Tuatara Talks Tough

There is no doubt that the overall craft beer market in New Zealand is growing. That argument is supported by official figures from the Brewer’s Guild, our own sales and distribution numbers, and what we see every day in bars, restaurants, bottle stores and supermarkets around the country. In many ways, the craft beer scene is the strongest it has been in modern history.

However, Tuatara Director Sean Murrie is concerned the combination of a flat economy and the perceived ‘threat’ of craft beer could be provoking a backlash from the big breweries. Here are his comments:

“There are a growing number of bars and other outlets who have decided that diversifying into offering craft beer products is the way to go. For a while, the big brewers allowed a bit of latitude. Maybe they would allow a single tap (near the back) or some bottles (at the bottom of the fridge). In many cases, the subsequent sales of craft products were much higher than they had expected. Craft beer has become hot property with consumers and I’m sure the issue is discussed at every board meeting of the big boys.

As a result, their policy seems to have changed – in many cases to a zero-tolerance policy for any other beers on site. Some publicans have had to reluctantly accept, some have successfully fought and won, while others are quietly waiting for their contracts to expire. It is well known in the industry that there have been some pretty big arguments all over the country, including in the key market of Auckland. They certainly were not all about Tuatara but a fair number of them have been.

In my opinion, we are at a bit of a tipping point. The use of strong, binding contracts is quite heavy handed and new owners are seriously considering forgoing the money and support at start-up in order to ensure they can serve the range of beers that they want over the first couple of years. That is a really big deal to forsake those early advantages ‘just’ for beer.

The large breweries will have to change their strategy at some stage – either by being more flexible about ‘ties’, producing better beer themselves or, more likely, acquiring a brewery to do that for them. They are certainly struggling to figure out how to engage with the craft sector at the moment. In some ways the Australian and American markets are ahead of us in this area though in neither case are they particularly good models for craft beer fans.

At Tuatara, we love seeing our taps and bottles next to other craft products. It is the way we think the market should operate – offering choice so that people can pick their favourites. Some days it might be us, some days it might one of our friends in another brewery. Obviously we hope it is us quite often but ultimately we are all trying to satisfy the customer. Those customers should look for opportunities to support outlets which have given up the early monetary advantages of the ‘tie’ in order to have the freedom to offer a proper selection of beer for years to come.”

Cheers from the team at Tuatara

Tuatara loves food

While most people readily accept the concept of wine and food matching, they are usually a bit more sceptical about beer and food combinations. Stereotypes are frequently trotted out – “beer goes with chips”, “beer goes with nuts”, “beer goes with pies” – and, yes, it usually does. However, if the right beer is selected, it can do so much more.

We have long known this at Tuatara. We love seeing dishes made with our beers and matched with our beers. It is heartening to see more customers and drinkers asking for advice on beer and food matching. In that context, one of the most important innovations we saw this year was the nationwide release of the Liquorland summer catalogue.

Now, most catalogues from liquor stores are pretty basic - product name, product photo and product price, a list of stores, the website address, a couple of competitions and maybe some photos of the staff in silly hats. It has traditionally been a simple formula. However, this year, Liquorland, now a major stockist of Tuatara, decided to up the ante.

They asked a number of breweries (not just us) to supply some text about their history, their beers and to suggest accessible food matches for customers. As a result, the reader of the catalogue can actually learn more about craft beers and what might be good to eat with them. We think it is a fantastic step forward in beer education and applaud Liquorland’s initiative.

For those that are interested, here were our suggested simple matches:

Tuatara Helles – Enjoy this easy drinking lager with pork sausages done on the barbeque, an oven-roasted chicken or a soft Swiss cheese like Gruyere.

Tuatara Hefe – This cloudy wheat beer is the perfect drink to accompany steamed mussels, grilled white fish or a tasty potato salad.

Tuatara Pilsner – Try this crisp pilsner with smoked salmon, a firm cheddar cheese or use it to make the perfect beer battered fish and chips.

Tuatara is also delighted to be supporting Worser Bay School’s second annual Summerfest. Their press release says:

“Summerfest is a boutique, family-friendly food and beer festival. Supported by Tuatara Brewery, it’s a relaxing afternoon celebration of great beer (as well as wine, cider and Foxton Fizz) and tempting food matches accompanied by hot summer jazz, gypsy folk, blues and laid-back Irish ballads. Entry is $5 at the door (children under 12 FREE) or presales from the website. All proceeds support Worser Bay School.”

The exact beer and food matches are a bit of a secret but we hear they could include Tuatara Hefe matched with salmon cooked on cedar plank (a favoured technique of Martin Bosley and with good reason) and Tuatara Pilsner with outstanding local paua fritters (these delicious morsels bear no relation to the sad things usually served at fish and chip shops).

Sounds like a great way to spend the day and all in aid of a good cause.

Cheers from the team at Tuatara

How we rate on RateBeer

The RateBeer website was created in 2000 which, in internet terms, was a very long time ago. Founder Bill Buchanan intended it to be a “forum for beer lovers to come together and share their opinions of beer and breweries.” It certainly became that – but probably on a much bigger scale than he imagined at the time.

Thousands of members have now rated and commented on tens of thousands of beers from over 60 countries. Two individual members alone are approaching 20,000 ratings each. RateBeer describes itself as “widely recognized as the most accurate and most-visited source for beer information.”

New Zealand has a small but active group of beer lovers reviewing regularly on the site and a large number of Kiwi beers have been rated. That includes all of the Tuatara range and we thought it would be interesting to see how the RateBeer community ranked our current selection. For each, we have also selected a sample (positive) comment from a reviewer:

Tuatara Pilsner – “It’s pretty hard to find clean, balanced pilsners. This one is perfect, my new #1 for the category. Sampled only in New Zealand several different times.”

Tuatara APA – “Rather nice pale ale, quite fruity in the aroma, with a nice floral kick. Taste is quite nice, rather heavy hops for a pale ale, but I’m not going to complain about more hops! Lemon, orange, apricot and sweet caramel, followed by a nice soft bitter finish.”

Tuatara Ardennes – “Pours a medium white head, with some lacing, over a hazy, golden (SRM 6) body... nose is light pear, apple, tiny bit of banana, slight clove, bit of hop floral... taste is light bitter to start, then bits of clove, allspice enter, becoming light pear, apple, bit of peach, leading to apricot, then a final bitter hop bite to finish.... mouth feel is medium, carbonation high, adding a pleasant spritz. This is a nice example of a Belgian Blond Ale. Initially in both nose and palate, it is reminiscent in some ways of a Pilsner, but then the esters and phenols from the yeast come in to change the direction. A worthy effort is this.”

Tuatara Hefe – “Pours a hazy gold with a fairly large frothy white head. Aroma of banana, clove, wheat, yeast, malt, lemon citrus and a dash of vanilla. Flavour is incredibly consistent with the nose. Smooth, medium-full-bodied, sweet, satisfying, and easy to drink. Nice hefeweizen overall.”

Tuatara Porter – “Large tan head, very dark red/brown porter almost mahogany. Aroma chocolate nice malt and good hops, vanilla caramel touch. Flavour roasted chocolate rich and smooth, yeast, taste, fizz, mild, nourishing porter, dark fruit taste. Finish smooth rich mild bitter and fizz - good porter.”

Tuatara IPA – “This India Pale Ale pours a light orange gold colour from a 33cl bottle. Medium sized white foamy head, with nice lacing. The aroma is biscuit and sweet, floral and herbal. Medium bodied IPA. The malts are caramel and bready, slightly sweet. The hops are herbal and earthy. Decent carbonation. A traditional English style IPA. More malty and somewhat sweeter than an American and maybe even an English IPA. Mouthfeel is full and round. Finish is clean and smooth. Aftertaste is slightly sweet with some bitterness in the background.”

Tuatara Helles – “Very light and clear with a very large deep rocky head that shows good carbonation. Crisp zesty citrus aroma with a flavour that is light on the palate with a slightly tart finish and long aftertaste.”

Here are our key observations on the RateBeer conclusions:

• We were somewhat surprised at the Pilsner beating APA even if it was only by a single point. APA is a hugely popular style with the beer aficionados these days.
• One of the biggest positives was the good numbers for Tuatara Hefe. It’s a difficult style to master and wheat beer drinkers are often quite particular about what they like and don’t like.
• The two highest rated Tuatara beers are indeed the two biggest sellers though the rest of the rated order does not reflect sales figures. Helles in particular is much further up the sales list.
• A number of the most recent reviews of Tuatara products were from international tastings, particularly in Australia and America. This is gratifying given recent efforts to move into exporting.
• It was interesting to read how reviewer’s palates differed or perhaps some of our batches differed.
• In the reviews, the grammar and spelling could vary but all the reviewers seem to take their role seriously and we appreciate that.
• A final revelation was that the Alpine Brewing Company in Alpine, California, USA make an APA called Tuatara. They also make an Emerson Lager with both beers using New Zealand hops. Tuatara and Emerson join the colourfully-named Alpine range which includes beers called Ugly, Great, Willy Vanilly, Ichabod, Boris, Ned, Smore and Bad Boy.

Cheers
The team at Tuatara