Brave New World of Beer

The New World chain has cemented their craft beer credentials with the welcome announcement they will be the major sponsor for Beervana, the country’s premier beer festival.  This popular public tasting event, organised by the Brewers Guild of New Zealand, will take place at the Wellington Town Hall on 27-28 August.

Marketing manager Fiona Stewart said “New World stores are owned and operated by people who live in the local community, and they make stock purchasing decisions according to what their shoppers want to see.  If there is demand for a particular craft or international beer, New World store owners have the ability to offer it.  With the change in Kiwi drinking habits, this is a serious plus.”

The promise is backed up on the shelves.  By my calculations, the New World supermarkets in Thorndon and Island Bay have the two largest beer selections in the city.  In each case, it is largely down to an owner or manager who is passionate about good beer.

Reece Drake, Liquor Manager at Thorndon New World, took me on a tour of his shelves.  There are over 400 different beers available, including more than 200 craft beers.   Demand is such that the range has doubled in the last couple of years and they have come a long way since 1999 when he estimates they would have stocked forty beers.

“The beer market has changed massively recently.  Beer is becoming a focus in social groups and people are talking about it a lot more.  It is good to see a focus on flavour coming through.  People are grabbing something special for themselves or to share with friends.  They want to try different beers.
We offer everything that is around to cover all the bases.  The aim is to get people interested and drag more customers into the craft beer category,” he says.

Reece is a fan of craft breweries listing his favourites as Epic, Emerson’s, Three Boys, Moa and Dux de Lux – a roll call of the country’s beer glitterati.  Even he was surprised though when 8Wired Hopwired IPA flew off the shelves at $10 a bottle and Yeastie Boys His Majesty IPA ran out even before its great reviews appeared in the press.

While we are talking he subconsciously straightens a few bottles whose labels are not quite front and centre.  Reece acknowledges it is hard work sourcing and managing such a huge number of different beers.   However, his biggest problem is running out of space and some exquisite American craft beers are already encroaching into the bakery.  The plan is to keep offering new products even if it means occasionally swapping out beers that aren’t doing so well.

Even now Wellington is down to one local brewery (Tuatara), this is one of the reasons we are still clinging onto the Beer Capital title.