No Head Shots
I always feel envious of beer drinkers at this time of the year. They make beer drinking look so positively palatial! Sitting beside my cousin Hamish at a family gathering recently I managed to snaffle the label off the beer he was drinking because the label made me chuckle, a lot. The beer was Black Duck Superior Dark Ale With A Hint of Misadventure.
The fine print on the label was so amusing as to rouse a mirthful chuckle from me amidst the social buzz of the room. It’s a story about a young Baz Diack who took over the reins of the Victoria Hotel in Napier. The rest of the story and the accompanying ‘Baz’s Special Chicken’ recipe (no Head shots) is worth buying a bottle just to read the end of the story. I think I’ll try the recipe come Winter because it definitely looks like a winter warmer!
Passionate Beginnings
It all began “in 1995 when a passionate group of professional people consisting of lawyers, publicans, accountants and brewers got together and decided to build a new brewery, with the main focus of providing Hawke’s Bay with a traditionally brewed, high quality, draught beer at a price more realistic than their competitors and so, in 1995 ‘Hawke’s Bay Independent Brewery’ was developed and established in Napier.
Trading as ‘Mates Brewery’ and under the watchful eye of their Master Brewer, the Hawke’s Bay Independent Brewery ‘specially’ brewed and introduced their new quality draught beer into the highly dominated and fiercely competitive commercially controlled market place. With the focus on brewing beer and not on glitzy advertising, they selected and used only the finest malt and hops available to make their first full strength draught ale. From their first initial release Mates beers and the Mates brands have flourished with steadily rising success and Mates Draught is still the preferred drink for a traditional beer drinker today.
Relocation
In 2007, after 12 successful years, Hawke’s Bay Independent Brewery relocated into their new State of the Art purpose built brewery and introduced a new concept with the tasting & drinking of premium beer, ‘The Filter Room Ale and Cider House’ Visitor Complex. This has enabled Hawke’s Bay Independent Brewery to launch a brand new variety of premium packaged beers. All traditionally brewed and bottled on site.
Surrounded by orchards and vineyards, these new premises boast not only the new brewery complex, but also the ‘Tasting Room’ where you can select your own choice of premium range beers to be tried, tasted and bought, or accompanied with the excellent cuisine of The Cider Tree Cafe. A new and innovative experience of New Zealand and all in the heart of wine country.
Their New Range
Along with their exciting new range of Premium Ales, comes three other quality brands from Hawke’s Bay Independent Brewery, Quake Vodka & Lemon, Quake Bourbon & Cola and of course the famous, but cute, ‘BUG’ Ginger Beer, 100% made in Hawkes Bay. With names like PURE, SPECIAL RESERVE, FORCE 5 and BLACK DUCK becoming more well known, opportunities to introduce and expand into a wider national market make for a very exciting future, ensuring the dream that began in 1995 will only go from strength to strength.”
I figured it was good stuff because Hame stacked a few in the cellar that night (had his sister come pick him up after the function) and once more had me wishing I could drink beer. Not being able to was a head shot for sure! For my Aussie mates there’s the Brewtopia boys who are a self-described, “group of lunatics who thought it would be a good idea! Make no mistake though, their marketing banter might be light-hearted but their success is in no ways light weight. Brewtopia is a publicly listed company (NSX) whose main business is the promotion of products in a fun, new, conceptual way.”
This is not your average beer company. In Australia in 2002 they created a beer built on an Open Source concept (imagine that!) they dubbed ‘Viral Equity’, which involved thousands of people in dozens of countries, helping them develop a brand new beer over the internet, by voting on every aspect of it’s development. Crazy? Yes. Doomed to fail? Yes. But it didn’t. And the result? A European Style lager brewed using the same recipe as our convict forebears but each with it’s own custom brand and the unique ingredient is the customer!
Expansion
Since then, they’ve expanded into other beverages and focussed much of their attention on the corporate and hospitality sectors. Their focus remains on the customers experience in the consumption of goods and services. Their system is built on leveraging the increasing involvement of the consumer to the advantage of the consumer. They make good beer too, I’ve sent it to friends as gifts albeit with hilarious head-shots for labels and they’d tell me if the beer wasn’t good. I like that about my mob! Anyway, cheers beers, it’s summer here in the Bay with a vengeance.
If beer’s not your thing try the BUG Ginger beer better still if you’re out and about in the Bay, visit The Cider Tree Cafe. I’m going later this week. Bon Apetit.
UPDATE: as at December 2010
With new owners purchasing The Filter Room Ale & Cider House they have decided to name the entire complex ‘The Filter Room’. The cafe formally known as The Cider Tree Cafe is still there with the same great exciting flavours that come with the blending of good food with crafted beers and ciders. Beautifully surrounded by acres of cider apple orchards, the cafe is a classy eatery offering cafe style casualness and restaurant level food.
