Urbanaut

Urbanaut was created by three school friends from Marton, Bruce Turner, Simon Watson and Thomas Rowe. They set up in 2017 in the Auckland cafe-heavy suburb of Kingsland where they operate a taproom basically inside the brewery.

The original vibe of the brewery was using cool suburbs around the world as the names for their beer: Williamsburg, Brixton, Gastown. That still plays a role but they have evolved into a strongly experiment brewery — trying different formats, such as 250ml cans, and beer blenders: selling two different types of beer wrapped in one sleeve with the purpose of blending them together.

Urbanaut were also the early adopters in New Zealand of brut-style beers with their Copacabana Brut IPA, Miami Brut Lager now certified “low carb”.

They have also moved towards doing double-digit ABV beers in the smaller 250ml cans.