New New New

In news which will no doubt sweep across the interwebs like Google buying Facebook, Tuatara is pleased to announce we have a new home for our blog. Please head over to www.tuatarabrewing.co.nz for our latest blog post and snazzy new website. Cheers Blogspot, and cheers to you our reader and cheers, to good beer. Tuatara

New home away from home for Tuatara

There has been a great deal of interest in the announcement that a new brewpub will open in Wellington’s Bond Street before the Rugby World Cup. The yet-to-be-named establishment will be located in the upstairs premises at 14 Bond Street which previously housed ventures such as Syn Bar, the Ruby Lounge and even the old Loaded Hog.

The driving forces behind this exciting development are Sean Murrie and Colin Mallon who are both involved in Tuatara and the Malthouse. They announced on 16 May that they had sufficient investors – a number of whom already have a stake in Tuatara – and had acquired the site.

Work is already underway with Sean saying “our designers have been extremely busy and, as a team, we already have a very clear idea of what our yet-to-be-named bar will look and feel like.” It is going to be an extensive re-fit (estimated at around $1 million) and the result should be a spacious (460 square metres) venue with a range of areas and atmospheres.

While there will be around 40 beers on tap, most of the beery attention has focused on the state-of-the-art 1,000 litre brewery which will be installed on the premises and supply much of the draft beer.

In addition to producing a range of house craft beers, Colin Mallon says the on-site brew kit will “allow us to create a range of collaborative and speciality brews with Tuatara Brewery along with like-minded visiting brewers.” He says it is a hugely exhilarating opportunity to bring brewing back to the heart of the Capital and it would also be a point of difference for the bar.

Collaborative brews are intensely popular at the moment and Colin is already drawing up a ‘dream team’ list of brewers they would love to work with. Tuatara brewer Carl Vasta is top of that list and we know he already has quite a few ideas he is desperate to try out. The new venue hopes to lure in top brewers from New Zealand and overseas to produce an ever-changing range of unique, limited-edition brews.

It is not just about the beer though. There will be particular attention paid to producing high quality pub food from the spacious kitchens (well, spacious compared to the Malthouse…)

The new brewpub – whatever it is called - is going to be an exciting development and we can’t wait for the doors to be thrown open and the first pint to be pulled. Best of luck chaps!

Cheers from the team at Tuatara

Tuatara Strikes Gold

Each year, the Wellington Gold Awards recognise the very best in Wellington business. Run in association with the Dominion Post, they have become the region’s premier business awards. Last year, we were delighted to be selected as a finalist in the Emerging Gold (smaller enterprises) category. On May 18 2011, we went one better when Tuatara Brewing Company won the Emerging Gold award.

To do so, we had to compete against a worthy group of finalists - Celcius Coffee, Corner Solutions International, Shott Beverages and Urban Harvest. Congratulations to them for their success in reaching the finals. Our thanks also go to the Dominion Post for supporting the awards and the ANZ for sponsoring our category.

The eleven Wellington Gold awards were presented over the course of a (very) long glitzy gala event at the TSB arena. The overall winner was Mesynthes, the company which developed a hi-tech, stable tissue substitute to help people with burns or severe skin conditions. They also won the Discovering Gold category which recognised the best research and development work. Wellington business legend Lloyd Morrison was also recognised in a tribute.

Director Sean Murrie accepted the Emerging Gold award on behalf of the Tuatara team. Our category was one of the first to be announced and Sean had barely sat down before being called up on stage to accept the prize. Looking very sharp in his rarely seen suit, he delivered a succinct speech thanking the staff, customers and judges for the company’s continued success. It would turn out to be one of the shortest speeches of the evening by a considerable margin.

Speaking after the event, Sean said he believed the award was based on a number of inter-linked aspects of the company. He felt the judges were impressed by the fast growth rate of Tuatara, significant increases both in production and distribution, a boost in staff numbers, greater customer awareness of the brand, a move into exporting and positive media coverage, all achieved while keeping the beer quality high.

So, we are delighted with the award which will take pride of place at Tuatara HQ. We want to thank all our customers and suppliers who are the heroes of our organisation – without you guys this never would have been possible. We cannot enter Emerging Gold again so next year we may need to have a little look round and see if there is another category we might compete in – watch this space.

Cheers from the team at Tuatara

Sponsoring the next generation of Tuatara

Like most people, we are very fond of the humble Tuatara – those uniquely New Zealand reptiles which are the sole survivors of an order which all but died out over 200 million years ago.

It was this Kiwi pluckiness which inspired us to take up the name for our brewery and to use images of real Tuatara in our (by necessity limited) marketing and advertising campaigns.

As such, we feel it is important we give something back to our scaly friends. Tuatara Brewing Company has been a long-term supporter of Zealandia – the Kaori Sanctuary Experience – and their long-term efforts to protect and nurture the still endangered Tuatara.

Zealandia’s flash website notes that Tuatara “were extinct from the mainland since the late 1700s until they were released into ZEALANDIA in 2005. A total of 200 have been transferred. Evidence of breeding was recorded in November 2007 and the first hatchling was spotted in March 2009 - an extremely significant breakthrough in the restoration of this species on the mainland.”

Regular readers of this blog will recall that we also helped present a beer and food matching event to celebrate the first baby’s second birthday.

Now, Tuatara Brewing Company has taken things one step further and become the official sponsor of the new Tuatara hatcheries which are currently being built and nearing completion in Zealandia. The importance of those hatcheries for the eleven juvenile Tuatara who will live there cannot be over-stated. Unfortunately, young Tuatara need protection from adult Tuatara who are actually quite inclined to eat them!

Of course, we are not the only ones to link the reptiles with the brewery. Our friends at WellingtonNZ did a pretty amazing job in this 15-second ad which speculates that Lonely Planet may have dubbed Wellington the Coolest Little Capital in the World because of the Tuatara at Zealandia and/or the Tuatara at the Malthouse.

We are not necessarily claiming all the credit but we do know for sure that the author of the Lonely Planet section on Wellington did a beer tasting at the Malthouse and became a bit of a Tuatara Pilsner fan subsequently… we are just saying…

Cheers from the team at Tuatara

The Great Tuatara Tap Hunt – The Tuatara Triangle

One of the main functions of this blog is to highlight some of the exceptionally cool venues which have made the decision to stock our beers. At Tuatara, we acknowledge that, because of the way our industry runs, making that choice is not always as easy as it should be in an ideal world, and there can be some costs or lost incentives involved.

This week, we are looking at three venues all within a 100m (or so) radius in central Wellington – D4, One Red Dog and the Featherston. We have dubbed this area “The Tuatara Triangle.”

D4 is upstairs at 143 Featherston Street. It is named after the Irish postcode Dublin 4 and is billed as “a leading Wellington Irish Bar/Pub and high quality restaurant.” Their website describes the place as “an intimate open plan setting, nestled above the bustle of the capital's beating heart. From the hot pink velvet staircase to the bespoke Kanemail chandelier, D4 brings understated elegance to the culture capital. Service is efficient but discreet, cooking, invariably excellent and D4 presents great value for money.”

They currently have six Tuatara beers on tap – all of them apart from the Ardennes which, given the hot pink stairs, may be wise. As a match, try a baker’s dozen of their new hot and spicy chicken wings with celery and ranch dressing accompanied by a quenching Tuatara Pilsner.

A block or so away on the ocean side is One Red Dog Queens Wharf. They describe themselves “the newest edition to the One Red Dog, but we ain't no runt. Always one of the busiest places on the waterfront One Red Dog, Queens Wharf is a pure bred red.” Their food speciality is definitely pizza and they are hard to resist.

All seven Tuatara beers are on tap and available in jugs ($25 or $20 on Fridays). The suggested match here is the Godfather pizza (pepperoni, tomatoes, red onions, Portobello mushrooms and capsicum) with extra anchovies matched with Tuatara IPA. Do not be put off by the on-line beer menu which still has the Loaded Hog beers listed. The Tuatara chased those guys off years ago.

The Featherston Bar and Grill sits on the corner of Featherston and Johnston Streets, again about a block from D4 but this time towards the train station. After a dramatic and much-needed renovation, their website rightly describes the place as “An exquisitely refurbished art-deco masterpiece, Featherston boasts a reputation as Wellington's finest bar and grill. Featherston Bar and Grill is eternally popular with tourists, government and financial sector workers, food lovers, sporting enthusiasts and a whole range of local wits and raconteurs alike.”

Tuatara APA is on tap and looks set for a long stay. The Featherston steaks are amazing and any place which serves a dish of pork belly and spare ribs is always going to appeal to the Tuatara team. However, for something snackier, try the crab lemongrass and chilli dumplings washed down with Tuatara APA.

With three quality bars all serving Tuatara with a couple of blocks of central Wellington, the Tuatara Triangle could be one of the world’s easiest pub crawls. In fact, some people could probably do laps!

Cheers from the team at Tuatara

Excuse me waiter, there’s a Tuatara on my plate

Dr Samuel Johnson – poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer.but best known to most Kiwis as the fat dictionary guy on Black Adder the Third – famously said "There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn."

He is completely correct. Tuatara is proud to support and supply many of the finest taverns, inn and even pubs around New Zealand. One of the newest and best is The Hop Garden on Pirie Street in Mount Victoria, Wellington. It is next to the KFC – an appalling description of the location but sadly most people then know where that is. It is the former site of Theo’s Greek Taverna. The proprietor is the legendary James Henderson of Bar Edward fame and he has bought in long-time Tuatara friend Scott Boswell, multi-award winning barman and proud plaid shirt wearer.

The beer selection is exceptional. The food is amazing – even David Burton, a feared food critic who can be exceptionally harsh on food in pubs was impressed. Consequently, a beer and food matching event there made perfect sense. The Hop Garden made the official announcement on their handsome new website:

The Hop Garden in association with Tuatara Brewery is proud to present "Excuse me waiter, there's a Tuatara on my plate": a six course food and beer matching extravaganza. Head Chef Gavin Grant and Mr Tuatara Carl Vasta will offer their insights into the dishes, the beers, and the symbiotic relationship between the two. Wednesday May 4, from 6.30pm. Tickets are $80 per person, and strictly limited to 40 places. To book, please email thehopgarden@gmail.com

None of us here are brave enough to call Carl “Mr Tuatara” far less make jokes about “symbiotic relationships.” It is going to be a mouth-watering event and places are selling out fast.

Like most normal people we regularly Google our own name and this week came across this gem about the Tuatara romance film – “Love in Cold Blood - which is up for three awards at the International Wildlife Film Festival. Here is how the documentary makers describe their film which is "not your ordinary wildlife documentary": It is the twisted tale of the long-running courtship between two tuatara at the Southland Museum. After nearly 40 years of their on-again off-again relationship with enough drama to rival Coronation Street , Henry, 111 and Mildred, 80, were finally caught "in the act" in their enclosure. Henry and Mildred survived rival suitors, love triangles and medical mysteries to triumph with fantastic results for the tuatara captive breeding program.

Tuatara wishes those crazy kids Henry and Mildred all the best and the documentary makers every success at the Festival!

Cheers from the team at Tuatara

Tuatara on the hunt for Gold

In late February, the staff at the Tuatara office were busy completing the company’s application for the 2011 Wellington Gold Awards. These awards are sponsored by The Dominion Post and are basically the premier annual business event for the Wellington region. Readers may recall that we were finalists in the Emerging Business category last year, though we were pipped to the Award by Yellow Brick Road who were worthy winners.

We got our application in on time (just) and were delighted to find out last week that we have again been selected as a finalist in the Emerging Business category. This category, kindly sponsored by ANZ, is for “smaller enterprises”. The finalists will be judged again in the coming weeks with the Awards being presented at a black-tie dinner on May 18. It is one of the rare occasions the Tuatara team will dust off the monkey suits and try to look respectable for an evening.

Our fellow finalists are:

• Celcius Coffee – boutique family owned coffee roasting and cafe company
• Corner Solutions International – world leader in R&D for bending paper faced plaster boards
• Shott Beverages – specialists in premium, innovative hot and cold beverage syrups
• Urban Harvest – an online farmers market representing 70 local growers and foodmakers

There are lots of great local companies who have made the finals but Tuatara wishes the best of luck to our friends at Wellington on a Plate who are short-listed in the Vibrant Gold category. That category covers events, visitor and hospitality facilities.

We will, of course, keep you posted on the final results. In fact, Sales Manager Will may well live tweet the entire Awards ceremony. On the subject of Twitter, @TuataraNZ has recently passed 1,000 followers. That is over 800 more than Hon Peter Dunne but a demoralising 3,583,000 or so behind Charlie Sheen.

On the subject of winning, the Kingsgate Hotel in Wellington is running a Devour Wellington promotion with rooms priced at just $129. Now, that is a tidy price but they will also throw in breakfast for two and a six pack of Tuatara beer for every night booked. We hear the deal has been very popular since it was launched at the end of March.

Cheers from the team at Tuatara