Drinkers raise the beer bar
New Zealanders are a right bunch of hopheads, with more commercial breweries per capita than the US, UK or Australia.
A survey of the industry by the Brewers Association counts 218 breweries, making for roughly 4.56 per 100,000 people.
That compares to just 3.04 breweries per 100,000 people in beer-mad Britain, 2.1 per 100,000 in Australia, and 1.96 per 100,000 in the US.
The brewing boom, and explosion in choice, was turning New Zealand into a beer tourism destination, said Dylan Firth, executive director of the Brewers Association.
‘‘Kiwi beer is also contributing to our growing tourism market, with $242 million being spent on beer by international visitors,’’ said Firth.
‘‘This is unsurprising as New Zealand has a growing reputation internationally as a beer tourism destination.’’
Tourism has not driven the brewing boom, however. Changing tastes of domestic consumers, who are drinking less, but higherquality, beer, was behind the country’s brewing renaissance.
Only 10 per cent of our beer production was exported, compared to 70 per cent of wine produced here.
The big growth areas for brewers have been high-price craft beer, as well as low-alcohol, low-carb and flavoured beers.
And our local speciality is pale ale. Just under half of all craft beer sales in traditional liquor retailing and supermarkets are either a pale ale or an India pale ale, the association said.
The organisation was created to represent brewers, including defending the industry against law changes that could damage their interests.
Its biggest two members, Lion and DB Breweries, produce nearly threequarters of all beer brewed in New Zealand.