Since there are so many craft breweries in New Zealand, I had to split it up into two posts: one about the South Island, and one about the North’s brews. Even then there are still so many to choose from, and even more ways to rank them. Some breweries are more innovative and therefore deserve a place in the top 5, others just have an amazing basic range that all are solid drops. I could rank breweries like Garage Projects, Behemoth brewing, Deep Creek brewing, Panhead or any other bigger known craft breweries but where is the fun in reading about breweries that you already know about?
Just how I like the tap in a brew bar, nice and shiny and lots of them!
Like food, it is impossible to say which brewery is the absolute best. Flavours are subjective to the person tasting.
“Des Gouts et des couleurs, on ne discute pas.”
This expression, literally means that flavours and colours are personal so it has no use in making someone else see you’re ‘right’. So without further ado, here’s my personal list. One that will hopefully inspire you to try some new beers!
1. Mikes Brewery – New Plymouth
As one of the oldest craft breweries in New Zealand, Mikes brewery definitely defends their name. With the new opening of their bistro and bar in the heart of New Plymouth, it looks like they want to play on a bigger scale. To be honest, I never tried their core range. When visiting the bistro they had so many dark beers, and each and every one of them tasted epic. So I had to throw my tradition of tasting the core range away and just went for those!
Mikes has a taproom north of New Plymouth in Urenui. Call ahead to see if it is open. We drove out from New Plymouth to arrive at a closed venue, to then drive back to the bistro and bar in New Plymouth to try the beers. Yes, we were very determined!
2. Double Vision Brewing – Miramar, Wellington
These four engineers have been brewing for a while as a nomad brewery, but almost a year ago they settled down in Miramar. With so many craft breweries in the center of Wellington, you might ask yourself why go out of your way to one of the suburbs to try craft beer? Well, very simply put: their whole range is amazing! They don’t have the typical pilsner, lager, pale ale, IPA,.. core range but make beers they love. And they do it well! There is not a single beer on their list that I would not order at a bar! On top of that their brewery/tasting room has different food trucks around during the evenings, so you will find some definite amazing bites too. Their Red Rascal Red IPA was the first Red IPA I loved and that got me more interested in Red IPA’s in general.
I love the fact that most small breweries have their taproom/tasting room in their actual brewery. Nothing beats drinking a beer, fresh from the source!
3. Sunshine brewery – Gisborne
Sunny Gisborne surprised us with this gem of a brewery. Actually, this is one of the first proper breweries I visited in New Zealand and the one that got us hooked to great beer. They are mostly known for doing a vast and great range of IPA’s and Pale Ales but they also brew some epic dark beers. Try the Black Magic stout of the core range or visit the brewery to try their seasonal ones like a triple IPA or the Czar Bomb Russian Imperial Stout. Aside from their beers, they have a pizza food truck outside and what is better than pizza and beer?
Beer and pizza, the unbeatable recipe for a good night! On this tasting tray the Czar bomb and the Triple IPA, which is an amazing drop! Great people working at the venue too.
4. Alibi brewing – Waiheke Island
After going to another brewery on Waiheke Island and not being impressed at all, my hopes for finding great craft brews on Waiheke Island dropped to zero. Alibi brewing convinced me otherwise. I was there around Valentine’s day and they brewed this voluptuous hazy fruit NEIPA special which was just an epic coming together of so many flavours. Same goes for the Sawa Sawa Passionfruit and Yuzu Gose. I know you would most likely visit Waiheke Island for the wines but do not skip this brewery, which is conveniently located in a vineyard, so you get the best of both worlds!
Beer and a view! At Alibi brewing you get both. Sunshine and good beer, what more can we wish for?
5. The Theoretical Brewer – New Plymouth
This chemical engineer started out like so many other brewers in his garage with a homebrew kit and now has a core range of four beers with a lot of more experimental beers on the side too. He approaches the beers from a more scientific level, which is very interesting when visiting the taproom as he shows you a whole different side to the brewing process. We visited at the end of January, and he now has a new taproom where you can try the beers. Personally, I can see this brewery growing a lot in the next few years. Visit them as soon as possible to get that personal treatment of a starting brewery!
The taproom has a great range of beers on tap so you can taste the beers before filling up your rigger from. The right photo shows my catch of the day.
Writing this list already makes me miss New Zealand beers. It is gonna be hard being back in Belgium and not being able to taste amazing, innovative and creative beers like these. Well, I can’t complain too much, since there’ll be Belgian beers around! If you want more ideas about which New Zealand beers to drink or see which beers are available all over the world, follow me on Instagram at Beer_Diary_Today !
