Martin Townshend will keep brewing his “ales of the unexpected”, Jason Bathgate will return to his spiritual home, and a yet-to-be-known brewer will get the chance of a lifetime at McLeod’s in Northland.
That’s the win-win-win scenario unfolding after Townshend sold his brew kit and the lease on his tasting room in Riwaka to Bathgate and his wife Monica Mead.
Bathgate’s exit opens the barn door at McLeod’s for a brewer to step into some pretty big shoes.
Bathgate hopes to be in the new space by June to set up the brewery and tasting room that has housed three previous tenants: Monkey Wizard, Hop Federation and Townshend, who had recently moved there from Toad Hall in Motueka.
Townshend were operating a tasting room and fillery at the venue but hadn’t set up the brewery — their beers are now being contract brewed.
(I contacted Townshend for this story but he wasn’t available for comment.)
Bathgate has been at McLeod’s for nine years after stints at Renaissance in Blenheim and then 8 Wired in Warkworth, where he was seriously burned in a workplace accident alongside Andrew Childs from Behemoth.
After recovering from that accident, he joined McLeod’s and helped transform that brewery into a cult favourite among New Zealand craft beer drinkers.
Last year, McLeod’s were crowned Champion Medium Brewery at the NZ Beer Awards and won the Champion Beer title with Tropical Cyclone, a Double IPA.
Bathgate says he and Monica had been looking for a way to move back to Nelson for a while — it’s where they first lived when they arrived in New Zealand from the United States in 2009.
“We arrived in New Zealand in December 2009 and we landed in Nelson and we never had any intent to leave. We love that area. I mean, every time I get off a plane when I go down there, I feel like I’ve come home.
“So when the opportunity presented itself for us to move back where we wanted to be, it was a no-brainer.”
Keeping it small and local
The new operation — name to be revealed — will be small and local.
“We’re excited and terrified about the next step. We’ve got most of our branding done — we’re about probably 85% there — and we’ve got a pretty good list of the beers we’re going to open with.
“We don’t aspire to take over the world. I’ve got some pretty conservative numbers on how much we need to sell to make an OK living. The dream is to have a sustainable business model that allows us some lifestyle balance and to explore our passion, which is to make delicious beer.”
Bathgate, a former chef, has no desire to operate anything but the brewery and tasting room.
“Having spent the greater part of 25 years in the hospitality industry, running restaurants and hotels, I have zero interest in wanting to run anything like a hospo business.
“And Monica too, she’s owned several hospitality businesses in Vermont and here, so this suits us perfectly because we don’t have to have a food option and we don’t have any intent on making it a destination space where you come and hang out.
“We want people to come in and do tastings and take beer to go away and enjoy the Tasman region because that’s really what it’s all about.”
There will likely be keg sales in the local region and a small amount of packaging.
“We’re not going to sell to grocery stores or any of the big chains and that’s not our M.O.
“We want to keep it pretty tight and push direct-to-customer from our place. That’s the smartest move for us from a financial perspective and it gets the freshest product into our customers’ hands.
“We want to do some neat bottle formats and some cask ales as well.”
The brewery will be located on a popular stretch of main road in Riwaka — the last major stop for trips over Takaka Hill to Golden Bay.
“The traffic numbers that go by there in the summertime are off the charts. A car stops every eight seconds.”
Locals delighted to have new player in the area
For Simon Nicholas, who founded Hop Federation with his wife Nicki, it’s been interesting to see the changes at their old home and he’s delighted to have a new player in the area.
“I’m looking forward to being able to get more good beer besides ours that’s brewed here and easily accessible.
“We all know how great a brewer Jason is. In fact, a whole lot of us were sitting down at Pomeroy’s after the Great Kiwi Beer Festival the other night and we were all drinking Paradise Pale Ale — with McLeod’s, you know you’re guaranteed a bloody good drop.”
Before the move, Jason and Monica have to sell their house in Mangapai, just north of Waipu, and then have a send-off at McLeod’s.
“We’ve still got a couple months to go and right now the focus is on celebrating what we’ve done at McLeod’s and just trying to give them the best opportunity to continue what they do.”
He will be brewing there until the end of April, unless a new head brewer is found sooner.
It’s hard to think of McLeod’s without thinking of Bathgate’s beers — Longboarder Lager, Paradise Pale Ale and the iconic 802 series of unfiltered IPAs among many others — all which have been synonymous with the rise and rise of the brand.
“I’d set my goal to make a brand that when people walked up to a tap and saw our beer, they know that they were going to get something of quality. And I can tick that box at this point.
“It’s taken a small army of family, of people to get us to where we are today — all the people that have worked here and have moved on, the people that are still here today doing the mahi.”
There will be a send-off I’m sure, and Bathgate says he has a special keg of Oyster Gose stashed away in the cellar that has been saved for just such an occasion.