Tuatara: Journal Entry

Carl from Tuatara

From the NZ Craft Beer TV journal entry, 20/2/11:

Wellington complete, we headed north towards Waikanae to check out Tuatara Brewery in Reikorangi. Tuatara are an impressive setup. Head Brewer Carl Vasta and wife Simone set up a 1200 litre brewery on their farm after Carl had stints as brewer for the Parrot & Jigger and Polar Brewing as well as acting as a brewery consultant. Ten years later, Tuatara is growing at an amazing rate. 2007 saw the installation of a German designed brewhouse and 2010 will see their capacity increased, enabling them to brew up to 10,000 litres per day.

Carl came into brewing as a trained electrician and built the first brewery by hand. A massive help to a working brewery, his practical skills have obviously been put to use, with tanks squeezed in to every available space in the buildings and a bottling line tucked into the old coolstore. Tuatara's new brewer, Mike Neilson is also as passionate as his boss. Mike came into brewing an extremely talented home brewer. He won 5 medals in the first NZ Homebrew Championships he entered and he has that gleam in his eye that brewers seem to have. It's evident that he is helping Tuatara push the boundaries with regard to the quality of their beer and production potential.

We sat in front of Carl's house in the brilliant sunshine with Mike, Carl and Tuatara director, Sean Murrie and cracked their Pilsener. This is one hell of a beer. A beautiful balance of malt and hop, a bold, assertive, persistent mouth bitterness that jolted the tastebuds from their peaceful slumber. A drinkability that wowed me. This beer was superbly crafted, the malt used added body and richness and the NZ hops came through with hints of grass and flowers. This was perfectly executed and the ultimate beer to sup in the heat. We then had their new APA. Originally a seasonal release but due to popularity, likely to be seen a bit more often, this 5.8% Pale Ale is a hop bomb! An ode to the American-style Pale Ales, this makes the most of the resinous, citrus intensity of US hops. They literally jump out of the bottle and into your nose. The mouth fills with grapefruit, pine and tropical fruit character, the malty body balances out the big bitterness and to put it bluntly, this beer rocks! It's great that Tuatara have such awesome market penetration as this allows beers like this to get out there to customers that might not have tasted them before. I really look forward to seeing more Tuatara beers out there in the future!