Handpump hunt

Handpump hunting ground – Wellington, New Zealand

In search of the holy cask

Len Wainwright visits New Zealand for a family holiday and goes on the search for cask ale

A daughter living in Wellington, New

Zealand (NZ), means I get to visit once every couple of years. As it takes so long to get to NZ, when I do visit, it tends to be for upwards of a month, which gives me ample time to explore the bars and beers of the capital city and sample some excellent small-brewery craft beers.

NZ has something like 150 independent breweries and a good proportion of them are in or around Wellington. However, what are my chances of finding real ale?

Well, on my visits to the bars in Wellington, I occasionally come across one or two handpumps (or beer engines as the locals call them).

The two breweries that advertise themselves as brewing real ale are Galbraith’s in Auckland and Cassels in Christchurch.

According to Galbraith’s website: “Galbraith’s Alehouse opened in 1995 as New Zealand’s only producer of cask-conditioned real ale in well over half a century. We make our real ales the same way we have for years with the finest English malt, noble English variety whole hop flowers and unique strains of ale yeast.

“Our ales contain no sugars (unless otherwise stated) or preservatives and are not filtered or pasteurised to retain as much flavour as possible. We are proud to be considered the best producer of authentic real ale outside of the UK.”

However, it only serves it in its own pub in Auckland.

Meanwhile, on one of my wanderings around Wellington, I came upon the Fork & Brewer pub and brewery. It was the winner of the New Zealand Brewers’ Guild Small Brewery title in 2018 and 2019. The circular bar has an astonishing 42 keg taps, one serving cider and two

handpumps. On my last visit, it served a dark porter-style ale and a classic amber beer, both in excellent condition. They were not as gassy as you would expect a keg beer to be and, intriguingly, the same beers were available via the taps.

Asking the bar staff about the

handpumped beer, I was introduced to the brewer Brayden Rawlinson. Over a pint we had an informative chat about the handpumps and beer in general.

First the technical stuff: the beer is initially keg, however, it is taken out of the chiller and allowed to reach a temperature of 10˚C. The CO2 level and hence the pressure is lowered to 5 psi. Such a low pressure means the vacuum action of the handpump is responsible for drawing up the beer, resulting in a smoother, less gassy brew. CO2 is then introduced into the keg via a valve to replace the beer drawn up and keep it fresh for a longer shelf life.

Technically not real ale by CAMRA’s definition, but definitely a smooth pint in excellent condition.

A few other pubs in the city use handpumps in this way. On my last visit to NZ, two years previously, I visited

the Mussel Inn pub and brewery in the South Island, which had five handpumps serving beer brewed on the premises – another recommendation if you are ever in the north part of the South Island.

Brayden inherited the handpumps from the previous brewer. He has been brewing since 2015, having previously had a background in horticulture and botany. He trained online via the internationally recognised Institute of Brewing & Distilling scheme.

Some interesting facts came out of our conversation, for instance, unlike the UK, there are no tied houses, so pubs are free to choose which beers they stock.

There are two big brewers: Lion and DB. Similar to the situation in the UK, they tend to be part of larger multinational corporations.

They also had a habit of taking over smaller breweries and closing them (sound familiar?); however, according to Brayden, the pandemic seems to have put a stop to that.

Licensing of pubs is via the local authority and the standard measure you will get if you ask for a pint is 425ml as opposed to 570ml in the UK. However, the Fork & Brewer has some UK pint tankards, which means you can get a ‘proper’ measure if you ask.

Hops are imported from America, the Czech Republic and the UK. The hop

Mussel Inn pub and brewery is worth visiting in the north of the South Island

harvesting season in NZ is March/April, and Wellington pubs have a Hopstock festival four weeks after the crop is in.

Hazy IPAs have been popular in NZ recently, however, Brayden has observed the growing popularity of good craft lagers and pilsners, so it’s possible the drinking public in NZ, like their UK counterparts, are rejecting excessively hoppy beer.

Cask-aged beers are also becoming

popular. For instance, the Kererú Brewing Company just outside Wellington produces a range of barrelmatured beers such as Over the Moon Truffled NZ Whisky Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout (12.8 per cent ABV), which is aged for 21 months in whisky casks. This black beer is described as presenting “a glorious harmony of black truffles and single malt whisky with notes of sherried walnuts, milk chocolate, dry spices and Christmas cake, with a lingering red wine finish”. It retails at NZ$56 (about £27) for a 500ml bottle. Brayden has recently started his own business called Nine Barnyard Owls, where he produces spontaneously fermented beers. In this he was inspired by visits to Belgium to create high-quality, high-gravity bottled beers, which tell a story and recreate the sense, taste, smell and romance of faraway places.

Before we parted, Brayden told me he was sure there must be at least one pub in the city selling cask ale. So, on his recommendation, I went to the

Whistling Sisters’ Fuller’s-style beer was one of the brews served through handpump at the Moon Pizza Music and Beer Bar

Little Beer Quarter pub. It had two handpumps, one of which served Cassels English Bitter (4.3 per cent). There, I met Douglas Williams, who is the national on-premise manager for Cassels.

He said the beer starts out as cask ale in its Christchurch brewery. It is then decanted into bags, which are kept chilled at 10˚C (50˚F) and transported to pubs to be served via handpumps. The resulting beer is 100 per cent vacuum pulled. Very few pubs in NZ have cellars like those in the UK and this is the best way of keeping its cask beer.

Cassels started 13 years ago as a family business. The Christchurch earthquake of 2011 demolished the original brewery, so it built a wood-fired version and imported Simon Bretherton, a brewer from England, who brought his UK brewing skills with him.

It has grown steadily since and is now the fourth-largest independent brewer in the country. At the time of our conversation, a yeast propagator was en route to the brewery, so it hopes to be producing bottle-conditioned beer soon.

Like Brayden, Douglas was also full of interesting information. For instance, he believes the English-style beers are popular among the UK expatriate

‘The Moon Pizza Music and Beer Bar had two handpumps with the beer in bags. Or “bladdered” as the barman put it’

population, with a growing number of younger people becoming aware of them. However, it was an uphill struggle to convince NZ drinkers that beer doesn’t have to be freezing cold.

He told me that, although there is no tied-house system, the big brewers do offer financial incentives to pubs to exclusively stock their beer.

The resulting contract can be time- or volume-limited. This means the publican is bound to the contract until a specified amount of beer is sold. Outside the big cities, most small town and rural pubs tend to sell the big brewers’ beers.

Also worth noting, again like the

situation in the UK, the big brewers will buy up a small brewery and keep its brands while centralising production.

Drinking at home has also become more common for similar reasons to the UK – drink driving, cheaper beer, etc. This, combined with the Covid-19 pandemic, has left many pubs struggling.

On Douglas’s recommendation, I visited the Moon Pizza Music and Beer Bar, where it had two handpumps with the beer in bags. Or “bladdered” as the barman put it. One of the two beers was an English-style bitter brewed by the Whistling Sisters brewery. It was a lovely full-bodied, well-balanced bitter similar to a Fuller’s beer.

You can imagine my excitement when, passing its brewery bar, I noticed a handpump selling its bitter. Surely, having brewed it in a cask would dispense it straight from one? Alas, once again the beer came out of a bag.

And so I left New Zealand having failed to find a pint of cask-dispensed ale, however, I had a lot of fun trying, and tasted a lot of good beers in the trying.

Must try harder next time.

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Len Wainwright is a member of West Cumbria CAMRA branch