In the space of six days, start-up brewery Neck Of The Woods went from virtually unknown to the toast of Tauranga after winning the title of Champion Microbrewery at the New Zealand Beer Awards and then winning the Golden Gumboot at The Malthouse West Coast IPA Challenge.
Either victory on its own would be enough to mark it a life’s dream for any brewer let along one that is not even a year old.
And for owner Scott Taylor, who saw more than his share of success with the ill-fated Deep Creek, the heavenly week was almost indescribable.
“This is the most incredible, special thing — one, because it’s mine but also because this was so new. This weekend gone we were just 10 months old which is just freaking mind-boggling.
“It means everything — when I look at the winners of the Golden Gumboot, it’s just insane. It’s a bit hard to put into words actually because it’s so incredibly special.”
It’s all been such a whirlwind that it’s worth backing it up for a moment and going back a couple of years when Taylor, at a loose end after the liquidation of Deep Creek decided to gamble on starting another brewery.
In the wake of Deep Creek’s liquidation and following the death of his mother, Taylor and his wife Debbie sold their Auckland home and the family moved to Papamoa.
“It was a rough time after my parents passed away and Deep Creek went under, so we sold up in Auckland and moved down here to Papamoa. I used the equity from the sale of the Auckland house to fund this project,” Taylor says.
“Hospo is in my bones, and when Deep Creek failed I had to decide whether I wanted to stay in hospo or do something else — but I just love it so much.”
He was joined in the venture by Virgil Meiller, who was previously general manager at The Barrel Room in Tauranga.
“After Deep Creek, to try to do something else was a massive decision and it took a monster effort to get it going.”
They hadn’t been open long when they won People’s Choice at The Rising Tide’s Lagerfest in January and picked up another People’s Choice award at the Smith’s NZIPA Challenge.
“Winning People’s Choice at Lagerfest — that was not expected let alone People’s Choice at the NZIPA Challenge at Smith’s, that was also ridiculously unexpected. But those ones are almost more hearts and minds — you’ve still got to be good but it’s definitely hearts and minds.
“But then also to win the actual medals let alone champion microbrewery and then you to take home the Golden Gumboot I mean we never did that at Deep Creek.”
They took out the West Coast IPA Challenge with a beer called Kinky M.I.L.F (Man, I love flamingos). Garage Project were second with Favourite Things and Epic Standing Ovation was third. Shining Peak’s trophy-winning IPA from the NZ Beer Awards, Bravo!, was the People’s Choice.
Taylor had special praise for brewer Reid Lidington for hitting the brewhouse running.
“I’ve been incredibly fortunate in my career in brewing that I’ve been able to work with some of the industry’s best brewers, like Hamish Ward and Dylan Adams, who is now at Brothers Beer … and now Reid.
“I was very lucky that Brian Watson at Good George introduced us.”
Lidington was production manager at Good George and before that cut his teeth at Fourpure in the UK. He had left Good George to be closer to family in Tauranga and had been working in a fish processing plant.
“He‘s been in the industry a long time but he’s never had the opportunity to make his own beers but obviously he’s learned from some great breweries and he has all the technical skills, but he’s also got just a great palate and I’m very lucky his palate and style is very similar to mine,” Taylor says.
“He’s just he’s a very talented young man and I’m just so incredibly stoked to have been introduced to him and just to make it even slightly more special on the night of the awards Brian Watson was at our table sitting between me and Reid and he was the one who presented the award for champion microbrewery — and he was the one who introduced us which just made it all the more special.”
Deep Creek memory lives on
Two recent successes for Neck Of The Woods are inspired by Taylor’s time at Deep Creek.
“I’d be lying if I didn’t say that Deep Creek gives us a lot of inspiration for stuff but there were only two beers that I wanted to try and do something with were.
“One was Misty Miyagi — Cobra Kai that won People’s Choice at the NZIPA Challenge was a take on Misty Miyagi. The biggest change was the ABV because we try not to make them too in high alcohol because we’re more of a brew pub and we want people to be able to drive and have a couple of beers. So instead of the 6.5% that Misty Miyagi was, ours is 5.8% but Misty Miyagi wasn’t a full actual New Zealand IPA so it’s actually the same hop profile as another beer called Sensei, but the name and then the visuals were all definitely inspired by Misty Miyagi.”
The other beer they riffed off was Deep Creek’s first ever brew — the cult classic brown IPA, Dusty Gringo.
“So we did Rusty Dingo — again it’s the same hop profile as Dusty Gringo but once again lower alcohol. I think Dusty was at 6.8% and this one is down about 5.6%.”
Rusty Dingo won a gold medal at the NZ Beer Awarfds.
Main photo: Reid Lidington, Virgil Meiller and Scott Taylor celebrate Neck Of The Woods’ win at the Malthouse west Coast IPA Challenge / Photo: Jed Soane