NZ Beer Collective in Berkshire - 1

Todd Nicholson (centre)

Todd Nicolson, Director of Beer at New Zealand Beer Collective visited Inn at Home, Newbury, on Friday 26 November 2021 to present a talk and beer tasting. This was his second visit to give a talk at the specialist beer retailer in Bartholomew Street.

Stu McKinlay & Todd Nicolson (2016 photo: Sam Williams)

Over five years previously, on 28 January 2016, Sam Williams was present at a previous New Zealand Beer Collective talk and beer tasting at Inn at Home with Todd Nicolson and Stu McKinlay, the Yeastie Boys co-founder. Sam wrote an article about this for Ullage, the West Berkshire CAMRA magazine (Spring 2016, page 7).

On a damp Saturday 29 July 2017, Wild Weather Ales and The New Zealand Beer Collective held a Midsummer Christmas Party at the Wild Weather Ales brewery in Berkshire.

Paul Rayner wrote a post about this for his Fueled By Beer blog that includes photographs. Among the other CAMRA members who visited this event were Tim Thomas (author of this post), Steve Kelly, Jennie Rayner, Rich Milligan, Sam Williams, Andy Pinkard, Tony Girling and Mark Thompson.

Jolly Good Beer's open-sided yellow van supplied draught beers from brewers who were then part of the New Zealand Beer Collective including Yeastie Boys, Tuatara and 8 Wired. I rated my two NZ beers highly - Tuatara Pilsner and 8 Wired Semi Conductor (XPA). It looks like Wild Weather's Chris Lees-Price was about to enjoy a pint of 8 Wired Flat White!

Returning to the evening of Friday 26 November 2021, Inn at Home's David Marklew introduced Todd, mentioning that his previous visit was one of the first beer events held at the shop which opened in July 2015 and that this evening would be the first 'proper' beer event held there for a while.

Todd explained that the original basis of the New Zealand Beer Collective (NZBC) import and distribution business has been disrupted by logistics and cost pressures since 2020 when 'some things happened in the world'. 

This led to brewing collaborative beers with Fierce Beer in Aberdeen, the winner of Scottish Brewery of the Year 2021 in the Scottish Beer Awards. Co-founded in 2016 by (Big) David McHardy and (Wee) Dave Grant, Fierce Beer now has brewery bars in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Manchester.

Todd also mentioned in his introduction that there is a NZBC Taproom in Dundee - The Bach - 'which you're welcome to visit any time you want'. 

NZBC are also the creators of New Zealand Beer Month in February and Todd suggested going 'really big in February on New Zealand beer'.

[Antigoni, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons]

A native New Zealander from the North Island, Todd grew up in Stokes Valley, between Lower Hutt and Upper Hutt on State Highway 2 north of Wellington. He recalled that the town slogan for Stokes Valley was 'Better than you imagine' and raised a laugh when he warned his audience 'and it wasn't'! 

Todd has missed being able to visit his home country so when he commissioned artwork for Down in Splendour, he asked for something to remind him of New Zealand, even sheep (and sheep are just visible in the lush grass foreground of the finished label that also features the mountains of South Island). 

Todd explained that the New Zealand Pilsner beer style can be traced back to Steinlager, first brewed in 1957 and the one beer that was originally exported from New Zealand. Steinlager Classic is a 5% ABV lager with a distinctive flavour from New Zealand's Green Bullet hops.

New Zealand Pilsner is recognised internationally as a beer style by the Beer Judges Certification Program (BJCP). In 2021, the Brewers Association (BA), added New Zealand-Style Pale Ale and New Zealand-Style IPA as new beer styles to its extensive list.

An afficionado of both beer and music, Todd named the beer Down in Splendour, after a song by Straitjacket Fits, a Dunedin band, formed in 1986. 

Once everyone's glasses had been filled with Down in Splendour, a toast was raised to the first beer of the evening, a well hopped New Zealand Pilsner that was universally liked.

To be continued ...