craft beer - The Profit

craft beerSimon Hendery

Art Deco Beer – combining a quality brew with a local identity

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 spent about six months researching pilsners and IPAs – the...

Zeelandt Brewery – connecting the old and new

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 Zealand is named after and founder Chris Barber says he...

A brewpub where you’re spoilt for choice

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 example, when Steinlager launched a second label and punters suddenly...

Worshipping craft beer at the Abbey

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 started getting serious about beer. He began selling small-batch brews...

Brewing success on their own patch of God’s Own

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 environmentally sustainable brewing and hospitality business complete with a hops...