West Coast Brewery - Background
Saturday, February 5, 2011 at 10:00PM From the West Coast Brewery website:
Once upon a time (over a couple of beers) Paddy Sweeney and a group of mates came up with an idea to buy a brewery. They figured that with the amount of beer they had consumed between them it would be quite a good investment... so strike me dead if they don’t up and do it! Low-and-behold West Coast Brewing is born. For a group of West Coasters, Miners Brewery in Westport was the perfect purchase. The Brewery was already producing award-winning beers and now with the expertise of a few legends in their own right they’ve already gone on to produce a few more. So the next time you’re sitting down with your mates for a few — talking about how to solve the world — just remember... they’ve already started doing it on the West Coast.
On the West Coast a Tui is a bird with a bit of white fluff under its chin, a lion is a pommie who thinks he can play rugby, and a DB is a dead bloke. A good beer? Now in these parts that’s the stuff legends are made of because around here, if they didn’t trust it they wouldn’t drink it. This is why the best is now brewed right under their noses at the West Coast Brewery in Westport. The West Coast Brewery creates naturally brewed beers. It’s a slow brewing process that takes time — ‘West Coast’ time. Our brewery is run with the same strong work ethos that has always been the backbone of this region. We don't pretend to be the ‘big boys’ in this game, we don’t want to be, we are more concerned with satisfying our customers. We are driven to succeed in all we undertake and like the West Coast; we choose to stand apart from the rest.
Originally the Miners Brewery, the West Coast Brewery is located in Westport on the West Coast of the New Zealand South Island. This is the home of naturally brewed beers — beers that are hand crafted with natural ingredients. We use no chemicals, no additives and no added sugars so our beers won't knock your body around. The traditional art of brewing is on the endangered skills list, threatened by today's fashion of accelerating the brewing process to produce more beer, faster. At the West Coast Brewery we take our time, ensuring that the age old, slow brewing process won't be lost to mediocrity. We make beer to be enjoyed, beer that is refreshingly natural. It's what you come to expect on the West Coast, where the sky is deep blue and the sand is jet black — our beer is pure gold.
Beer Range
Green Fern is our award winning organic lager. We always knew it was el primo, but now it's official. This year it took out the top award in its class for premium lager at the New Zealand International Beer Awards. When we say it's organic, we're not paying fashionable lip service - Green Fern is certified organic by BioGro New Zealand. Organically grown barley and hops are stripped bare to leave a naturally brewed, premium lager with no added sugars, chemicals or preservatives. Purely natural - the way beer should be on the West Coast.
Good Bastards is a range that is only for certain customers — you’ve simply got to be a Good Bastard. If you enjoy a few beers, a good yarn, and like to stick it up the establishment in a non-offensive way then you’re perfect for a Good Bastard.Good Bastards Dark Ale (Award Winner), Good Bastards Lager Top Drop, Good Bastards Draught
West Coast Draught - “Paddy was an amazing bastard and a bit of an ace at fly fishing. Legend has it that he would put a small hole in the lid of a bottle of West Coast Draught and place it upstream. The fish loved the stuff just as much as Paddy and would swim for miles around to drink the stuff. We reckon it was a waste of a damn fine beer but Paddy reckons it made them easier to catch!”
West Coast Black - “Butch is a living legend, a pig hunter with trophies as tall as his stories. He’s got a boar mounted that you’d swear was smiling at you. Butch reckons he woke from his sleep around the campfire one night only to find 100kgs coming right at him, he grabbed his schooner of West Coast Black and single-handedly poured it down the beast’s throat. It stopped the animal in its tracks. Butch swears black and blue, it was the West Coast Black that put the smile on its face!”
West Coast Pure Gold - “When he drove into town in his flash 4WD the locals had to take a second look, couldn’t be... Larry the larrikin? Had he finally struck gold? Seems he had — West Coast Pure Gold. Larry had laced his possum bait with it, upset their nocturnal rhythm, making them come out of the trees in broad daylight — what a killing. Now the larrikin’s turned chef, possum burgers a la West Coast Pure Gold!”
West Coast Lager - “Locals say there was never a whitebaiter that could come close to ol’ Maggie she was a flamin’ beudie. She worked the Buller River with a keg of West Coat Lager and a net fashioned out of nylon stockings. The keg not only anchored the net but the flow of pure nectar coming from it produced runs like the stockings had never seen. Ol’ Maggie swore it had to be West Coast Lager or the buggers wouldn’t taste the same!”
Reader Comments (1)
Really, must say I haven't read such an amount of contrived, stereotypical cliche bullshit in years. The rediculous west coast tough man rubbish, which comes across even worse than the speights southern man image......I know right?????paddy Sweeney you really are a tool. When he took over miners brewery and started not paying his bills, his staff pleaded with him to let them look after their own affairs and pay there own way. No said paddy, the staff started leaving including the head brewer, paddys response......its just a recipe, anyone can do that! Incredible! Obviously he should have had someone managing his books because he's bankrupt now, surprise, surprise. In spite of all this I will still miss the green fern lager, a truly good genuinely hand made beer, but that's about it