Karma kegs give cheers to charity

Punters set price for pint

Forget sausage sizzles or meat raffles - charities can now fundraise by the pint in Petone.

Queen of Jackson and Baylands Brewery are teaming up for a fundraising initiative where you get what you give, if you believe in karma.

It’s called the ‘‘karma keg’’ and will see one keg of Baylands’ craft beer a week go on tap, without a single dollar going to the bar or the brewery.

Unlike all the other beers on tap at the bar, the karma keg beer won’t have a fixed price for a pint — punters will decide what price they think the pint is worth, bearing in mind all the proceeds will go to that week’s charity.

The bar and brewery will split the cost of the keg, which will hit the taps at 4pm on Thursday afternoons, provided a charity has been selected for that week.

In order to be considered, the charity would have to be doing great work in the Hutt Valley (including Upper Hutt).

Charities who apply for a karma keg, will have their applications looked through by the directors of Queen of Jackson and Baylands.

Sports teams, clubs, schools and kindergartens would also be considered, providing they had a good project to support.

Queen of Jackson owner Alex Henderson said it was a good way for the bar to give back to the community.

‘‘We get emails all the time from people asking for vouchers for their fundraisers,’’ he said.

‘‘ It doesn’t really raise that much money for them.’’

Henderson said there would be no minimum price for a karma keg pint.

If people were tight-fisted when they got to the till, perhaps that’s where karma would kick in, he said.

‘‘I would be disappointed if people didn’t pay at least $5 per pint.’’

He said a keg would yield about 100 pints.

If punters paid an average of $10 per pint, a charity would be able to walk away with $1000.

‘‘ You have to sell a lot of chocolates to raise that kind of money,’’ he said. He hoped the kegs would run dry within two hours of being hooked up.

During that time it would be great for the charity of the week to be down at the bar. They could try and make a bit more money, perhaps by selling raffle tickets, he said.

If they were there, it could also ramp up the pressure on the punters when it came to deciding how much they paid for their beer.

Baylands brewer Aidan Styles, who had just launched the brewery’s Petone Pale Ale, said it was great to be helping local charities.

‘‘It’s great for us to be involved in this.

‘‘It’s bringing a community feel back into things.’’

Styles said he was looking forward to looking at the applications when they came in.