West Coast Brewery

Dave from The West Coast BreweryFrom the NZ Craft Beer TV journal, 28/1/11:

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 2,500 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.

West Coast Brewery - Background

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!”