AUGUST 2008
Bob Campbell Rates ‘The Hef’ 5 STARS
Renowned New Zealand wine writer and international judge Bob
Campbell has published a review of our Hefeweizen (Wheat beer),
giving it a score of 93% and a full 5 STARS.
Bob is one of only 264 Masters Of Wine in the world. Craft beers are
appealing more and more to wine drinkers as they discover that there
are beers out there exhibiting complex flavours - so it is a bit of a
coup to get our beers tasted by Bob Campbell. He has published a
Review of The Hef already, and we’ll add the links for the others as
they are published also.
> BobsWineReviews.com review of ‘The Hef’
Brew NZ & Beervana
The annual Brew NZ Awards take place in Wellington on Thursday September 4th at the Embassy Theatre. This is the big showpiece of the brewing calendar, where beers from both home and abroad are judged in a variety of categories. It is an opportunity for brewers like us to get expert feedback on our beers, and if fortunate enough even pick up a medal or two.
This year there is also a beer extravaganza taking place, called Beervana. It is an opportunity for beer lovers to try beers from at least 20 New Zealand breweries all in one place. There are three sessions at the Overseas terminal in Wellington on Friday the 5th and Saturday the 6th of September. Check out: brewnz.co.nz for more details.
Croucher beer on tap
As of today the 11th of August, Croucher beers are on tap at the
following locations:
AUCKLAND Galbraiths Pale Ale
Hallertau Pilsner
Wine Cellar Pale Ale
WELLINGTON The Malthouse Pale Ale
ROTORUA Abracadabra Pilsner
Rotorua Golf Club Pilsner
If you are in or around Auckland or Wellington this week, please
get in to these locations and request a Croucher beer from the
tap. Your support will help our cause to regularly get our beer into
these great bars - plus the beer is drinking superbly!!
New Outlets
> Herne Bay Cellars, Auckland
> The Malthouse, Wellington
> Liquorland Tauranga
> Liquorland Mt Maunganui
> Liquorland Howick, Auckland
> Turangi New World
> Waimarino Wines, Ohakune
> Aorangi Peak, Rotorua
JULY 2008
New Outlets
> Wohlmann’s Café in the World-famous Bathhouse building, Rotorua.
Experimental brew
Our trial brew of a Porter went ahead at the beginning of July. A Porter is a dark beer style, achieved using some black or chocolate malt in the recipe. We’ll Keep you posted on its progress.
JUNE 2008
With the winter chill in the air, Paul and our temporary Canadian import Tim are working on a dark beer to add to our range of fine handcrafted beers. On top of a heavy brewing schedule, this will
keep them out of trouble for a while.
Part of this hectic brewing schedule has included brewing a Pale Ale using a New Zealand grown malt as the base malt. Traditionally, it has been hard to find good quality New Zealand grown specialty malts, so have been using fantastic malts from the UK and Germany. We love the idea of using local ingredients (we are big fans of Nelson grown hops), so look forward to seeing how that one turns out… we’ll keep you informed.
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New Outlets
> Mighty Mighty Bar, Wellington
> Centre City Wines & Spirits, Wellington
> Indigo Cafe, Rotorua
> Rendezvous Restaurant, Rotorua
> Amazing Thai, Restaurant
MAY 2008
After a huge April, having been a major sponsor of the Uni Games in Rotorua, we spent a few days trying to catch our breath. But beer doesn’t brew itself, sell itself or drink itself for that matter. So,
with a number of new exciting opportunities to pursue life at the brewery is back to being manic.
The opening and closing ceremony’s at the Uni Games were awesome. Pluto rocked at the opening, and Kora had the crowd in a frenzy at the closing. It was a shame that it was the worst week of weather Rotorua had seen in years.
APRIL 2008
The BREWNI is born. BREWNI is the name of the official beer of the 2008 University Games, being held in Rotorua from the 14th to 17th of April. It will be sold on tap at the Opening and Closing ceremonies, and in bottles at selected local bars, and in 4-packs from New World, Pak’nSave and Arawa Wines. This is a very limited edition brew.
The official events should be good nights, with Pluto playing the opening ceremony on the Monday, and Kora playing the closing ceremony on the Thursday.
If you are attending the University games make sure you have a BREWNI or two.
MARCH 2008
Uni Games Comes To Rotorua + ‘Name That Beer’ Competition
We are proud to announce that Croucher Brewing is the official beer supplier to the University Games 2008. The annual Easter Tourny is being held in a non-University city for the first time in its
100+ year history. This is a huge undertaking for a small boutique Brewery like us. We are creating a special Uni Games beer (a mid-strength ale) and running the bars at the official Opening and
Closing ceremonies catering for a couple of thousand athletes, officials and supports.
ZM, Domino’s, Croucher Brewing and University Sport NZ are teaming up to run a ‘name that beer’ competition. If the name you come up with is chosen you’ll win a flat party with beer and pizza provided. Enter online right now at ZM’s website.
Style
Croucher beer will be served at the much-anticipated Kate Sylvester Menswear fashion launch in Auckland on March 13. So if you are one of the lucky ones with a invite, make sure you get snapped with a Croucher in hand. UPDATE - the Kate Sylvester menswear launch was a huge night, lots of movers and shakers were in attendance and the Croucher Beer went down exceptionally well. Congratulations to the team at Kate Sylvester, it’s been a pleasure working with other creative and passionate Kiwi’s.
Festival Mania
Festival season is more or less over, and it has been a particularly busy summer. Unfortunately the weather got the better of a couple of festivals, but that is the nature of the beast.
New Outlets
We have a few new outlets to announce:
> Tahi Bar, Warkworth
> Lounge Wines & Tapas Bar, Carterton
> PAK’nSAVE Clarence Street, Hamilton
> Guffle Bar, Napier
> Springfield Golf Club, Rotorua
> Abracadabra Café, Rotorua
...check out our full list of outlets here to find the one nearest you.
Link
Here is the link to the article about Croucher Brewing that was published in Westpac’s business newsletter a couple of months back. Click here.
JANUARY 2008
Happy New Year!!
It has been a busy start to 2008. We’ve already had the Tairua Festival and Blues Brews at the Mount. Both were held in fantastic Weather, with big crowds in attendance.
Our beer seemed to go down a treat with punters, with a great response to all of our beers.
One amusing note from Tairua was that we were unaware just how big the festival glass was so ended up being a dollar cheaper per glass than Speights… how embarrassing!! (or rather, what a bargain). Not to worry, just meant our beer was even more popular.
Croucher beer is also now available in the fantastic restaurant at Mystery Creek Winery. The restaurant is called The Woodbox, and is a must-visit if you are in or around Hamilton. Our full list of stockists is here.
DECEMBER 2007
Festivals
The Christmas season is upon us, and action at the brewery has gone up another level. We’ve been busy brewing getting beer ready for the festivals coming up in the New Year. Make sure you get along to the following festivals in the New Year and enjoy some great local brews…
Jan 5 Tairua Wine & Food Festival
Jan 10 Mt Maunganui Blues Brews & BBQ’s
Jan 19 Hawke's Bay Blues Brews & BBQ’s
‘New’ Pils
If you get a chance get out and get yourself one of the new Pilsners. Look for batch P012 onwards. Paul has made a change to the varieties of hops used and the result is STUNNING. We absolutely
love the new flavour, and we know you will too.
New outlets for our beer include:
> Hillcrest Fine Wines, Hamilton
> Liquorland Forrest Hill, Auckland
Westpac Mag
If you get a chance, get your hands on the latest Westpac Bank business newsletter ‘Good Business’. There is a story about a small but ambitious brewery from Rotorua (Croucher Brewing in case you are a little confused), along with a couple of flattering photo’s.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from the team at Croucher Brewing.
OCTOBER 2007
October has got off to a flyer… lots of ups and downs!!
REWARD OFFERED
Our brewery was broken into the night of Monday 15th of October, and the company laptop was stolen. The laptop had lots of info about our business that is important to us, but of no real value to anybody else, as it wasn’t exactly the latest technology laptop.
So instead of sitting on our hands hoping against hope that it would be found, we decided to offer a reward… if someone finds the laptop and returns it with all files and data in-tact and as it was, we will supply that person with one dozen Croucher Brewing boutique beer every month for the rest of their life! That is not a typo.
Well the story has gone crazy!! The offer of free beer as a reward has gotten a lot of interest. Initially it was covered by some local radio stations, and in The Daily Post. It spread around New Zealand, with us doing live-to-air and pre-recorded interviews on More FM, Radio Live and Newstalk ZB. Then it spread across NZ media websites (TVNZ, Stuff and NZ Herald). Then it has just exploded with news coverage on news websites far and wide, including the BBC and USA Today, and numerous others in New Zealand, Australia, Canada, India, France, South Africa. Plus some radio interviews in Australia.
It has been a rollercoaster few weeks, which has included being named Emerging Business Of the Year in Rotorua, and the birth of Nigel’s son (see below). We are emotional wrecks!!
The amount of interest in our plea has been fantastic, and has allowed a devastating event to have a silver lining with the good wishes of people far and wide. Thank you.
Anyone with info can email us on feedback@croucherbrewing.co.nz
Other news in October...
There has been a new addition to Team Croucher (well Team Gregory actually). Nigel’s partner Kate gave birth to their first child, a son named Isaac on October 2nd. Huge news!!
Then on Friday the 5th of October, The Croucher Brewing Company was named the WINNER of the Destination Rotorua Economic Development Emerging Business category at the Westpac Rotorua Business Excellence Awards.
The award was announced at a gala event at Rotorua’s new Events Centre, in front of a crowd of almost 700. We are trying to create something that Rotorua can be proud of, and this will help us with profile and credibility in the Rotorua community, and we hope this will help open doors for our beer in local venues..
New outlets for our beer include:
> Ciccio Italian Restaurant, Rotorua
> Kiwi Paka YHA, Rotorua
> Arawa Fine Wines, Rotorua
> Ohakune New World, Ohakune
> Halswell New World, Christchurch
> Parklands Freshchoice, Christchurch
> Zymergy Bar, Christchurch
> Springlands Freshchoice, Blenheim
** Click here for 2007 News Archive **
** Click here for 2006 News Archive **
