Belgian Beers!

[Lili]

Hello Beer lovers,

My husband and I are huge fans of Belgian beers and are pretty frustrated with the lack of diversity available here in New Zealand.
We are pondering the idea of importing a great range of high quality Belgian beers and selling them online.
We don't really know though if the demand here would feed this activity.
What do you guys think of the idea?

Don't you reckon an online shop offering a wide range of Belgian beers here in New Zealand is just what New Zealanders have been waiting for?

We'd love to hear your opinion and are looking forward to reading your feedback!

[Stu McKinlay]

What beers do you have in mind? Regional Wines and Spirits usually have 20-30 different ones (and, although they don't actively promote it, can order via mail/phone). I believe Hamilton Wine Company may be similar.

I reckon it could fly if you get the word out there enough, and your prices are competitive, by why limit yourself to Belgian only.

[Kempicus]

I agree with Stu, limiting yourself to Belgian beers would surely also limit your marketing potential.....why target one type of consumer when you could diversify? Compared to other countries Belgium doesn't get toooo bad coverage here, for example Germany and the USA get almost nothing.

Having said that i'd certainly check out your selection and buy online!

[HerrSchnapps]

I concur, import some Kölsch please... Früh , Reissdorf, Gaffel, Sion etc :)
Oh how I miss Kölsch :(

[Greig McGill]

Not to turn this into a lovefest, but I also agree with both views expressed above.
Hamilton Wine usually has at least 50 Belgians at any one time and they change regularly.

No online shopping cart, but ordering can be done online "manually", and the service is excellent if you use the contact form.

http://www.hamiltonwine.co.nz

Cambridge Wine Company also brings a ton in, and have a website with online ordering here:

http://www.worldbeers.co.nz

[Barry]

I agree with Stu and Kempicus, why only belgians? For the love of god can we get some good American craft beer down here, I can't fathom how this hasn't already happened.

[denimglen]

Agree on that about American beer.

Any imported real beer would be good. I'd love to see some more beer from the UK aswell.

On a side note bought some Leffe and Hoegaarden Grand Cru and Verboden Vrucht from Liquorland (or king?) in Pakuranga on the weekend. One Leffe was alright, the other was unpleasently astringenty-bittery (definately nothing like the first one I had a while back). The Grand Cru tasted disgusting, all the yeast in it was brown and clumpy in my glass. The Verboden Vrucht looks the same, dead looking yeast on the bottom, I'm scared to open it. The BelleVue Kriek I bought was fine though. Pretty disapointing, not gonna by beers like that from liqour shops that have a low turnover on those kind of beers again,

[Rusty Chch]

Harvey in the now defunct :-( Beer Emporium in Christchurch used to import loads of Belgians as well as some decent british and american beers.

The local Fresh Choice appear to have purchased his entire stock, so they've got a great selection of belgian stuff.

I'm working my way through their supply of O'Haras Celebration stout at the moment. Beer can be a spendy pastime.

[Andrew]

New Zealand will never match Belgium for the quantity of beers available but we can certainly match the quality and we're getting pretty close to matching the range of flavours. What I'm saying is it would be much more desirable to concentrate on distributing Kiwi beers rather than imports. With the way fuel prices are going and the general shift to things more environmentally sustainable I would say that it won't be too long before imported beers dissapear off the shelves. (and this is why we are getting the Belgians to brew our Manuka beer over there rather than exporting it). Kiwi brewers are making some fantastic beers - the problem is finding them and that is where enthusiastic distributors
are required. The other problem is that NZ is an average size city with extremely large green belts between the suburbs. The market is so small that what ever you are distributing will be a labour of love. But distribute Kiwi craft beers and we will love you!

[Stu McKinlay]

Yeh... importing anything is going to be pretty difficult in a couple of years - I'm picking petrol to be $4/litre by the end of 2009. I'm on a scooter now - no parking costs, I park right outside The Malthouse on the way home (stopped there more in the last two months than the year before that), whip into Regionals for a rigger and a bottle of wine, and then every 10 days or so it costs me a whole $10 to fill up. Actually, I lie, it cost me $11 this week - damn rising fuel costs.

Some NZ breweries don't distribute far though (actually, that reminds me, I've got some bottles that I'm supposed to drop off to you sometime Andrew - from Henrik, he was most concerned about re-use so I am putting the odd homebrew in them. I'm keen to ferry across and bike around but I'm finding it hard to convince girlfriend and kids).

[Daniel Parker]

Hi,

I have been working on a similar project for the past 8 months.. and it was launched two days ago.

Our goal is to have NZ's widest range of beer.. and while we are not there yet.. we are adding new brands every day at the moment.. Currently we have about 220 different beers.. including almost 50 from Belgium.

Our website can be found here:
http://www.beerstore.co.nz
And we ship NZ wide..

Anyway.. I would be interested in any feedback.. Positive or Negative.. Or if you can help expand our range I would like to know.. email me directly - [e-mail]

Regards
Daniel Parker
The Beer Store.

[Greig McGill]

Hi Daniel,

Looks great. Will you be bringing in some of the harder to find craft beers from the USA? It sounds, based on this thread alone, like you have a large market ready and waiting! ;)

[nzbrewer]

Greig, how do you define large, is that the 170 users of this forum? I'd say that would be a fair reflection in a market of 4 million people