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Photo: Getty Images/The Spinoff
Photo: Getty Images/The Spinoff

KaiMay 17, 2021

True brews: A short guide to locally owned New Zealand craft beers

Contributing Writer
Photo: Getty Images/The Spinoff
Photo: Getty Images/The Spinoff

Bars and liquor stores seem to be bursting with different beers from local producers, but many are actually owned by big multinationals – though you’d be hard pressed to figure that out from the labels. Gareth Shute sorts through the confusion to bring you a list of truly local breweries.

The craft beer scene has seen an explosion of local beer brands over the past decade, but beer lovers who also want to support small local businesses may find it tricky to know where to put their money.

Case in point: the sale of Tuatara in 2017 to Heineken-owned DB; Founders being purchased by Asahi-owned Independent Breweries in 2012; and the Kirin-owned Lion buying Emersons in 2012, Panhead in 2016 and Harringtons in 2018. Further back, there was the purchase of Macs by Lion in 1999. 

To add more confusion, the multinational-owned alcohol producers have also created their own craft brewing wings. Boundary Road was started by Independent Breweries/Asahi, Black Dog was created by DB/Heineken, and sustainable brewery The Fermentist by Lion/Kirin. These sit alongside supposedly local brands already within these bigger companies, such as Speights (Lion/Kirin) and Monteiths (DB/Heineken).

In 2017, Garage Project’s Jos Ruffell told The Spinoff it was unfortunate that some local drinkers “think they’re drinking an independent brewery’s beer, not realising it’s owned by a multinational”. He also pointed out that when small breweries are sold, it also means that any taps they’ve put into venues become owned by the bigger breweries.

In order to rectify some of this confusion, the list below collects together a dozen-and-a-half local breweries that are still independently owned and operated. It’s certainly not every independent brewery in New Zealand, but there are options that should satisfy everyone from price-conscious drinkers through to craft beer aficionados.

A selection of independent New Zealand craft beers (Photo: Supplied)

8Wired 

Former biochemist Søren Eriksen initially brewed 8Wired at long-running Blenheim brewery Renaissance, but 8Wired now has its own site in Warkworth, north of Auckland, as well as a taproom in nearby Matakana. Eriksen and his wife Monique financed 8Wired with his winnings from the national poker championship (in 2009 and 2010).

Known for: For 10 years, the iStout has been among the top-rated NZ beers on US website ratebeer.com, while 8Wired’s Wild Feijoa is a surprisingly successful fruit beer. Eriksen makes some of New Zealand’s best sours, with a comprehensive barrel-ageing programme.

Cassels

 Joe Shanks, Zak and Alasdair Cassels’ family-run Christchurch brewery suffered significant damage in the February 2011 earthquake, but used the rebuild as an opportunity to grow bigger and better.

Known for: Their Milk Stout has won two awards at the World Beer Awards.

Citizen Collective

Donald Shepherd and his team use waste bread to replace 25% of the malt in the beer brewing process. That’s not all – leftover mash is used to make sourdough bread.

Known for: Their pilsner is most popular, but they also have an IPA, pale ale and a mid-strength lager all produced at independent Matakana brewery Sawmill.

Citizen Collective’s beer and bread (Photo: Supplied)

Croucher Brewing

Paul Croucher and Nigel Gregory started Croucher in 2004 along with accompanying brewpubs in each of their hometowns, Rotorua and Tauranga. Croucher has a PhD in chemistry and it shows in their well-balanced brews. 

Known for: When The Spinoff taste-tested low-alcohol beers, Croucher’s Lowrider pale ale won out. 

Epic Beer

Luke Nicholas has injected a huge amount of energy into local brewing since he started in 2006, encouraging other brewers and pushing the limits by taking hop intensity to extremes or upping the alcohol content to bring out new flavours. Epic is based in Auckland.

Known for: Epic’s regular collaborations with other breweries are always worth discovering, though their key brews are Hop Zombie and the Armageddon IPA (the most-awarded NZ IPA).

Garage Project’s Jos Ruffell (left) and Pete Gillespie (Photo: Supplied)

Garage Project 

Over the past 10 years, Garage Project has produced hundreds of different beers, which you can order online or try in their tasting rooms in Wellington or Auckland.

Known for: Their core beers include a lager called Beer, a mid-strength ale (Fugazi), and session ale (Hāpi Daze), though serious beer nerds may be tempted to blow the budget on their 18-month aged porter, Cockswain’s Courage – Double Barrelled Edition.

Hallertau 

Hallertau’s reputation led a podcaster from the Brewing Network (US) to visit their tasting room straight from the airport, not realising a taxi out to Stephen and Hayley Plowman’s Riverhead brewery, north-east of Auckland, would be such an expensive endeavour!  

Known for: Their core beers are simply named 1-9 and all are excellent representations of their style, while braver drinkers will enjoy their sour beers Funkonnay and Primal Descent.

Hop Federation 

Simon and Nicki Nicholas started brewing in Riwaka, near Motueka in the heart of the top of the South Island’s hop-growing region, in 2013, then in 2020 became part of Kono, a Māori-owned food and beverage business that grows hops nearby.

Known for: Hop Federation aren’t as obsessed with hop-heavy beers as the name might suggest – in fact it’s their lager that’s won gold at New Zealand’s two main beer awards.

Brewers Emma Bell and Jesse Hansen adding hops to a brew at Kererū (Photo: Supplied)

Kererū

Chris Mills and Natasha Dahlberg pride themselves on taking an environmentally friendly approach to brewing and Kererū also raises money to support local birdlife.  

Known for: Kererū produce two varieties of gluten-free beer (Auro and Apex), as well as other award-winning beers – notably their Feijoa Weisse and Imperial Nibs stout. 

Liberty Brewing Company

Joseph and Christina Wood’s Liberty brewery (in Helensville, north-west of Auckland) joins 8Wired and Garage Project in having some of the highest-rated NZ beers on ratebeer.com.

Known for: Liberty’s bold-flavoured approach is exemplified by their Citra Double IPA, an intensely hoppy but dangerously drinkable 9 percenter.   

McLeod’s Brewery

Geoff and Clayton Gwynne were pizza restaurant owners before moving into beer in 2014. Brewer Jason Bathgate (formerly of 8wired and Renaissance) joined in 2017. They’re based in Waipū, Northland.

Known for: Tasty session beers (like their award-winning Longboarder lager) through to more full-on brewing experiments (Black Sour Aged in Pinot Noir Barriques). Keep an eye out for the excellent 802 limited series of unfiltered IPAs.

New New New Corporation

A relative newcomer, founded by Ian McKinlay, but already Dunedin’s biggest independently owned craft brewery.

Known for: Highly drinkable beers often with unique flavours – Joy is a hazy IPA “juiced up” with passionfruit and pineapple, while Synaptic Voyage is a Thai lime and lemongrass sour.

Parrotdog Brewery

In August 2016 the three Matts (Warner, Kristofski, and Stevens) launched a PledgeMe campaign to expand Parrotdog. The Wellington brewery’s strong reputation saw them raise two million – almost twice their target – which allowed them to open an expanded brewery and bar in Lyall Bay.

Known for: A great core range of an IPA, APA and pilsner, which have all won local awards. The very reasonably priced six packs of Birdseye Hazy IPA have been hugely popular, deservingly so.

Parrotdog’s Matt Warner (Photo: supplied)

Rudi’s Beer

In the 1940s and 50s, black rot root disease threatened local hop production so Dr Rudi Roborgh, working from Riwaka, developed disease-resistant new varieties. Seventy-odd years later, Dr Rudi’s grandson Andrew Roborgh started this Auckland brewery with Callum O’Brien and Kristian Lloydd.

Known for: A very price-competitive lager ($29 per 12pk), as well as a hops-packed APA. 

Scotts Brewing Co

Phillip Scott has coeliac disease so started out brewing only gluten-free beers. Scotts is part of a thriving little brewing scene in Ōamaru which also includes Belgian beer specialists Craftwork.

Known for: One of the most widely-available gluten-free beers. 

Stoke Brewery and Wakachangi

Dean McCashin got into brewing through his father Terry, the original founder of Mac’s Beer. The McCashins also brew Wakachangi in a joint venture with comedian Leigh Hart.

Known for: Sessionable craft brews, a flavourful mid-strength beer (2Stoke), and straight-up lager Wakachangi all at a very reasonable price (around $20-25 per dozen).

Three Boys Brewery 

Ralph Bungard and Brigid Casey returned from the UK and weren’t impressed with the local beers so started this Christchurch brewery back in 2004.

Known for: Their Oyster Stout is legendary (oysters might seem an odd ingredient, though not as out there as Choice Bros’ Stag Semen Stout).

Urbanaut

Simon Watson, Thomas Rowe and Bruce Turner have their brewery and tasting room in Morningside, Auckland, which is also where Yeastie Boys brew their legendary Pot Kettle Black (as well as in Hong Kong and the UK!).

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Known for: Along with their very sessionable pilsner, they also have a “beer blender” range, two-packs of 250ml cans to be tasted separately then poured together to make a third brew.

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Lei Timo of Bitch Baker (Image: Tina Tiller)
Lei Timo of Bitch Baker (Image: Tina Tiller)

KaiMay 16, 2021

The South Auckland baker bringing an island flavour to vegan sweet treats

Contributing writer
Lei Timo of Bitch Baker (Image: Tina Tiller)
Lei Timo of Bitch Baker (Image: Tina Tiller)

For many communities, a vegan diet can seem at odds with their culture. But baker Lei Timo is helping make veganism more inclusive through food that’s both delicious and reflective of her Sāmoan heritage.

When she turns up at the front doors of customers, delivering their boxed orders of her vegan treats, Lei Timo can tell people are somewhat surprised when they open the door to see her.

“People expect this little European person to rock up at the door, and they’ll be shocked that I’m a big Islander girl,” she says.

Timo grew up in Auckland suburb Mt Wellington with her parents, two older sisters and plenty of cats and dogs. Her parents met in Auckland after moving from Sāmoa in the 1980s, post dawn raids. “They came at the right time,” Timo says. 

Now 22, Timo flats with her sister Gerri and each of their partners in a candy-coloured villa near Papatoetoe train station in South Auckland. It’s also the casual headquarters of her made-to-order vegan baking business, Bitch Baker, which she started at the end of 2019. Last weekend, she launched her new website and rejigged menu. 

Timo took up baking when she was in primary school and credits her eldest sister Diane with inspiring her love for it. “She was always the one who was baking,” she says. Making sweet treats from the Edmonds cookbook, a reliable favourite, took on new meaning for Timo in her teens as she struggled with high school. Sifting, whipping and icing became her escape.

“I wanted to leave as soon as I could, and baking was just something I could look forward to after school,” she says.

After dropping out as a 17-year-old, Timo watched the documentary Cowspiracy in horror while eating a bowl of chicken wings. It convinced her to make an almost instant shift away from animal products. The bowl of chicken wings was left unfinished. “I was like, ‘this is horrible, I don’t want to be a part of that’, so I just went vegan, cold turkey.”

When you’re brown, veganism and vegetarianism comes with a particular kind of cultural awkwardness. Food is so often interconnected with cultural practices and by association a way to belong in these particular groups. Not eating certain fare being served up at church, on the marae or at family celebrations comes with some feelings of isolation, made even harder when you’re part of a minority group. 

For her Sāmoan family, Timo says “food is everything”. After becoming vegan, at home Timo was almost entirely limited to taro or green banana with coconut cream. Though initially they weren’t thrilled about Timo’s decision to become vegan out of fears for her health, her parents have grown increasingly supportive of her decision over time.

Timo has dealt with plenty of scepticism around her motives for being vegan. Many make the assumption that what she does and doesn’t eat is tied up with some kind of modern fad diet, rather than the ethical and environmental concerns that were the real catalysts, she explains. “People would just be like, ‘you can’t be brown and vegan’,” she says. 

After leaving her fast-food job in 2019, Timo began setting up her business, which she registered at the end of last year, once she felt the pandemic situation had calmed down. An important step was choosing the name. “I wanted the word bakery – that was just kind of obvious,” she says. But why “bitch”? Timo laughs while recalling how when those in her circles found out she was vegan, their response was often along the lines of “oh, you bitch!”. 

“I don’t want to come off as a bitch, but once people find out that I’m vegan they just automatically put that label on me,” she says.

In the same vein as musicians like Alanis Morissette, Britney Spears and Doja Cat, she’s reclaiming the term. “I’ll just call me what you’re calling me, I’ll just own the name,” she says.

Her recently rejuvenated menu offering includes ice-cream doughnuts, brownie cheesecake and a gluten-free German chocolate cake – fare that’s delicious and wouldn’t be out of place at any vegan bakery.

BITCH BAKER’S PANIPOPO AND BROWNIE CHEESECAKE (IMAGES: SUPPLIED)

While her menu has always included panipopo, Timo is making an effort to go the extra mile on her new menu to show off Sāmoan baking. She’s platforming the cuisine through her Mother’s Day gift boxes, which are carrying on beyond the designated day last Sunday, the concept being that Mother’s Day should be everyday. And this is where she’s celebrating her Sāmoan roots more explicitly, with panipopo, keke fa’i (banana cake) and panikeke (coconut German buns) – one of Timo’s favourite treats on trips to Sāmoa. “It’s to emphasise the fact that I am Sāmoan, because people don’t expect it,” she says.

At the moment, she’s balancing her own business with her time as a mentee with The Kitchen Project, a 26-week programme focused on developing local food business in West and South Auckland. Influenced by San Francisco nonprofit La Cocina, which works to solve problems of equity in business for marginalised groups, The Kitchen Project is a partnership between Auckland urban regeneration agency Panuku, Auckland Unlimited, and Healthy Families South Auckland and Waitākere. 

In her cohort of five, the initiative runs through the essentials for budding food makers; explaining regulations, food safety, business planning, branding and marketing, along with offering subsidised access to commercial kitchens. 

“Every baker wants a shop,” Timo says, and that’s a long-term goal for her business. Pointing toward Papatoetoe town centre, Timo says, “I’d love to have a shop down there.” She and her sisters often daydream about running a shop in an area like her local village where they feel they could add vibrancy.

“Change happens slowly,” Timo says. And she’s hopeful about the slow but steady growth in openness to animal-product-free food locally. These days, according to Timo, it’s mostly non-vegans ordering her food, many of whom are returning customers. 

“I just hope it gets more out there,” says Timo, “especially with people here in South Auckland.” By broadening the possibilities of vegan food through her island-influenced baking, Timo wants to prove that giving up animal products doesn’t have to mean giving up culturally significant foods for her community.

Because she’s left the word “vegan” out of her brand name, Timo says plenty of her customers order her cakes without even realising they’re free of traditional baking essentials like eggs, butter and cow milk. Learning after the fact that they’ve been replaced with aquafaba, Olivani and coconut milk and that the bite they took is still delicious, maybe even more delicious, gives customers the chance to realise they “actually do like vegan food”, says Timo.

Kai