres, I’d love to know how many times Dick has brewed on it since beginning in 1996.

He chatted away about brewing, his beers, car racing and his classic cars and boats. A former mechanic, Dick was as passionate about cars and his restoration of a couple of old boats as he was about brewing. We tucked in to the first beer, Summer Breeze, a well-hopped NZ style pilsner with a lovely Saaz hop edge and the finest hint of diacetyl. Dick told us of his worry with the diacetyl that his kit seemed to give the beer but Luke and I disagreed. This was just on flavour threshold and actually added something to the beer. I’m really sensitive to diacetyl, so it was interesting that I really liked this beer. Something about the balance of freshness and bitterness and the tiniest hint of toffee/butter added complexity to this great drop.

Dick’s Cheeky Little Lager was up next, a great, easy drinking example of the style and we sipped our way through his 5.5% Victory Ale with its English character prominent and Dick’s Dark, a rich, malty 4.5% beer with hints of chocolate and equal parts of floral hop and slight roastiness. The great thing about Dick is that he also loves cooking. As he described each beer he told us of his experience of drinking it at home with a meal and discovering how well it worked with the food. From salmon steaks, to Nelson Scallops in garlic butter, through to peppered steak and beef mince dishes, Dick was a wealth of knowledge, interspersing his chatter with jokes and cheeky quips.

My favourite beer of Dick’s was the Classic Stout. This 5% rich, dark, creamy stout had lovely hop notes and had massive flavour for a beer of this strength. Wafts of chocolate were abound and it was an amazing beer to finish the tasting on. Reluctantly we left Dick and continued our journey.

We arrived at Bays Brewery and were met by Peter McGrath. Peter was another energetic Nelsonian who told us of the history of the Nelson Bays Brewery and how it began back in 1993 to provide an alternative to the mainstream beers that were available then. Bays has a roaring flagon and rigger trade and the entire time we were there, a constant flow of people arrived to get their Friday and weekend beers. They also produce a range of pre-mix drinks, an alcoholic lemonade and a cider, which are all popular products.

We met up with brewer Jeff, another of the many brewers that had learnt their trade under the original Mac’s Brewery setup and talked through the beers. Their most popular brews were the Bays Gold Lager and Bays Draught Ale and it was also interesting to note that their Bengal Bitter, an IPA, was one of the first new world IPAs to be pushed out into the craft market back when it was released. The also brew the rich, sweet, malty Exclamator Doppelbock which drunk smooth and with little alcohol character coming through.

Jeff talked passionately about the beers and brewing processes and was quick to point out that they are trying to achieve drinkability and balance in their brews. They’re not huge hop bombs or diverse styles, they’re beers to drink.

Time flying by, we parked up the camper at Tahunanui and headed to one of Nelson’s newer craft beer bars, the Freehouse. In a converted church, this is filled with beer lovers young and old. The large grassy yard outside was covered with relaxing, chatting people. Sitting on the grass and at barbecue tables with a myriad of different craft beers, it’s great as a brewer to see people enjoying the beer in such a setting. When we make beer, this is what we imagine.

The range of beers was brilliant and I tried the Dead Good IPA, one of the house beers developed by the Freehouse landlord, Mic Dover, a British ex-pat with a love for great beer. With three handpulled cask ales as well as the great tap range, it’s easy to see why this bar does so well. We caught up with beer writers, beer lovers and New Zealand Hops Chief Executive Doug Donelan, a legend in the industry and a brewer with an impressive pedigree, having headed up Malt Shovel Brewery in Australia for some years. We shared beers and chatted hops and caught up with friends. It was a great finish to the day.

Tasman

A peaceful, if short, sleep over at the Moutere Inn, we piled into the camper van and headed towards Stoke, just out of Nelson. It was here that we were to meet with the crew from McCashin’s Brewery. Situated in the old Rochdale Cider Factory, this is one of the iconic New Zealand craft breweries. Originally called Mac’s Brewery and founded by former All Black Terry McCashin, this brewery and eventually brand were bought out by Lion Brewery in 1999 and eventually the original site was closed down.

Last year Terry’s son, Dean McCashin and wife Emma made the decision to reopen the brewery under the McCashin’s name and are currently producing three beers. Stoke Amber, Stoke Dark and Stoke Gold are brewed under the watchful eye of head brewer, Sam Wilson an employee who was with the company in its early days with Lion and eager to return to the brewing that he loves. Initally a homebrewer, he has the luxury of developing and creating recipes on a beautifully engineered 100 litre pilot plant, complete with temperature controlled fermenters. His experimental brews are on at the impressive brewery tap which not only has bottle and flagon sales, but also the range of fruit ciders that they produce and a cool little coffee shop. The retro styling is awesome, as is the artwork created by their own resident artist that is scattered around both shop and brewery.

The main brewing system is 5000 litres in brewlength and they run two lauter tuns in parallel, allowing 10 000 hL to be easily brewed in a day. They also have some 20 000 litre tanks that can hold four brews. Impressive capacity for a craft brewery!

All of the beers were well crafted with the lovely toffee characters of the Amber beer really standing out. The Dark also showed great roasty notes and a great dryness. Sam also had a Pale Ale and Wheat on and told us he’s really keen to push the Wheat into the marketplace.

We headed into the countryside, this time to visit British ex-pat Martin Townshend of Townshend Brewery. Specialization in cask ales has meant he’s one of the few brewers in the country to tackle this way of getting beer to customers. Martin is a shining example of manic beer enthusiasm. Eyes glistening, he frantically talks of beer and breweries and his love of cask and bottle conditioned ales. He speaks with passion and the joy he gets from his craft is infectious. He knows craft beer inside out as well, having done his time talking about beer on local radio and writing for regional newspapers on the topic.

We began by tasting his Old House ESB from the handpull. Martin explained to us that he doesn’t really prefer to brew beer to style guidelines, but he had made an exception for this one. It was a shining example of an ESB and it instantly took me back to my time in the UK. Luscious fruity malt and British hop notes, a smooth but full body and a clean finish. This is what cask ale is all about. We then went on to try his Dinner Ale in bottle conditioned format. Similar in character to the ESB, this was more of an ode to one of Martin’s favourite brews, Fuller’s London Pride. The nose of lemon and earthy spice and the subtle orange characters put this beer up there. I would have loved for Fuller’s head brewer, John Keeling to be there tasting it with us.

Martin’s No.9 Stout is an amazing beer. Massive amounts of flavour, hop perfume on the nose and in the mouth and all of this in a 4% brew makes it ridiculously quaffable. We had tasted this from keg the night earlier at The Moutere Inn and all been impressed. It tasted as great from the bottle and I’d love to sup it on cask to see what this style of dispense would give to the beer.

Finally we tried Martin’s India Pale Ale, JC IPA. I was blown away at how smooth and drinkable this beer was. From the Styrian Golding and almost Fuggles like characters on the nose, with wafts of freshly cut hay and sweet lemon, followed by juicy malty goodness, this was a shining example of the English IPA style. It reminded me a lot of a beer I used to brew in the UK called Thornbridge Seaforth. One of my favourite brews at 5.9%, Martin’s 5.8% baby was as close as you can get and I can say it hid the alcohol almost too well!

Stoked at having met such a passionate guy, he gave us some homemade sausages for the road, we waved our farewells and reluctantly left the garden and brewery paradise of his house  to head out past Motueka to Riwaka.

Monkey Wizard Brewery in Riwaka is in the heart of hop growing territory. A lot of the New Zealand Saaz varieties are grown here under the names Motueka and Riwaka and the Wizard himself, Matt Elmhirst has done an amazing job at converting a former roadside butchery into his own beer heaven. The expat Brit has background heavy in science but is also heavily interested in alchemy and takes an almost biodynamic approach to some facets of his brewery operation. Together with his talented and enthusiastic engineer mate, Lyall they have built a great brewery and are aiming for a sustainable approach, with the building of things such as solar panels to help capture the suns energy being a big part of what they are trying to achieve.

Matt’s beers are fascinating. He is well versed in the history, science and flavours of various ingredients, with elderflowers and elderberries being two local products that make their way into his brews. He even used the elder leaves themselves to keep away insects from the bar. A truly natural approach. He is a firm believer in using the products of the land and talked with animation and passion about various ingredients. From mushrooms to black pepper and cinnamon, he was definitely a man after my own heart with regard to his use of other culinary additives in the brewing process.

His microbiology background also meant he has the ability to play around with various yeasts and microorganisms and his magic doesn’t only apply to beer. He makes cider as well as other fermented foods like sauerkraut and Lyall told me they’d recently pickled some eels!

We went through the range of beers with Matt, Lyall and Jacqui (who runs the brewery shop and does tastings) beginning with the Nelson Sauvin and Riwaka filled Brass Monkey Lager. Matt had been maturing this for 6 months and the big hop character worked well with the Maris Otter malt. It was big in flavour, an ode to the hops it used and a very characterful brew. The Savvy Summer Ale was next on the board, a pale brew with characteristic elderflowers on the nose (which Matt picks at full moon) and Nelson Sauvin hop underneath. There was a hint of grass and sappy plant in the mouth, almost Nasturtium or Caper-like which added another interesting dimension to the beer.

Matt’s subtly smokey oatmeal-filled Black Mass Stout offered the characteristic dark malt chocolate and char notes, balanced out well by the smoothness of the oats. His Berry Bounce, a slightly tart Wheat beer matured on mixed berries grown in the area around Riwaka was a perfectly balanced fruit beer. A mixture of spices and elderflowers were also alchemically employed by Matt with a wizard touch. The slight lactic sourness blended in brilliantly with the fruit characters with the raspberry note coming to the forefront. This was a perfectly executed beer and it’s great to see Kiwi breweries taking on the more unusual styles such as sour and fruit beers with grace and passion.

Matt’s Fat Kelpie Brown Ale was a well-hopped interpretation of the style and the final beer, his Limited Edition Steampunk was a rich barleywine-esque beer with big fruity malt characters. Done in a Belgian Tripel style, it yelled more American than British-style in its hop character and packaged up in a 750mL Champagne bottle with an awesome Steampunk-inspired label, this was definitely a special occasion beer.

We went and checked out the brewkit, Lyall’s deft hand at engineering showing some nifty steelwork and tanks. We sat outside, shared a sweet lemon to cleanse the palate and hit the road again. Definitely a brewery to check out for its unique approach to brewing.

It was over the Takaka hills in our camper, a bit of a hairy ride in a 7.2 metre leviathan and definitely a challenge to write this blog on my laptop, but we made our way towards Onekaka and to our destination for the night – The Mussel Inn.

Opened in 1996 by Andrew Dixon, I think this is a destination to not be missed. Pretty much everything you see at the Inn is made with Andrew’s own two hands. From the corrugated iron building that the bar and kitchen are situated in, through to his amazing log house and even the brewery itself, Andrew is never a man to sit still. Sustainability is really important to the brewery with all of his bottled beers filled into glass that is constantly re-used and recycled. Even the toilets are used a source of sustainable compost in the humanure approach.

The menu shows off great local fare. From the classic mussel chowder and steamed mussels, through to the scallops in a creamy white wine source, the homemade food is simple yet tasty. Andrew’s beers are a revelation. His Captain Cooker, made with locally grown Manuka leaves has a deserved cult following. Already it has been made under contract in Belgium and Utah in the US. Even my good friend, Matt Clarke, originally from Wanganui and head brewer at Hawkshead Brewery in Cumbria, England has converted the Captain Cooker into a cask ale with Manuka tips imported by Andrew.

The beer itself is incredibly fragrant. Wafts of rosewater and rich essential oil reminiscent of lavender and juniper are evident in the aroma and a slight resinous, almost sweetly medicinal quality fills the mouth. The bitterness from both the leaves and the hops is elegant and perfectly balanced. This is the beer equivalent of Turkish Delight. Luke and I were lucky enough to taste this beer matched with a rosewater Panna Cotta , rhubarb, caramelised almonds and small pieces of homemade Turkish Delight at the famous Logan Brown restaurant in Wellington last year. It was the perfect match.

Andrew also experiments with barrel-ageing and sour beers and I was lucky enough to try his interpretation of the spontaneously fermented Belgian Gueuze/Lambic style. His Lambagreeny, a Feijoa Gueuze was delightfully tart with big coconut characters showing in the nose (from the oak), the perfume of the fruit and in particular the greenness of the Feijoa skins present in the mouth and the slightly mouth-puckering sourness helping to round the beer out. It was awesome to try a New Zealand interpretation of this beer style and it fit in well with Andrew’s inventive, alchemical approach to making great beer. He also does Weka, a 6% barrel –aged sour brown ale. This is more like the Belgian Oud Bruin style, with a rich, tart, fruity character. I love sour beers!

Finally I tried the Bitter Ass. This had been aged in the bottle for around two years and weighed in at 8.5%. This big, bitter brown ale was incredibly complex. It had big hop character in the mouth, a mouth-puckering bitterness in the finish and the most intriguing liquorice note I’ve ever encountered in a beer coming through after the swallow. This was like chewing on a piece of liquorice root and coupled with the bold, bitter zing, made this unique beer something to remember. I had to have two!

We talked with Andrew into the night. A great guy on a constant voyage of discovery and creation and a passion for making phenomenal beer. I personally think Captain Cooker is reason alone to leave in the Tasman region. Andrew is such an approachable, calm nice guy. It was tough for us to finish the great conversation that beer can bring to a table and hit the hay. That and the fact that the mosquitoes had drained us of most of our blood meant that tiredness took over and it was time to sleep.

Up the Coast

Dave Kurth came out to greet us from West Coast Brewing on a brilliantly sunny Westport day. Whoever said the West Coast was wet and rainy definitely had it wrong! Well, today anyway :)

Dave had done his training as a brewer under the legendary Stuart Howe of Sharp’s Brewery in Cornwall, England before heading over to Burleigh Brewing in Australia. I won’t lie and say we didn’t have massive expectations about the brewery considering the styles of beer they had brewed in the past, namely NZ Draught, Lager and Dark styles, but after chatting to the quietly spoken Kurth for a while about his 2500 litre brewery and setup, we began to think a little differently. With less than a year at the brewery, we were curious to see what Dave had done to improve the beers and sat down for a tasting.

We began with the Draught and Lager beers and were instantly impressed with the fantastic cleanness and crisp finish that they both had. They were well-crafted with no faults whatsoever and were definitely eyebrow raisers for Luke and I. Dave then told us about the Dark and that it made up close to half of their production. In fact, the West Coasters were seemingly supporting the brewery really well with loads of them showing up with empty flagons to be filled with their favourite West Coast drop.

If the first two beers had us nodding in agreement, the Dark raised the bar even further. Milk chocolate and berries filled the mouth, the hop perfume sat on the beer and tickled the nose and the finish was dry and superbly drinkable. We were wowed!

West Coast also does an Organic Green Fern Lager which again had us grinning over our tasting glasses. Beautiful floral hop character and a body reminiscent of the finest Czech Pilsner worked wonders, with malt sweetness and the finest hint of alcohol making this lager a beauty. The West Coast Wheat was up next, a fine example of a German style Hefeweisen, with a lovely caramel-banana nose and clean, refreshing finish.

It was the next beer however that completely blew our minds. Dave’s Pale Ale was a hop assault on the nose, a massive nroma and a brilliant combination of New Zealand hops made this beer up there as one of the better hop-lead pale ales in the country. It goes to show how important it is for people to go and visit the breweries of local brewers and get beer fresh from the source. This wasn’t yet available in bottles and testament to how good fresh, local beer can be.

If that wasn’t all, Dave then went into his conditioning room to pull us out a 6.5% Octoberfest style lager that had been brewed last October and was due for release in March. This was proof at what great cold lagering/cellaring can do to a beer. A luxurious, smooth malt character filled the mouth, the integration over the aging period meaning there was little apparent alcohol in a beer of this strength.

If there’s one brewery that I would recommend visiting when you’re in that neck of the woods, it’s West Coast. Dave Kurth is a definite young talent and one brewer to keep an eye on.

From the Coast we headed north, winding our way up parallel to the Tasman Sea and enjoying the vista where the rugged bush-covered mountain ranges met the usually turbulent sea. As people who have travelled this road will know, it’s another remarkable stretch of scenery with every turn yielding something new to look at. We hit Wakefield which is just out of Nelson and this time it was to a hop farm we were heading.

Totara Brewing isn’t just any hop farm however. A group of guys with various backgrounds, most importantly in hop farming got together and decided to go one step further from growing the ridiculously unique, aromatic NZ hop and gave brewing a go. We met Colin Oldham and Peter Lines, two hop growers with a massive interest in brewing and chatted hops for hours, different varieties that they grow, the methods of harvesting, when certain varieties for picked. The passion that these guys had for their jobs was evident. Growing hobs is tough toil for little return. It’s dependent on weather and brewers and exchange rates amongst others.

We spoke about organic hops and their production and it was also interesting to note that the non-organic NZ hops are also fungicide and pesticide free with a lot of techniques such as using sheep to graze and remove excess growth being common practice. It also helps that there is little to no problem with hop diseases that afflict other countries in Europe and the US such as downy and powdery mildew or Verticillium wilt. Hop pests are also seldom a problem, though one mite variety can cause difficulties for the farmers. The great thing with this though is that there is a natural predator that can be released onto the hop bines that destroys this mite. Biological control at work.

After working through the hop fields, it was time to sample a couple of beers and we began with the Drover’s Draught, a great example of the classic NZ Draught style but with the characteristic cleanness and flavour that we were to find in their other beers. The Totara Gold also impressed as a slightly sweeter lager with good body and subtle hop notes. The guys described this is a great gateway beer for the average drinker to get into craft styles and hit the nail on the head.  We went on to then try a Dark that they sell at various festivals across the country. Again the cleanness impressed and lovely dark malt and chocolate characters dominated in a nice clean dark lager/Schwarzbier style.

We also talked of their Green-Hop beer, Ninkasi. One of the advantages I guess of having a brewery on a hop farm! Named after the goddess of beer and brewing, this is definitely a beer I’d love to try after hop harvest! We chatted more about hops (why wouldn’t you!) and it was great to know that a bunch of new varieties were on the cards… all trade secrets of course! It is also cool to see a bunch of passionate people keen to make drinkable beer and challenge the mainstream perception that seems to dominate a lot of the country. With their sales on the increase, they’re definitely moving in the right direction!

From Wakefield it was time to hit the Moutere Inn where we were stopping for the night. Publican and shareholder, Dave showed us a brilliant night at New Zealand’s Oldest Pub and it was awesome to meet up with passionate beer writers and enthusiasts Fritz Kuckuck and Maria Grau. Both originally from California, they were meeting up with us to do an interview for the Nelson Mail, so we chatted and drunk great craft beers into the night. It was great to see a country pub really embracing the craft beer culture. With 10 keg beers and 3 handpulled ales as well as a selection of mainstream beers, this is a pub to please everyone. No alienation, just a beer to suit everyone. Great vision for the group that took over the pub and I’d love to say it was a model that began to go countrywide.  Could it be said that the Nelson area is challenging Wellington and Christchurch as New Zealand’s beer capital. I’d say without a doubt!

Central[Otago]isation

After multiple days of rubbish weather, the drive from Invercargill to Queenstown was amazing. The sun was shining and for the first time since Christchurch, the temperature even got into the twenties. It was time for singlets, stubbies and jandals! For those non-Kiwis out there, singlets are tank-tops/vests, stubbies are short shorts and jandals are flip-flops/thongs (no not that type of thong…)

The scenery leading into Queenstown is incredible, following Lake Wakatipu in gave us an amazing vista of the Remarkable mountain range and with the meraldd-green lake at their base, it was easy to see why so many people come and check this place out!

We ended up at the camp ground in Queesnstown, which, crazily, is the same one I had stayed in as a child in 1986! I remembered our family having signed a big boiler that was in the reception and went to have a look. The fact that thousands have since signed it meant  that our mark was no longer there, but my memories as an eight year old in this place were (surprisingly) still with me. Proof that beer doesn’t dull the memory perhaps?

We went into town and checked out Atlas, where we had a great hop-laden pint of Emersons 1812 India Pale Ale. Hunger drove us to the impressive Fergburger where we all went for the recommended Cock-a-Doodle-Oink-Oink, a massive creation of chicken schnitzel, bacon, avocado and all the trimmings. Why we decided to get fries and onion rings with the burger, no one knows (it was a seriously BIG burger)and as for the sun-struck, skunky Peroni that we purchased to wash it down… a fatal error and proof that Fergburger really needs to get craft beer into their place. Fergburger, I hope you’re reading this!

The sun woke us the next ay and we took the short trip to Arrow Brewing in Arrowtown, where we met up with brewing industry consultant/engineer John Timpany, who is their brewer and director, Darryl Jones who is responsible for the seriously impressive graphics and branding that the brewery has. The brewpub itself has an awesome bar, all leather seats and big gas fire, with a plan to put in more handpulled ales to accompany the great bunch of draught taps they have. John uses a plethora of different hops for his various styles which range from a big, crisp, lemon-sherberty and properly bitter Pilsner, through to a delicious English-style ale, Tobins, which is destined to to used on handpull alone as a cask ale.

It is the experimentation that really fascinated me with this brewery. John not only built the well-engineered kit, but also devises all of the brewery’s recipes. Their catch phrase is “Sufficiently Bizarre” and they enjoy playing around with barrel-aging, different herbs and spices, and even producing their own wine, grappa and maybe even some other spirits in the future.

The Christmas Ale that John produced was the best spiced beer that I’ve ever tasted. It was like liquid Christmas cake, big wafts of cinnamon and candied peel and even hints of marzipan icing impressed the nose and the balance of spice, alcohol and intense fruitcake character coated the mouth and filled the mind with images of Christmas Pudding and sweet brandy custard sauce. Luke threw drunken fruit into the mix, a perect descriptor for this truly decadent beer.

Thoroughly impressed with the Arrow setup and ethos, we moved on, picked up a bunch of ridiculously sweet, juicy Central Otago stonefruit, chowed down on apricots, nectarines, plums, cherries and succulent peaches and hit Wanaka Beerworks.

Californian native Dave Gillies met us at Wanaka Beerworks, which is attached to the Aviation Museum, the site of the amazing Warbirds over Wanaka airshow. Dave founded his brewery in the late 90s and came to quick fame with his flagship Pilsener, Brewski which took out Supreme Champion Beer of New Zealand back in 2000. Brewski, his Vienna Lager, Cardrona Gold and his Schwarzbier/Dunkel/Stout Tall Black are all brewed with the characteristic New Zealand Saaz hop and are great exponents of this variety. Brewski in particular had big notes of chamomile

His 600 litre DME-made brewery’s copper is still gleaming and working well for him and the brewery itself has certainly been keeping both locals and tourists alike happy and sated. Dave has done his time though and just sold the brewery to a Kiwi/Belgian couple who are to take over in 6 months. It will be interesting to see which direction the brewery heads and we are all really curious to see what calibre of Belgian-style beers come out of the heart of Otago in the future. Thanks Dave for your fantastic contribution to NZ Brewing!

With spectacular views of Lake Wanaka and Hawea, we climbed over the ranges and through the prehistoric Haast region. Ferns and Podocarp forest aplenty, it was easy to imagine Moa and giant dragonflies lurking in the dense rainforest just out of sight. A surreal and beautiful place.

The rugged mountain landscape continued as we reached our destination, Franz Josef, the glacial ice stretching over the pate of the mountains and glowing white-blue in the fading sunlight. Our campsite, The Rainforest Retreat was exactly as the name suggested – a series of campsites, cabins, treehouses and van sites filled with tourists young and old enjoying the ambience of the bush that encompassed the area. It was the next morning however that was magic. We got up just after 5am so as to make the next leg of our trip. The dawn chorus was astounding. Tui, Bellbirds (Korimako) and other winged forest denizens incessantly chatting and calling their territory and hollering for mates. What a way to start a new day.

From Dunedin to Invercargill - We Head South...

Green Man Brewery in Dunedin takes a sustainable approach to brewing and actively encourages used bottle and cardboard box returns.  Not only that, they are fully organic and produce all of their beers under the German Purity Law (Reinheitsgebot). This is helped by the fact that their brewer, Enrico is a trained German brewmaster, so each of the beers we tasted had a definite German character to them. The Krystal Weiss, their filtered wheat beer and the only example of this style in the country, had a good blend of light caramel malt and banana ester character and was ridiculously thirst quenching.

The Pils and lager showed great hop bitterness, again highlighting the style of beer that Enrico enjoyed brewing. The star of the show, however, was the 14.5% AbV Enrico’c Cure from 2008. This beer had been produced with a Champagne yeast and had no sugar at all added to it. Enrico explained that he preferred the character that malt sugars give, compared to any artificial sugars that are sometimes added to produce beers of this strength and I can honestly say that this approach paid off. The rich fruit and chocolate nose of the beer amalgamated perfectly in the mouth, where more chocolate and vanilla and luscious sweetness melded to soften the warming alcohol finish.

We were also lucky enough to try a relatively fresh sample of the Stout, which although young, tasted absolutely perfect to us! We chatted with General Manager Jeremy Seaman and he mentioned that Green Man were affiliated with a bar, Metro, just off the Octagon. We headed off to drop the campervan back at the site so that we could all enjoy a tasty beverage or two.

The Octagon impressed with a couple of craft beer bars in the vicinity. We had visited Tonic the night before and been stoked with the wide selection of craft beers in their fridges as well as a good bunch of great NZ draught beers. The banter from barman, James was awesome. It was great to see a keen as dude working the bar so well.

We visited Albar on Stuart Street for a quick pint of cask ale. We all went for the Albar Ale which is brewed by Invercargill Brewing. It had a nice citrus hop character and it was great to see a couple of handpullss in a bar so close to the Octagon.

We then hooked up with Green Man’s Jeremy at Metro and went through their range of beers, including a tequila and lime juice infused lager. It was the Strong that was my favourite beer of theirs though. This is a blend between a Whiskey Bock that they produce in the winter months. This is made by cold conditioning the beer with oak staves that have been previously soaked in whiskey. This beer is then blended with Green Man’s Best Bitter. The resultant beer has hints of oak and vanilla and this batch also had a slight tartness, almost similar to a Flemish sour beer. Whether this note was intentional or not, it didn’t matter to me, as I’m a big fan of sourness in the right type of beer and this worked really well.

Also of interest was the Man Chips that they had on the menu. This was a massive plate of chips covered in various pieces of chopped up meat – bacon, ham, pepperoni and beef and then doused in gravy. This was serious food for our hungry bellies!

We headed back to Eureka for a couple of beers with owner, Dave, bumped in to a few local Twitter followers and headed back for some much needed sleep.

Dunedin done, the next day was going to involve a bit of driving and Luke was amped to get down to Invercargill to catch up with Steve Nally of Invercargill Brewing. We cruised down and stopped in quickly to see Tom from Crafty Beers and Vicki from Beltane… their purple house is impossible to miss! It was then on to the Presidential Highway from Clinton to Gore (see what they did there!) We got into Invercargill and were amazed at the changes that had occurred in the place since we had last been down there over 10 years ago. Maybe Mayor, Tim Shadbolt’s magic was working!

We met up with Steve and Murray from Invercargill Brewing, both passionate, energetic guys who are pumping out some incredible beers. We checked out the brewery, which Steve told us was about to be upgraded to allow double the amount of beer to be brewed. Invercargill do a lot of contract brewing and bottling for other NZ craft breweries including Yeastie Boys, Valley, Golden Ticket, Pink Elephant and Mussel Inn. Their own range of beers includes a delicious Honey Pilsner, Wasp which had a hint of honey on the nose, some sweetness on the tongue and a nice dry, crisp finish. B.Man was another top drop, a great take on the NZ Pilsner style. Sister Gina was a Belgian style brew that Steve had brewed with a Witbier yeast and was a great example of an Abbey-style Dubbel with wisps of clove and fruity esters.

The Boysenbeery however, was the pick of the bunch for me. This beer is brewed and 15% Boysenberry juice is added near the end of fermentation. The resulting brew smells like boysenberry icecream, with a pleasant vanilla and berry nose. The vibrant red colour makes you think that this beer is going to be sweet and potentially syrupy, but this is anything but! The berry fruit makes itself known, but the beer finishes crisp and dry and your mouth stays filled with fragrant boysenberry notes without any cloying characters. Steve told us he was a massive fan of ciders and fruit and this is evident in the beer. His Nally’s Cider is another example of a greatly crafted product, aged for 18 months prior to release.

The one thing I think Steve gives to his beers that is paramount is balance and drinkability. They finish dry and crisp and are testament to his brewing skill.

We left Invercargill where Luke had his first encounter with a Jimmy’s Pie, and iconic taste of the southern region of New Zealand. I had to have two, just to make sure they were tasting okay. They were and we were all pretty happy with the experience. Our arteries however, may not be so happy…