Auckland threatening to take away Wellington's beer crown
Friday, 9 June 2017
Could Auckland ever take away Wellington's crown as the craft beer capital?
Travel guide Lonely Planet recently named Wellington as one of the best cities in the world in which to drink beer, and there's no arguing with the number of great bars densely packed into a walkable city. And New Zealand's beerscape wouldn't be as dynamic and exciting as it is now without the capital's early-adoption of good beer, driven largely by the late Grant Jones at Regional Wines and Spirits.
Wellington has always been ahead of the craft wave, with the exception of one area. No New Zealand city does brewpubs as well as Auckland.
From an inner-city featuring Brothers Beer, The Shakepeare and Dr Rudi's, to the city fringe where you'll find Galbraith's, Brothers Beer (the Mt Eden version) and the just-opened Urbanaut, to the North Shore (Deep Creek), the Far North (Sawmill, McLeod's) and out west to Hallertau, Auckland is building a brewpub network as intricate as its motorway system.
For tourists heading to Auckland for the tests against the British and Irish Lions, that's a pretty good beer itinerary right there without mentioning the raft of good bars that have popped up in the past five years; from The Lumsden in Newmarket, Vultures Lane in the city, 16 Tun down by the water, Flight 605 in Kingsland, Brew on Quay …the list could go on.
Finally, it seems, the cliche of Auckland as the green-bottle lager capital is slowly changing. Good beer is flowing more freely, certainly more freely than the traffic.
There's no better example of that than Deep Creek.
Deep Creek started out in 2011 as brewpub making what I shall diplomatically call 'interesting' beers in Browns Bay. It has grown to become quite a powerhouse, with additional bars at Orewa and Waiheke Island and a full-scale brewery in Silverdale.
And they've been on an award-winning express train over the past few months. They took out two gold medals at the New World Beer & Cider Awards (Lupulin Effect Double IPA and Dusty Gringo Indian Brown Ale) and then won 10 medals and the title of champion small international brewery at the Australian International Beer Awards (AIBA).
What I like about Deep Creek is the wide range of beers. From the safe entry level styles such Undercurrent pilsner, which won gold in the international lager class at AIBA, they also deliver edgy, experimental beers under the Steam Funk Project label, with the watermelon gose a standout.
Their Lupulin Effect Project is a showcase of hop-driven beers. The double IPA is sticky and luscious and well worth investigating but I'm really impressed with their Wunderbier, a German IPA of all things. While the rest of world goes crazy for Kiwi and American hops, Deep Creek have experimented with some new German hops to create a wonderful mandarin and orange citrus tang.
From brewing beer on a small scale for their local community it's been quite a journey for Deep Creek; one which represents the growth across Auckland.