End of an Era: Lion Nathan to close Mac's Brewery in Nelson

[Stu McKinlay]

Mac's iconic Nelson Brewery is to close, 28 years after its opening its doors and starting a new chapter of craft beer in New Zealand. It's no real surprise to me, in fact it has surprised me that it lasted this long, but it is certainly a bit of a dark day and the end of an era.

More at: http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelsonmail/4552101a6420.html

My thoughts and best wishes go out to all of the staff there, especially Tracy Banner whom I met a couple of years back at BrewNZ and found to be a humble, candid and extremely interesting brewer. I have no doubt that the rest of the team, who worked with Colin and Tracy, would be as passionate and committed. I hope the everyone of them enjoy their last few weeks together and are successful in finding good opportunities ahead. Thanks to you all for the many great beers!

I feel confident that the Mac's beers will continue to be innovative and of an extremely high-standard under the leadership of Colin Paige. I do hope this doesn't mean the end of Brewjolais, which was the most "Nelson" of beers (with hops transported to the brewery, and used, on the day they were picked).

A potential positive to this: it may well open the eyes of a few local publicans, and thousands of locals, who stocked and drank Mac's as the "local" beer. Founders, Tasman, Lighthouse, Nelson Bays, Townshend, The Mussel Inn and Monkey Wizard should get cracking and take up the opportunity.

Does anyone have any fond memories or intersting stories about Mac's?

Slainte mhath
Stu

[Edward Siddle]

umm....does the fact our flat was obsessed with Black Mac back in 1993 count? Being good young men and students meant that we collected all our bottles and trays and built a stack of them in the hallway with the a big headline from a newspaper "at this rate it can't last" pinned to it. I've got a photo of it somewhere i could scan in. great days. all i really remember, is that it seemed to be a wonderful malty chocolate flavour, not especially black, but definitely not brown either. it was just so different from all the pale lager that most people drank at the time. that and Owd Jim which I used to drink at Bodega - I think that was a Parrot and Jigger beer perhaps.

[Stu McKinlay]

It'd be nice to see that Ed. I drunk a fair bit of Black Mac in the day too (bottomless student loans and a pretty high regard for good quality food and drink helped me develop a reasonably decent standard of beer drinking). I remember a few flatmates taking on a four-pack of "Extra" before heading into town too - it generally ended up with some "extra" bad dancing.

Owd Jim was from Strongcroft in Petone. According to google it still exists (in Taita!), though I think it is actually now the plant brewing New Zealand's only Koln-style ale.

[Edward Siddle]

here you go stu. black mac bottles galore, in their white-labelled splendour. this must have been taken late-ish in 1993, at maurice terrace, in behind the Vic House hostel on the Terrace anyone remember Devoid (the band poster on the door)? great little 3 piece goth band who used to play rooftop, carport and front room gigs. and the occasional pub. not maybe as good as industrial noise grinders skinshed, but after a dozen black macs, not bad at all, not bad.

[Stu McKinlay]

Nice work. Very un-OSH-friendly.

[Edward Siddle]

i'm pleased you reminded me about strongcroft in petone. they had some other ok beers too if i recall correctly - a more brownish and less alcoholic ale than OwdJim which i think was a 5%-er.

have you seen the war going on on ratebeer about whether Koelsch really is an ale?

[Brendon]

Bloody hell - firstly, who knew they had forums on Ratebeer!
Ok - my take (and not to segue the conversation too much) a lager yeast will completely ferment raffinose and is of the genus/species as Saccharomyces uvarum (or Saccharomyces carlsbergensis, Saccharomyces pastorianus). An ale yeast only partially ferments raffinose and is of the genus/species Saccharomyces cerevisiae or other (e.g. Brettanomyces).

I think this debate is intriguing but ultimately futile as some of the character of what makes as "ale" or a "lager" is not defined by the yeast in itself but a sum of the whole technique.
I guess that's why I won't "die in a ditch" when it comes to NZ Ale's ( e.g. Tui, Speight's, about any other mainstream NZ beer) being brewed with S. carlsbergensis. You can have a cleanly brewed "lager" actually brewed with S. cerevisiae and a slightly fruity "ale" with S. carlsbergensis and no one be the wiser.

So is it really that important what species of yeast that is used? Maybe - but the tradition of taste is more important in my opinion.

B

[jt]

Hmm, perhaps the realestate should've been sold to LN along with everything else.
Then LN could have developed it as the replacement for the Khyber Pass brewery site.
Does that leave the Mangatanoka brewery as the unrivalled national icon of our beer identity, dark days indeed ?

[Brendon]

Speights Brewery in Dunedin perhaps...
Long live the kauri gyle!
B

[Horace]

And all the chelsea sugar that they ferment in them :)