Stout effort keeps St Pat fans happy
BY JOHN EDENS
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Guinness New Zealand distributed about 300 extra kegs of the black stuff to pubs and hotels in the south for St Patrick's Day celebrations yesterday.
Auckland-based Diageo New Zealand manager Philip Doyle said the annual celebration of Ireland's patron saint led to a huge increase in orders for the creamy beverage.
Southland and the Queenstown-Lakes district needed at least 300 more kegs of draught from Diageo's New Zealand supplier, Lion Nathan's Canterbury Brewery in Christchurch.
Cans of draught, with the widget system, and bottles of stout are shipped from Dublin. Nationally, the company distributed about 1500 kegs of the drink for the traditional knees-up, he said.
A standard keg is 50 litres, or about 88 pints, so an extra 300 kegs meant southerners from Queenstown to Invercargill had about 26,000 pints available yesterday.
Quality was important and the brewer was audited three times a year to ensure consistency, Mr Doyle said.
The distinctive tipple, with its creamy head, was increasing in popularity in New Zealand but pubs and hotels had to meet quality standards before being allowed to sell it, he said.
Lion Nathan Guinness quality manager Laura Smith has the enviable job of travelling throughout New Zealand to ensure vendors serve a proper drink.
Last month she visited bars in Wanaka, Queenstown and Invercargill to check their pints and ensure the drink is served cold and fresh.
"Most people who sell it know it needs a different gas mixture and it needs to be poured the right way," she said. "Guinness drinkers drink with their eyes."
Arthur Guinness started brewing ales at St James's Gate in Dublin in 1759 and never looked back. It was first exported to New Zealand in 1958.
- © Fairfax NZ News
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