MAINSTREAM BEER

While the craft beer scene in New Zealand is exploding, Kiwis still love a classic mainstream brew, writes Denise Garland.

Over the past decade, there’s been an explosion of growth in New Zealand’s craft beer industry. According to the 2020 Brewing in New Zealand Report, compiled by the Brewers Association of New Zealand, the craft beer market has been growing at 13% per annum since 2016. It also reports there are more than 200 breweries across New Zealand – the majority of which are small, independent craft operations.

But despite that growth, mainstream beer still makes up the vast majority of beer bought and sold in Aotearoa. Nielsen reports mainstream beer – a category in which they exclude premium international style brands such as Heineken, Steinlager or Stella Artois – makes up 43% of the New Zealand market by volume. If those premium or ‘green bottle’ lagers are included, that number jumps to more than 75% of the market by volume.

The New Zealand Draught beer style is one of the most popular in the mainstream market, with brands such as Speight’s from Lion and Tui from DB which are two of the biggest sellers by volume in the entire country. That style – a sweet lager of about 4% ABV – is an easy-drinking, thirstquenching beer with limited bitterness and without any real challenging flavours.

Dylan Firth, Executive Director of the Brewers Association, which advocates on behalf of Lion and DB, says approachability and price do seem to be big drivers for people when it comes to what they choose to drink.

“The mainstream varieties are often older, more traditional brands that New Zealanders will know and be familiar with,” he says. “These preferences for often simple, approachable ales or lagers runs deep. There are some simple drivers for this, such as price, where the mainstream brands will often be slightly cheaper making them attractive for those looking for a value option. Or a regional preference, like Speight’s down south or Waikato Draught in Hamilton.”

While separated out for reporting purposes, premium lagers are also considered a mainstream style by much of the beer industry. These lagers, often packaged in green bottles, tend to be slightly stronger and with more hops than their 4% counterparts. Heineken from the Netherlands, Stella Artois from Belgium and Carlsberg from Denmark are possibly the most well-known international examples, and in a nod to those styles, Lion brewed New Zealand’s very own premium lager – now known as Steinlager Classic – in 1958, in response to the axing of beer imports by the government of the day.

Steinlager Classic, which weighs in at 5% ABV, showcases New Zealand’s green bullet hops, providing the refreshing lager with a grassy aroma and a drying bitterness which make for a thirstquenching drop on its own, or a perfect pairing for spicy foods or chicken dishes. It is available on keg at bars right across the country, while it’s also packaged in both cans and bottles and available at pretty much every supermarket and liquor store in New Zealand.

Steinlager and the many NZ Draught brands are also considered mainstream for their sheer availability at events, particularly at sports stadiums. Most sports teams have an alcohol sponsor, with those brands then being poured at the team’s home games. While the country’s two biggest brewers – Lion and DB – have cornered that sports sponsorship market for decades, one brewery trying to get in on the action is Wellington craft brewery, Fortune Favours.

Fortune Favours, as well as sponsoring various arts and cultural events, has become one of the main sponsors of a number of local sports teams, namely the Hurricanes and Lions rugby sides, the Wellington Phoenix footballers, and the Blaze and Firebirds cricket teams. That means their beer is poured at Sky Stadium and the Basin Reserve when those teams are playing at home.

Fortune Favours Chief Executive, Shannon Thorpe, says their presence at those events enhances the experiences of the Wellington sports fans.

“It’s what the fans and customers are demanding,” he says. “Arguably in Wellington craft beer is already mainstream, so it wasn’t too much of a leap to make craft beer available at stadiums and cultural events. Drinkers are demanding variety, choice and full flavour in the beer offering at events, so that is what Fortune Favours aims to provide.” Fortune Favours brews a special beer for each event or sports team they support, but also makes available their popular Naturalist Pale Ale and Trailblazer Hoppy Lager.at the grounds. The 4.5% ABV Trailblazer Hoppy Lager is a particular stand-out, and is a sort of happy medium between the grassy bitterness of a Steinlager premium lager, and a more crisp mainstream lager like Export Gold, boasting some citrus characters from the New Zealand hops it showcases.

Thorpe’s point that in some places in New Zealand, craft beer is already mainstream is a good one. Brands like Mac’s and Monteith’s have moved from being purely craft beer brands into now being considered more mainstream, with beers like Mac’s Hop Rocker or Monteith’s Black now prolific on supermarkets shelves and on tap in bars and restaurants across Aotearoa.

And while the majority of mainstream beers consumed in New Zealand are lagers, one beer that bucks the trend across the world in its popularity is the Irish stout Guinness. Guinness, with its roasty malt flavours and creamy texture, is a winner with people wanting a bit more depth to their beer than what a NZ draught or lager can offer. Rather than using CO2 to carbonate the beer, Guinness is poured using nitrogen instead to give it a smoother mouthfeel; cans of the beer also have a nitrogen “widget” inside so when they’re poured, nitrogen is released, giving the beer the creamy, smooth texture which is synonymous with the Irish stout.

Dylan Firth says Guinness is popular for many of the same reasons that make other mainstream brands successful. “Like many major brands that have been around for a long time, Guinness and others have been perfected to meet their own style and give consumers a consistent and quality product. This consistency is often what drives people to come back time and time again.”

He says it is that volume of sales that sets mainstream beers apart from the craft brands. “Big hazies and double IPAs and all that kind of thing – they’re excellent, but people don’t go for volumes of that, they get one.

“Over recent years there had been some decline in the mainstream category, however we are seeing New Zealanders slowly go back to some of the old favourites,” Firth says. “ This may be wider economic factors driving people towards value choices or that purchasing habits are changing with some people mixing their selections [by purchasing] a single craft offering with a six-pack of something more mainstream.”

While independent and craft beers are where a lot of the innovation in beer is happening, that is also pushing the mainstream brands to try something new as well. Lion and DB are adding new styles to their Mac’s and Monteith’s brands, and introducing low-carb and lower alcohol offerings as part of their core brands, such as Steinlager and Heineken.

And with the largest growth in New Zealand beer in percentage terms occurring in the low and no alcohol category over the past few years, it is likely that the under 2.5% ABV market is where we’ll see mainstream brewers continue to develop new products for the modern beer drinker, who is now often looking for something tasty – but that they can also drink without getting drunk. ■