It will be the taste that matters
BY GEOFF GRIGGS
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Beer
So, Mac's beers are to return to the Mainland. Last week the brand's owners, Lion Breweries, revealed its intention to cease brewing operations at the Mac's brewery in Wellington next February and transfer production to Christchurch.
Having bought the Mac's brand from the McCashin family in 1999 and leased the old Stoke brewery, in 2006 Lion set up a brand new brewery in Shed 22 on the Wellington waterfront. For two years production of Mac's beers was split between Wellington and Nelson, but in April 2008 Lion abandoned the old McCashin brewery and made Wellington the brand's headquarters.
Now the Wellington brewery itself is to face the same Lion axe – or, rather, samurai sword. In a press release the Japanese-owned brewing giant blames the closure on rising costs and the inability of the cramped waterfront site to cope with growing demand for craft beer. Citing lack of capacity as a reason for the Wellington brewery's ultimate demise is ironic considering it wasn't originally conceived to brew craft beer, but large quantities of mainstream tap beer for the local market.
Indeed, almost right up to the day the brewery opened, it was to be called the Lion Brown Brewery.
Given the relevance of that brand in today's market, what a disaster that would have been!
While news of the closure will no doubt have come as a shock to many, does it really matter? Aside from leaving New Zealand's capital city (and the country's most beer-savvy consumers) once again without a local brewery, most people know Mac's birthplace and spiritual home is on the other side of Cook Strait. But in Nelson, not Christchurch.
According to Lion's press release, the Wellington brewhouse will be relocated within the Canterbury Brewery and, "We will maintain a dedicated Mac's brewer who will still brew the craft beers with the same passion and hand-crafted approach as now ...".
That's all very reassuring, but at the end of the day savvy consumers will be more interested in how the beers taste than where they're brewed. For that we'll just have to wait and see.
While Lion plans Mac's return to the South Island, the pioneering brand's original owners, the McCashin family, are set to restart brewing in Nelson. Having recently reopened the old Stoke brewery, the family is planning a full portfolio of beverages that will include water, ciders, beers, wines and spirits. The McCashins are already marketing a range of vodkas and alcoholic fruit drinks and in the past week I've also received samples of two ciders.
According to the company's new website (mccashins.co.nz), in the near future we can also expect to see "a range of ales, lagers and dark beers".
The website also highlights the family's role in shaping New Zealand's blossoming craft beer industry. "McCashin's success inspired a new generation of brewers, with many of these brewers having learnt their trade from McCashin's Brewery," it states. Given the range and quality of craft beers available in New Zealand these days, it will be interesting to see how adventurous the family is with its new brews. My hope is they will elect to brew beers that will inspire another generation of Kiwi brewers. Cheers!
- The Marlborough Express
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I've always found the bottled range (already brewed in Canterbury) to not quite measure up to the standard of the tap beer (brewed in Wellington). Could be that they just lose a lot in the filtering and pasteurising but I'm not confident the beers will be as good in the future... only time will tell.
As for Macashins: "a range of ales, lagers and dark beers" sounds ominously like micro interpretations of what the macro breweries brew! Let's hope not.