A Introduction & Beer Travels Around NZ

[Jace Yendall]

Gday everyone,

Firstly I'd better introduce myself. My name is Jace, I live over the ditch in Melbourne, Australia. I have been home brewing fiercely now for a little of 3 years, 2.5 of those years all-grain. I have recently been lucky enough to get a job as a brewer/distiller in a small distillery located in Melbourne, making single malt whisky.

But the main reason I stumbled across this site is that I'm very shortly I will touring around NZ on a big beer trip, finishing off at Beervana. I plan to spend the first week driving around the South. Island hopefully checking out as many breweries/sights as possible. Then after that spending another week on the North Island before Beervana.  

So far its became obvious that I'll be spending a large amount of my time in the Nelson and Marlborough regions. But what I want to get some thoughts of what are the must see breweries, bars, and any other locations in NZ. 

I know its a board question but help would be greatly appreciated!

[Smiffy]

I think that maybe the hugeness of the question has put people off replying. There's lots of stuff on the internet, e.g.

http://brewzone.com/2009/06/20/nelson_beermap/

Have you looked at the "mashup" series on youtube?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_JmRyB1ZEQ&list=PLF380442BDAEF1230

If you have a sense of humour, do the tour of the Tui brewery, but it also might make you a bit angry if you are passionate about good beer.

I think you will get answers if you ask more specific questions.

[Jace Yendall]

Cheers for the reply Smiffy.

I agree my question is very big. Was just trying to see what some of the locals thought were not to be missed beer wise. I'll have to put together my list of what I'm already planning on checking out and post it, so the question isn't so ridiculous in size.

Thanks for those links, I've seen a lot of the mash-up series so will definitely watch the rest of those! Tui is something I have not considered but should interesting enough to check out. 

[Tilt]

Here's an entirely subjective and less than comprehensive list based on my experiences.  

Appreciate they're not in your main area of Nelson/ Blenheim but IMO if you were to visit any of these on your travels you can be sure you'll get hold of good NZ brewed beers and have a good time.  

Christchurch - Pomeroys

Golden Bay - Mussell Inn

Wellington - my pick of the many quality places is Hashigo Zake

Hamilton - House

Auckland - Galbraiths, Brothers, Hallertau

[G S]

shame there hasn't been more contribution here, help a brother out! Could really do with an archive of which venue to visit whilst in...... Its something i would really appreciate when travelling around with work etc.

Anyway, in no particular order, although S to N seems to have evolved....

Dunedin - Tonic has some great beers if you're in town. Emerson's is the local drop, available many places, now lion owned but still producing good beers, especially the 'special' production runs.

Chch ?

Nelson - The FreeHouse, Golden Bear out at Mapua.

Wellington - anywhere (!!), Malthouse as well as Hashingo. for off premise sales Regional Wines and Spirits

New Plymouth, Mikes (actually fair way out of NP, but that area)

Rotorua - Croucher

Taupo?

Hamilton?

Auckland, Brew on Quay (a few craft taps, great bottle selection, nice pub), Brothers (18? craft taps, huge bottle selection, not the cheapest), Galbraiths, Hallertau (a brewery out of town with some great beers, but you'll need a driver to really get stuck in).

Other Auckland central city places Corner Bar on Shortland St lots of banker types, but Moa on tap if that's your thing. Try O'Carrols nearby for other end of the spectrum. 

[Chris P]

Hamilton has House and also has Gothenburg which has some nice Belgians and German beers and also local beers of all sorts. We also now have Good George/Little George(which is a pop up version of Good George) GG is near the cricket ground and you can see the sweet ass set up they use to make the beer with and Little George is in between Gothenburg and House so you could hit up all three bars if you chose to.

 

NZ is getting some awesome places to drink at all over!

[Dyl]

Tuatara is 45 min north of Wellington and worth a look. Fork n Brewer in Wellington has a great selection, great staff and brew their own on site.

See you at beervana, what a way to end the trip!

[Jace Yendall]

Thanks for the reply's guys!

So far my trip has been great, I've managed to have many awesome beers with I'm sure more to come. I spent last week touring around the South Island.

We stayed in Blenheim over night, managed to seek out Renaissance and Moa. Then moved onto Nelson for 2 nights doing all things beer around that area (so many breweries)!

I just got to Auckland earlier and plan on grabbing a few drinks at Brother Beer. Ill have to check some of the other places before I leave also. I can't wait to get to Wellington it's looks like there are so many great bars in Welly. I'm also attending the Parrotdog 1st bday shindig.

[Richard Jack]

Make sure to head to Galbraiths - it's an institution. 

[Jace Yendall]

Brother Beer was amazing. They had a mini 8 wired sour/barrel aged beer takeover. I grabbed a flight and tried them all...so damn good!

I was wondering has anyone got any idea of which bus you need to catch from Auckland CBD in order to get to Hallertau brewery/bar? I'm having a hard time using the AT website, it keeps sending me on 10k walks! At this rate I'm not sure it's gonna be worth the effort.

[Druid]

Could be keen to head out there from Akl Central myself this arvo - PM me and let's see what we can arrange...

[G S]

Well done soba

Picked up a copy of the NZ Craft Beer Passport at Brothers last night, a valuable little book, and not so little.

Good stuff, thank you.