Pub turf war has small brewers in a froth over the two big players

Photo: Kevin Stent

Small breweries want their time at the pub tap.

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Last week DB was named New Zealand's `champion brewery' at the 2010 Brewers Guild awards, but smaller independent breweries say its beer is boring and the company isn't giving them a fair deal. Esther Harward reports.

KIWI PUBGOERS have bland taste in beer because the two biggest breweries pay large sums to block the sale of alternative beers, according to some beer critics and producers.

Beer writer Geoff Griggs said bar owners "sell their souls" when accepting financial handouts from DB and Lion Nathan.

New Zealand has 60 beer producers, but 90% of volume sales are controlled by the two companies, which have contracts with pubs, clubs, restaurants and events centres, worth up to hundreds of thousands of dollars each, to stock their beer exclusively.

Griggs said it was a "tragedy" that the range of beer flavours produced in New Zealand – including biscuity, nutty, toffee, chocolatey, citrus, pine, and fruity – were unknown to the mass population. "That's largely a result of NZ's almost total market domination by these two big breweries who produce a range of beers that are stylistically very limited indeed."

West Coast Brewery's manager Darryl Sweeney said that although supermarkets and liquor stores enthusiastically stocked craft beers, it was "the hardest thing known to man" to get craft beer into pubs and restaurants. "Since the big two have come on the scene, everyone gets stifled with a bland sugary lager, and it's a huge problem."

Carl Harrington, whose father John set up Harrington's Breweries in Christchurch 20 years ago, said it was "basically impossible" to get a tap in a bar. "Getting space in a fridge is sometimes possible but as independent craft breweries we prefer our beer to be poured out of a tap rather than from a bottle. Most guys would prefer to have a fresh beer."

Epic Brewing Company's general manager Luke Nicholas said the duopoly had ruined drinkers' tastes.

"Large breweries are designed to sell large volume of beers. The only way you can do that is by making the beer as least offensive to the largest number of people and then brainwash them via advertising to give them reasons to drink this liquid."

Nicholas said New Zealand's beer industry had the potential to be as vibrant and internationally respected as its wine industry. "[Wine drinkers] discuss varietals, regions, aroma and flavour. Beer should be no different," he said.

Lion Nathan's spokeswoman Judy Walter said 70% of the beer sold in New Zealand was in supermarkets or liquor outlets, so craft brewers were talking about a very small part of the market.

DB's spokeswoman Jo Jalfon said consumers drank what they most enjoyed.

Brewers Guild president David Cryer described it as a "turf war" but said drinkers had enough choice. He said the two big breweries contributed to the craft beer range though their Mac's (Lion Nathan) and Monteiths (DB) brands.

Cryer said the point of exclusive contracts was so DB and Lion Nathan could keep each other out, rather than block small breweries.

Cryer said an 11% increase in New Zealand's craft beer industry between 2009 and 2010 showed small breweries could survive.

He said increasing public demand for craft beer meant some pubs, particularly in Wellington, now insisted that Lion Nathan and DB allowed them to run a single "guest tap" so they could sell beer made by small breweries.

- © Fairfax NZ News