# Pubs/beers/breweries In New Zealand



## black_labb (24/10/12)

I think I'll be going to New Zealand south island in november for about a month. I'm going to be riding my bike around for nearly a month and stops at brewery's would be quite welcome. Anyone have any reccomendations for some good pubs or breweries to stop at while I'm there? Might have to jump some fences and steal some ryzomes!


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## .DJ. (24/10/12)

In Christchurch: 

Twisted Hop (I think its re-opened now... best check)
Cassels and Son www.casselsbrewery.co.nz/ (I can vouch for this place... OUTSTANDING)
Across the road is Three Boys. They are just in an industrial type unit... pretty sure they's show you around.
Pomeroys. www.pomeroysonkilmore.co.nz/
Dux De Lux - http://www.duxbrew.co.nz/
Harringtons harringtonsbreweries.co.nz/ (not a fan of their beers...)


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## JaseH (24/10/12)

I enjoyed a couple of nights spent at Dux De Lux in Queenstown earlier in the year.

Check out: http://www.beertourist.co.nz/index.html


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## Adam Howard (24/10/12)

Hit up the Arrow Brewing Company bar in Arrowtown. NZ Craft Beer TV This series of episodes covers most of them. I was over there at the end of September into October. There's also Wanaka Beerworks next to the old school airport in Wanaka. Don't miss Pomeroy's in Christchurch. There's also a place called Smash Palace which is a couple of buses parked surrounded in scaffolding and one of the buses is converted into a bar, serving from both sides.


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## nate2g (24/10/12)

.DJ. said:


> In Christchurch:
> Twisted Hop (I think its re-opened now... best check)



Yep, Twisted Hop have reopened on Ferry Road, in Woolston.


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## nate2g (24/10/12)

And, if you haven't been before/recently, get to Wellington. A no-brainer really.


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## Adam Howard (24/10/12)

nate2g said:


> And, if you haven't been before/recently, get to Wellington. A no-brainer really.



Great city. Walked into the New World near the Police Headquarters. One ENTIRE aisle of craft beer from Rodenbach Vintage and other exotic lambics through to every NZ beer you can think of all the way to Dogfish Head and other US beers that are hard to find in Aus. All in a bloody supermarket. AWESOME.


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## wbosher (24/10/12)

Adamski29 said:


> Great city. Walked into the New World near the Police Headquarters. One ENTIRE aisle of craft beer from Rodenbach Vintage and other exotic lambics through to every NZ beer you can think of all the way to Dogfish Head and other US beers that are hard to find in Aus. All in a bloody supermarket. AWESOME.



We like our beer here.


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## Nick JD (24/10/12)

wbosher said:


> We like our beer here.



We like VB here.


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## wbosher (24/10/12)

Hmmm...VB...beer?


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## black_labb (24/10/12)

.DJ. said:


> In Christchurch:
> 
> Twisted Hop (I think its re-opened now... best check)
> Cassels and Son www.casselsbrewery.co.nz/ (I can vouch for this place... OUTSTANDING)
> ...



Cassels and sons looks good.might have to spend a bit of time in.christchurch



Frothie said:


> I enjoyed a couple of nights spent at Dux De Lux in Queenstown earlier in the year.
> 
> Check out: http://www.beertourist.co.nz/index.html



Thanks, I'll have a look through that site


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## black_labb (24/10/12)

Missed a lot of posts there. Don't think I'll end up in Wellington but will spend some time there if I head to the north island. I'll get a route together and see where it takes me.


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## Guava (25/10/12)

Okay, my information may be a little out of date, but I've done a bit of beer tourism in the South. 

So in Dunedin is Emersons which is one of New Zealand's bigger (and excellent) breweries. I haven't been there myself, but the beer is awesome.

Nelson Bays region is loaded with breweries and is the centre of NZ's hop growing industry;

Blenheim: Renaissance/8 Wired (two breweries, same premises), Pink Elephant (We weren't able to visit this though), Moa (Not my fav, but very popular at the moment, also based on a winery so two birds one stone).

Nelson: The Freehouse is an excellent bar in an old chapel, Founders Brewery (Based in an historic park area, a bit weird, but the brewery is good). McCashins (where New Zealand's craft beer begun. Was the home of Macs, but has been reclaimed by Macs original owners, the McCashin Family, and is brewing under the label Stoke now).

The Moutere Inn is a funny little tavern (and self proclaimed oldest pub in the country) where you can spend the night, has great beer and some old school lodgings when I was there.

Finally, the Mussel Inn: A must visit. Quite out of the way, but an awesome brew pub near Takaka, Awesome vibe and great beers (including the famous Captain Cooker Manuka Beer). Be warned however, they don't take kindly to mobile phones.

Some photos for the curious.


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## joshuahardie (26/10/12)

I did a beer tour of NZ this time last year.

Check out 
www.beertourist.co.nz

Whilst I didn't visit too many breweries, as alot seemed to be produciton only. There are quality beer bars everywhere

The nelson region had more beers bars than I could visit.
The free house would of been my favourite
The Moutere Inn was well worth the drive out of town.
McCashins Brewery was nice too.
The Sprig and Fern have i think 4 locations in Nelson

I also stayed at Old Pommeroys Pub in Christchurch. Must of had 18 beers and 2 handpumps on tap. Great place.


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## black_labb (26/10/12)

Thanks guys. I was planning to get up to the nelson area so I'll make sure to give myself a fair bit of time to wander around the area.


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## edschache (26/10/12)

Nothing to add on a beer front but on the cycling around NZ front: http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=1&am...d=1869&v=Hn 

lmk if you have any questions and I'll see how good my memory is.

In short: you will love it (and occasionally hate it). Be prepared for all sorts of weather, including wind you can barely ride into. If you think you're fit... HAHAHAH... I'll let you find out the hardway. NZ drivers are generally much more courteous than their Aussie counterparts, just avoid the SH1 up the east coast. 

If you're near Nelson then ride the hill from Rai Valley (maybe a day trip Nelson to Havelock for Mussels and then back again). The Ride from Nelson to Murchison was quite good - over the hope saddle. Breakfast at the cafe in Murchison was great. The Buller gorge was easy to roll down and quite nice. 

Ed


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## JaseH (26/10/12)

edschache said:


> In short: you will love it (and occasionally hate it). Be prepared for all sorts of weather, including wind you can barely ride into. If you think you're fit... HAHAHAH...



My memories of cycle touring the Sth Island involve slogging it uphill to reach a high mountain pass only to be confronted with wall of wind and having to pedal to get down the other side! As for the west coast, wet brakes, loaded panniers and long downhill sections don't mix well! Lots of fun!


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## black_labb (26/10/12)

edschache said:


> Nothing to add on a beer front but on the cycling around NZ front: http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=1&am...d=1869&v=Hn
> 
> lmk if you have any questions and I'll see how good my memory is.
> 
> ...




Didn't expect to find someone else from CGOAB here. I'll be writing a journal as I go I think.
I hadn't gone through your journal yet but I will now and I'll ask you any questions that I have.
Cheers


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## edschache (26/10/12)

Frothie said:


> My memories of cycle touring the Sth Island involve slogging it uphill to reach a high mountain pass only to be confronted with wall of wind and having to pedal to get down the other side! As for the west coast, wet brakes, loaded panniers and long downhill sections don't mix well! Lots of fun!



Wet brakes wasn't something I had any problems with as my bike handles the water fairly well and you can always just turn into the wind but I did have a slight overheating issue coming down off Cardrona Valley Rd in to Queenstown. Brakes only matter if you chicken out and decide to slow down... like when you hit this bit of road after a screaming down a hill http://goo.gl/maps/bQV9V

Ed


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## black_labb (26/10/12)

Frothie said:


> My memories of cycle touring the Sth Island involve slogging it uphill to reach a high mountain pass only to be confronted with wall of wind and having to pedal to get down the other side! As for the west coast, wet brakes, loaded panniers and long downhill sections don't mix well! Lots of fun!



sounds great in a way, looking forward to it!


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## black_labb (17/1/13)

I decided I should do a quick review of the trip (aka beers) with some pics and occasionally a story behind it.


Here I drank a very nice oatmeal stout while looking for a good place to pitch the tent, in this case a dry riverbed was chosen (don't worry, it was obviously snowmelt that got this river flowing, as the 400m wide riverbed was dry at the time). This beer made me wonder if my oatmeal stout I had under the house would turn out as nice as this once it was ready
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:6941]

These pics were taken at Renaissance Brewery / the adjacent pub. At about 3pm I went into the pub linked to renaissance and asked them if there was any chance for a quick chat/ tour. The bartender came back a minute later with brian, the co-owner of Renaissance. Brian showed me around the operations while we talked about the system. We had a good laugh about Marlborough brewing who went bankrupt. They advised Brian and Andy when buying the brewery that they could save a lot of money by using sugar in all their beers to get to the desired ABV. The brewery design they used didn't work out very well either. They were using a separate mash and lauter and pumping the full mash between the vessels meaning that that every sparge was stuck.

After talking to Brian for a while he introduced me to Jason. Jason was working at the brewery but was also a home brewer; he had just cleaned up at a local brewing comp. We chatted for a while about brewing while he was cleaning kegs. I had another beer with Jason before we both head home (the tent via a beer/supermarket)
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:6942]
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:6943]

A great camping spot and one of the best beers I had in NZ. Would have topped it if the mushrooms I found there were the type I thought they were. 
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:6944]

Here I cooked dinner in a light shower. I'm pretty comfortable with cooking and am pretty resourceful when cooking and camping. Someone in a campervan came out and wanted to take a photo of me because I looked like I was making a great dinner with basic equipment. It probably wasn't intentional but he made me feel like an animal in a zoo, no conversation just "my wife wanted me to take a photo of you, is that ok" before retreating to his rented mansion on wheels. I decided to avoid DOC campsites along highways after this. Having other people around isn't pleasant when you don't feel any connection.
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:6945]

After dinner I drowned my sorrows with an excellent english beer on a dock.
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:6946]

On my way through arrowtown I stopped at arrow brewing company with Steffen from Stuttgart, who I met earlier that day. We stopped in and decided to share the tasting rack. After finishing that I got talking out the back to the brewer about different brewing related items. After a few samples of small run brews and another pint or 2 we left riding at a more relaxed pace the last bit to queenstown (should have stayed in arrowtown, queenstown was pretty dissapointing)

[sharedmedia=gallery:images:6947]

[sharedmedia=gallery:images:6948]

I bought this Harvistoun in Blenheim and rode with it for about 3 weeks and about 1500km. I kept it as an emergency beer, incase of bad weather that had me stranded in the tent or similar. I decided to take a bus to christchurch so I had a couple days there instead of getting there just intime for the flight. I had a few hours to wait so the emergency beer by the lake seemed like the right thing to do to pass time. The bus got me in to christchurch at 9.30 pm. After cruising around christchurch for 1.5 hrs I realised that there wasn't any budget accomodation available (earthquakes had knocked out a fair bit of the accomodation). I almost went to find a half destroyed building to sleep in but decided that I didn't want to get caught taking advantage of their misfortune, and I didn't want to lift the bike and gear over the buildings.

Long story short, I was a bit unimpressed with the beer (maybe it's not ideal for a beer to be bouncing along on a pushbike for 3 weeks, but at least it's not sitting out the back of dan murphy's for months in the sun). I was impressed with it's ability to keep me in good situations. I ended up pitching the tent in the botanical gardens in the rain and waking up very early to avoid being seen.
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:6949]

[sharedmedia=gallery:images:6950]

This was taken at the Dark Room, a small Pub that serves hand pulled beer (polypins) as well as an excellent range of bottled beer. They are a minimalistic venue set up in an industrial area after the earthquakes in christchurch. I got there at about 5.30pm for a couple beers, and stayed for a couple mediocre bands. I started to leave but ran into an odd pair rolling a spliff in a carpark. Henry was young and liked to talk about drugs and a guy in his late 40's/early 50's. I started talking to the older guy about Killdozer, a post-punk band from the 80's that had alot of dark humour and an angry voice.

After this point I think our conversations were reduced to quoting quotes from killdozer songs in killdozer voices. At the end of the night I was back to the start, just me talking to the owners of the venue alone at the bar, except it was 10 hours later and I was slightly more intoxicated. On my walk home I saw an american diner chain Denny's set up. I walked in and had a nearly civilised meal out with american style table service, but at 4.15 am (according to the docket I found in the morning). I hadn't had a night out filled with little surprises like this in a long time. I was just glad my flight was only later in the afternoon the next day.
[sharedmedia=gallery:images:6951]


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## tiprya (17/1/13)

Great write-up mate. Sounds like a fantastic trip.

I wish I hadn't read it at work at 9:30 am though :unsure:


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## hughman666 (17/1/13)

Just got back from the South Island.

Few things:
Nelson was awesome. Sprig and Fern have some really relaxed nice bars around town, a great one over at Tahunanui beach. Good beers (8 on tap when I was there). Nice pizza too.
Dux Deluxe has closed and has been replaced by a Monteiths pub called.....Montys. Happy hour has $5 pints (that's $3.95 AUD).
Arrowtown Brewery was shut down.
Macs on the Waterfront in Queenstown was a good pub with good food and a full range of Macs beers.
Oh and every NewWorld I stopped in along the way for groceries had 6 packs across the full Macs range for $11NZD.
For my money though, Wellington is where the craft brewing scene in NZ is at...


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