When Hawke’s Bay-based beverage company Parkers decided to add a craft beer to its portfolio, it started with a simple objective. “Our aim was to produce best-in-class beer,” says Parkers founder Doug Speedy. “Before we considered the branding, our starting point was that the beer had to be good.” Doug
It doesn’t get much more Kiwi than this: a brewery run out of a large steel shed just off the Napier–Taupo highway. There’s even a Kingswood ute parked outside. But on closer inspection, there’s also a strong European vibe at Zeelandt Brewery in Eskdale. Zeelandt is the Dutch province New
Much has changed in the world of beer appreciation over the three decades Jeremy Bayliss has been running pubs in Hawke’s Bay. He recalls that in the early 1990s, when he was managing Napier’s Criterion Hotel, beer drinkers weren’t exactly spoilt for choice. So it was a big deal, for
When you pitch up at Abbey Cellars, in the Bridge Pa Triangle wine district west of Hastings, the first difficult decision to make is whether you’re there for a beer or a wine. The Haworth family established the Abbey Cellars wine brand in 2002 and a decade later, son Dermot
In the heart of wine country on SH50 west of Hastings, Godfrey Quemeneur and Rachel Downes have established GodsOwn Brewery – a rural haven where craft beer enthusiasts can sample product brewed on-site. The couple bought their 6.5ha property at Maraekakaho in 2010, embarking on a project to establish an
