Tributes flow for brewery pioneer

All Black and craft beer giant Terry McCashin will be remembered as a humble gentleman who took on the big brewers from a small Nelson factory.

The founder of the Mac’s beer brand and former All Black hooker died suddenly on Tuesday. He was 73.

McCashin is credited with starting the craft beer revolution in New Zealand, while competing with the brewing duopoly of Lion Nathan and Dominion Breweries.

Family spokesman Paul Le Gros had known McCashin for more than 30 years and said the death had come as ‘‘an utter shock’’ to family and friends.

As well as his ‘‘enormous’’ brewing legacy, Le Gros said his friend would be remembered as an family-orientated, generous person who always saw more reasons to do something as opposed to not doing it.

‘‘He had an amazing spirit – a gentleman and a gentle man,’’ Le Gros said.

‘‘From a man who was an All Black in the hard old days – and it was a pretty good era – he was humble and was never egotistical – he focused on his family and his business trying to make a success of whatever he touched.

‘‘He was always one to break the mould, and he would be substantially responsible for breaking that duality of control that the large breweries had and he offered something different – the rest is history.’’

Born Terence Michael McCashin at Palmerston North on January 18, 1944, McCashin first made his name as a seven-match All Black, first selected for the 1968 tour to Australia and Fiji.

A decade later, the Rochdale Cider factory on Main Road Stoke became home to McCashin’s Brewery when the family took over the the site in 1980.

The family continued to brew cider before the first batch of Mac’s beer was brewed in 1981.

In 1999 the Mac’s brand was sold to giant brewery Lion.

A year later Mac’s HQ in Stoke was leased to the heavyweight, with the family temporarily moving out of the picture until 2009, when son Dean and his wife Emma re-opened the brewery under the McCashin’s name, making Rochdale cider and beer under the Stoke moniker.

Today McCashin’s Brewery is the oldest craft brewery in New Zealand.

He is survived by wife Beverley and five children Maria, Dean, Scott, Anna and Todd.