Kiwi brewers score coveted invite

Kiwi brewers the Yeastie Boys are taking their tea-inspired brew to England after receiving one of just 10 worldwide invitations to brew at the world's largest ale festival.

The New Zealanders will brew their Gunnamatta Earl Grey India Pale Ale for the JD Wetherspoon’s International Real Ale Festival in late February. The beer, with the distinct floral and citrus notes of Earl Grey Blue Flower tea will be brewed at the iconic Adnams Brewery in Suffolk and will be served in 850 pubs across England over two weeks in April, during the annual festival.  

Yeastie Boys’ brewer and Creative Director Stu McKinlay says the invitation came completely out of the blue and he and business partner Sam Possenniskie are relishing the opportunity to showcase Gunnamatta. “It's our biggest selling beer but we’re brewing more of it in a single day there than we brew in an entire year here in New Zealand!” he says. “It’s a scale of brewing beyond anything we’d dream of and, with more than a million people visiting those pubs during that fortnight, it is undoubtedly the widest exposure we’ve ever received on that side of the world!”

Stu is also delighted with the partnership with Adnams. “Adnams head brewer, Fergus Fitzgerald, was recently named UK Brewer of the Year and his team is the ideal partner to work through the technical intricacies of brewing such a leftfield beer,” he says.  

Gunnamatta was crowned champion beer at 2012’s inaugural Great Australasian Beer SpecTAPular and awarded a gold medal at the Brewers Guild of New Zealand Awards 2013. It is available, along with other Yeastie Boys beers, in New Zealand, Australia, USA, Singapore, Malaysia and Japan. 

For more details visit www.yeastieboys.co.nz