The congoing conflict in the Red Sea is driving an unusual beer hook-up, with Garage Project brewing and distributing beer into Asia on behalf of Danish craft giant Mikkeller.
Yemen’s Houthi organisation, in reprisal for Israel’s attacks on Gaza, are firing missiles at Israel-linked merchant and commercial vessels in the Gulf of Aden and southern Red Sea.
In turn, a British-American led coalition that includes New Zealand, is striking back in an effort to secure the safety of shipping routes.
The net result is shipping companies now avoiding transit through the Suez Canal. The events in the Red Sea come at a time when shipping via other routes (namely the Panama Canal) are also facing capacity constraints, New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade reported.
Mikkeller has a large market in Asia and the ongoing delays in shipping beer to that part of world meant they looked for a solution elsewhere, and found it at Garage Project.
Garage Project announced the deal today and had a small quantity of the beers available for sale on their website, but they sold out within minutes.
Jos Ruffell from Garage Project said the three beers — a hoppy pilsner, a West Coast IPA and a hazy IPA — were tweaked a little at Garage Project in order to incorporate New Zealand hops alongside American varieties.
“We have access to great hops from our farm at Nelson Lakes and through Freesytle and Mikkeller have been happy and excited to lean into that so we’ve made tweaks and changes, pulled things out, and put a New Zealand spin on it.
“One of the beers is a New Zealand style, and they wanted to highlight the provenance of the beers — that they are being brewed in New Zealand.”
Ruffell said it was likely to be the first of many rather than a one-off.
“It’s entirely up to them, but the intention is that this will be an ongoing brewing relationship and there will be ongoing releases.”
While there were options to brew in Asia the Kiwi connection was important to Mikkeller.
“There’s a lot of contract brewing capacity in Vietnam and other countries in the region but they wanted the New Zealand story — and the connection to New Zealand hops is important to them.”
Mikkeller was founded by two home brewers: Mikkel Bjergsø, a high school teacher, and journalist Kristian Klarup Keller.
Ruffel said the Garage Project team had met Bjergsø in the past at festivals and when the brewery struggled to get shipments into Asia they reached out to Garage Project.
“They thought ‘who can do it down here?’ and asked if we’d be interested.”
New Zealand businesses brewing under license is not new, with Behemoth having brewed Heart of Darkness and Ballast Point beers here but in this case the majority of the beers are being brewed for export with only a “tiny” amount available here.
The three beers and their hop bills are:
Mikkeller Windy Hill Hazy IPA 7.0% — Nelson Lakes Cascade, Freestyle Nelson Sauvin, Motueka, Mosaic, Citra
Mikkeller Forest Friends West Coast IPA 6.0% — Riwaka, Freestyle Cascade, Simcoe
Mikkeller Mysterious Path Hoppy Pilsner 4.7% — Freestyle Motueka, Nelson Sauvin, Citra, Simcoe
