New Craft Bars In Auckland

[Hugh Grierson]

If you find a new bar in Auckland with some craft beer, tell us about it. I just dropped some Croucher off to the new Corner Bar on High St. They are running a pure craft range, no Steiniken or Heinlager! That part of town is getting pretty good now with Mezze, O' Carrol's , My Bar. Almost enough for a decent crawl.

[Reviled]

Awesome news Hugh, thanks for sharing, cos if you didnt, I wouldnt have known otherwise!!

[denimglen]

Yeah, good idea for a thread.

 

Might have a reason to go into town one night now haha.

[AndrewC]

Yes, I'm also interested in this type of news to make the Beer Tourist webite (www.beertourist.co.nz) more accurate up north.  We've set a benchmark of 8 dedicated taps of NZ craft beer to be included on the site - what we call a 'Champion' outlet.  It needs to be a place that craft beer fans will love and go back to.   We're a bit thin on outlets in and around Auckland and many of the bars that are mentioned either don't have websites or don't mention their beers - so we can only assume that as beer comes second it's not a Champion outlet!

[Hugh Grierson]

Andrew,I think your benchmark is too high, at least for Auckland. Just breaking out of the duopoly up here makes them legends, and having 4 craft beers in the fridge is Champion material for this brandwashed city. A (single) craft tap is exceptional. Maybe you need another 'worth a look' section?

[Reviled]

"Maybe you need another 'worth a look' section?"

 

I agree, it needs to be put into perspective really, given most bars around here dont even stock 1 bottle of craft beer in the fridge, let alone having 8 on tap. I would love and go back to, many times, a  bar that had 3 or 4 craft beers on tap with more in the fridge, I think thats champion enough, especially for Auckland.

[Reviled]

Also, whats up with this?

 

http://brewersguild.org.nz/brewery/rogue-brewery

[AndrewC]

Rouge is a brewery that we were assured existed about a year ago but I've been unable to confirm either way.  It's very close to coming off when we do an update in a few months.

 

I think having a different rule just for Auckland gives the wrong signal.  There's plenty of bars with 4 taps of craft but are they somewhere you'd take your visiting Camra member friend to show off NZ's best?  Beer Tourist isn't there to show all outlets - it doesn't show supermakets either.  It's there to show outlets that take craft beer seriously, that make fans of craft beer say 'Wow'. 

I get the feeling Auckland will catch up to what's happening in the rest of the country very soon.

[Raffe]

Having an absolute figure of 8 taps does seem counter-productive in my mind, and will automatically dismiss quite a few bars that do take craft beer reasonably seriously. Is that really what you want to achieve with the beer tourist website? Which I do think is an excellent idea.

For example, two recent bar openings in Auckland, Golden Dawn and Andrew Andrew have exclusively craft beer on tap (5 or 6 taps each, from memory). Why is 6 not enough, when 8 is? It seems arbitrary. Both serve excellent beer; Hallertau, Epic, Tuatara and Croucher. I would indeed take a visiting Camra friend to both bars.

 

 

[AndrewC]

There are indeed some nice bars around such as the ones you’ve mentioned, and they serve good beer. Maybe I’m spoilt here in Nelson with 9 craft beer outlets to choose from with more than 8 taps.
It is an arbitrary decision of 8 taps, that was what we decided it would take to be included; to be a bar that was serious about it. If we let in bars with 6 taps, then that’s unfair on those with 5, and so on.

In the end, Beer Tourist is a website that is free for Champion outlets and brewers to be in. We take no fees and have no advertising except a small logo at the top of each page. We don’t even give ourselves a bigger entry than anyone else. We’ve funded it’s development ourselves and continue to maintain it, yet it’s been created for the benefit of the craft beer industry.
We can’t afford to bend the rules just for Auckland as it would weaken the concept and soak up too much of our time adding the many bars that Auckland and the rest of the country has with just a few taps. Brewerys and Champions are what it’s about.
I’m sure that if Nelson, Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington and Hamilton can do it, Auckland can too.

[Reviled]

"There's plenty of bars with 4 taps of craft but are they somewhere you'd take your visiting Camra member friend to show off NZ's best?"

 

To put it frankly, yes I would!! 4 craft taps IMO is awesome, enough for there to be a good choice of different beers, and that same establishment would no doubt have bottles available also?

 

Also like Raffe says, Andrew Andrew is the type of bar you would make a fan of craft beer say "wow" - Yet it still doesnt qualify??

 

 

 

[Raffe]

Also, it just springs to mind that The Rake in London, perhaps the beer geek's grand palace in that city, would fail your definition. Last I was there it had three handpumps and four taps, a total of seven.

[denimglen]

"and that same establishment would no doubt have bottles available also?"

 

Good point.

 

Although not my favourite place on Brew on Quay has a pretty extensive bottle collection and doesn't make the list...but Shakespeare's does?  Seriously?