Brett Atkinson
During his work for Lonely Planet and other publishers, travel and food writer Brett Atkinson always takes the opportunity to explore a destination's craft beer scene. His favourite beer cities are Portland, Manchester and Ho Chi Minh City, and it's high time he made it back to Wellington. A well-made Belgian IPA or classic WCIPA are his favourite brews. Online at www.brett-atkinson.net and @travelwriternz on Instagram and Twitter.
3 Posts
Cameron Burgess
Cameron Burgess has been head brewer and co-owner of Southpaw Brewing Company in Christchurch for four years. He has been working in the brewing industry for 10 years, both in New Zealand and Canada. He is stuck talking about beer because it is the only thing he knows how to make.
2 Posts
Denise Garland
Denise Garland is a journalist and winner of the Brewers Guild Beer Media Award 2019. She has previously worked in hospitality in both New Zealand and Scotland, enjoys home brewing and particularly loves a Dark Mild.
6 Posts
Jamie O'Hare
Jamie fell in love with the New Zealand craft brewing scene shortly after moving here from his native Scotland in 2018. Last year, he began authoring his PhD, which aims to better understand relationships within the New Zealand craft brewing industry and how they influence the innovativeness of breweries. When he’s not working on his PhD, Jamie likes to spend his time and money in Auckland’s many breweries and bottle shops. His favourite beer styles are Belgian Tripels, Irish Reds, and well-hopped IPAs. Despite his love of craft beers, Tennent’s lager will always hold a special place in his heart.
1 Post
Jono Galuszka
Jono Galuszka’s beer enlightenment involved jugs of Tūī at The Fitz in Palmerston North, bottles of Epic Pale Ale in a Wellington back yard, pouring pints of New Zealand’s best at The Malthouse and winning the Brewers Guild of New Zealand Beer Writer of the Year award in 2015. He especially loves drinking his home-brewed saison after a hard day in his vege garden.
4 Posts
Josh Lee
Josh, aka Hazzy Hunter, loves a good hazy (IPA). He reviews hazy and not so hazy finds on his instagram page @hazzy_hunter which he started as a way of introducing more friends to craft beer in the hope of having more buddies to drink with at the pub. I remove all the beer lingo from my reviews and write them in a way that even a Heineken drinker can relate to! When I'm not drinking and writing about beer I'm grafting away at my next design-related project.
3 Posts
Mark Gower
Mark Gower ‘aka Crafty Mark’ had his passion for beer ignited with selection to the New World Beer and Cider Awards as an associate judge in 2016. Keen to share the knowledge gained at the judging table, Mark started a weekly video blog which featured on the New World Facebook page. The blogs set out to dispel some of the myths around craft beer and bring new drinkers to the category. Being selected to judge at the prestigious Malthouse WCIPA challenge in 2019 stands out as one of his favourite moments so far…it also happens to be one of his favourite styles when enjoying a cold beer with friends. Mark hopes to start brewing his own beer soon using a recently purchased 50L brew house…watch this space!
9 Posts
Matt Eats
Matt Eats is the curator for online beer store and subscription service Beer Jerk. He's also a BJCP beer judge, bar manager and home brewer. You may recognize him from some of Auckland’s best craft beer venues including Brothers Beer, The Beer Jerk Bunker and The Fridge & Flagon or his mobile bar The Wandering Tap. Instagram: @mattdrinksgoodbeer or @beerjerknz
11 Posts
Michael Donaldson
Michael Donaldson is the publisher and editor of Pursuit of Hoppiness. He is also the chair of judges for the New World Beer & Cider Awards and the author of Beer Nation, The Hopfather, and the Big Book of Home Brew.
47 Posts
Michael M
Born in Germany Michael's two passions are football and beer. After growing up drinking Pils and Kölsch, Michael moved to New Zealand in 2007. Here he had to renounce his endorsement of the German Reinheitsgebot, only to be confronted with the hopless and bodiless beer-like beverages available at the time. Michael was an early supporter of the New Zealand craft beer movement and the world class beers they now brew. Unfortunately he still waits for NZ football to rise to similar accolades. Michael describes himself as a beer drinker with an opinion.
5 Posts
Neil McInnes
Neil McInnes is one of the oldest of New Zealand’s first wave of craft beer writers. His beer column for legendary Wellington city community newspaper, City Voice, ran from 1993 to 2001. Over the years Neil has also run corporate tastings, been a convening judge for the Monteith’s Wild Food Challenge, and written on beer for several titles, including being the beer and spirits columnist for M2 Magazine. Unsurprisingly, Neil has been active in the Wellington craft beer scene since ages ago, and his long-suffering beer club is looking towards its Silver Jubilee in 2021. Writing for Pursuit of Hoppiness since 2015, Neil’s articles focus on beer cocktails made with local craft beer, and his Capital Diary chronicles his engagement with the Craft Beer Capital’s events and products.
6 Posts
Steph Coutts
Steph runs CraftBeer College, a beer tasting and tour company in Wellington, New Zealand. When she started getting involved in the scene, she was described as a "well-known beer-drinker-about-town". Since that time, she's been a consumer beer judge and the Volunteer Coordinator for pretty much every beer event held in Wellington as well for at the Great Australasian Beer SpecTAPular. She's a Certified Cicerone® and runs their exams in New Zealand. Steph thinks everyone should be a beer person and that Craft Beer College, along with writing about women's issues and diversity in the beer scene can help.
1 Post
Stephen Gallagher
A Wellingtonian who spends most of his time talking about sport and beer. Enjoys a good burger, and doesn't take himself too seriously.
3 Posts
The Bottleneck
The Bottleneck is run by Dylan Jauslin. He's the manager of Golding’s Free Dive in Wellington. It all started when I took a trip to Germany after graduating high school. I’d drunk beer before before in New Zealand and never liked it. Frankly I hated it. It was with trepidation then, that I went to a pub in a forest, somewhere in south-west Germany and ordered a beer (I couldn’t legally drink back in NZ so I was making the most of it). It was amber and tasted caramelly, but mostly what I remember how good it was. Holy shit, I didn’t know beer could taste like that. I have no idea what it was, but I will never forget you, random German beer!
1 Post
Tim Newman
Tim Newman is a A Wine and Spirits Education Trust graduate who has been gradually fermenting inside the Christchurch craft beer scene since it's primordial days. When the world of wine writing turned out to be a labyrinth of un-returned emails, he hopped the fence over to beer writing and reviewing and hasn't looked back. On an endless mission to taste the length and breadth of New Zealand craft brewing, and wrangle the most esoteric flavours into prose.
31 Posts