I visit Sunshine on a hot Thursday afternoon in January. The bar is starting to hum with locals enjoying beers on the deck. There was a time when Wellington was the biggest market for Gisborne Gold but that has definitely swung back home. In addition to the locally-named Gold and Mahia Pale Ale there’s a wide range of styles from around the world on tap. I try a black bière de garde, a Belgian quad, a dry-hopped saison, and a raspberry pastry stout on nitro that was deceptively dangerous to drink – like raspberry sorbet.
Through the door to the brewhouse the brew team is as international as the beer styles. Head brewer, Jesse Foley, is from San Diego. He loves brewing European styles, usually with a bit of an American influence. “I do like the simplicity of making those beers, but of course there’s so much going on with them at the same time.”
Jesse is on holiday the next day when turn up with my camera. Nona Shackleton is preparing to brew a stout. Born in Cornwall, her family moved to Gisborne when she was 17. After finishing school in Gisborne she studied brewing at the Otago Brew School in Cromwell, the returned to Gisborne to work at Sunshine after graduating.
The third member of the brew team, Marion Prevot, helps Nona out between filtering beer and other jobs. They work well together. When I ask Nona which beer is her favourite to brew she says she loves doing the seasonals, “especially ones that me and Marion have made together.” They ask what beers I tried yesterday. I mention the saison and Nona says “Yeah, I like the saison. We used Superdelic. In the fermenter it was so nice, really bubble-gummy. I’d never heard of a dry-hopped Saison”. Marion adds “It’s not a thing in Belgium though. You’re not supposed to dry-hop the saison.”
Marion should know. From France originally, she moved to Brussels to study a Masters of Communication. As part of her course she got an internship in the office of a brewery. Soon she started spending more time downstairs with the production team and realised “that’s what I want to do!” Once she finished her Masters she did a two-year diploma of brewing. After working at breweries in Belgium and the Netherlands, she came to New Zealand on a working holiday visa and has been at Sunshine for 18 months.
New Zealand hops were one of the big reasons that drew Marion here, she told me more recently. Her favourite is Nectaron. She laughs, “I’ve used it in all the recipes I’ve made. The last one was the West Coast IPA, Crushers. It’s like really not traditional to use Nectaron in a West Coast IPA but I was like, oh, let’s go for it!” There is some debate about Riwaka though: Nona says “I’ve got a soft spot for it.” Marion laughs, “I’m more into tropical, and floral hops than diesel or sometimes cat piss even.”
Talk turns to the coming weekend and surfing. Like good Gisborne locals, all three brewers surf. And as I write this Nona will have just attended a citizenship ceremony, officially becoming a kiwi. Like their beers, international styles with a local twist.
