Palmerston North has long been a junction town — one of New Zealand’s biggest ‘service’ centres since the Main Trunk railway was punched through the Manawatū in 1886. It even pulled in my Grandad from County Kilkenny, Ireland, who landed in nearby Ashurst and assumed the publican’s life in the 1960s. More recently, it has drawn in two blokes — one from Christchurch, one from Woodville — chasing a hospitality dream that began in the capital and found its final fermenting point in Oregon, USA.
Jules Grace and Murray Cleghorn have, by their own admission, taken the scenic route to bring that dream to life. The destination arrived in March 2017 with Brew Union Brewing Company, now a cornerstone venue in the heart of Palmerston North.
The plot, without anyone quite clocking the endgame, unfolded in the 1990s and early 2000s through a mix of fast-food hospitality, small-business graft, brewing, and even banking. Those paths crossed in Wellington, where the two were working at Starbucks and discovered a shared weakness for good beer — especially what the crew at The Malthouse were pouring. Add formative nights at era-defining venues like Tupelo, Matterhorn, and Hashigo Zake, and the obsession took root.
Murray also did a stint with Steve Nally at Invercargill Brewing, learning not just the art of brewing but the less-glamorous realities of contract brewing, packaging, and planning. Invercargill Brewing at the time brewed some iconic beers including Pitch Black, and a cracker NZ Pils called Biman (BrewNZ Gold Medal and Best in Class 2008), alongside significant contract brewing. With that foundation — and a few useful coffee-world connections in Seattle — the pair headed stateside. It was in Oregon that the last pieces of the jigsaw started clicking into place.
Murray says, “We noticed in Oregon how every town — every community — had a beer-serving restaurant that functioned as a focal point. What struck us most was the sense of togetherness in those places. We thought that is something we could bring home, especially once the learnings and inspiration we had found from the wider New Zealand craft beer scene were added to the equation.”
Next came the hardest part: choosing where to plant the flag. Wellington, they felt, was looking crowded at the time. Taranaki, Tauranga, and Auckland’s North Shore got a quick look-in… but Palmerston North kept rising to the top. The region had a conspicuous gap: no brewery (Lion shut the former Standard Brewery in 1985), not even a true free house — yet, ironically, craft beer sales at the local Liquorland were disproportionately high.
The original plan was a modest 600-litre brewpub on the city edge. That went out the window when a larger site — with frontage on both Broadway Avenue and King Street — came up for grabs. Eight months of construction transformed a vacant, partly derelict shell into today’s big-hearted hospitality venue: industrial-modern with a dose of rustic charm.
Eight months of construction transformed a vacant, partly derelict shell into today’s big-hearted hospitality venue: industrial-modern with a dose of rustic charm.
The building’s had a few lives — butchery, sports shop, even a music venue (Mango Music was a real hub for local gigs, ticketing, and alt music from the mid-90s to about 2010), and a rural supplies firm out back. Their 30% construction contingency did not just get used; it got a workout. There was a 6% (yip, that is not a typo…) earthquake rating to tackle, plus the moment a truck fell through an old floor covering a mechanic’s pit. And then there was power: stick with the existing setup and they would risk taking out two blocks of downtown Palmy, so they installed 90 metres of copper cable for a new power switch — a tidy $15k surprise.
After riding out a bit of local bush-telegraph speculation (for the record: “DB are opening a pub with everything brewed in Mangatainoka…”), Brew Union opened its doors on 10 March 2017. It was a punt — the first place in town pouring beer over $10 (wouldn’t that be a dream now!), and it came with its own logistical gremlins, like off-site cold storage. But the locals turned up quickly, and the reputation stuck.
Brew Union leans into clean, American-inspired beers made with locally sourced grain and hops. The same no-shortcuts attitude shows up on the plate: wood-fired, hand-stretched, cold-fermented pizzas and hand-pressed burgers that have earned a loyal following. The walls are a nod to local history and the site’s past lives, while the building’s character does the heavy lifting — exposed brick and trusses, reclaimed timber throughout, and mataī sarking salvaged from a former factory for the tables and finishes.
Recognition followed naturally. Brew Union was a finalist as the “best newcomer – food & beverage” at the New Zealand Hospitality Awards after opening (alongside the new Emerson’s brewery, and the Little High Eatery from Christchurch), and they landed a triple-category win at the 2020 SOBA Awards (Bar, Brewery & Restaurant of the Year), took out Pub of the Year at the Manawatū Hospitality Awards, and in 2022 picked up a OneMusic Outstanding Ambience & Design accolade at Manawatū’s Restaurant Association Hospitality Awards.
The road has not been without potholes — Covid chief among them. They had a head chef start on the first Monday of the first lockdown, and a part-timer who quietly offered to resign to help the business stay afloat. Both were looked after, as were the 30-odd staff connected to the venue. Even now, the social aftershocks linger: Friday-night rounds are not quite what they were, some patrons still feel cautious in tight spaces, and there is a noticeable shift in how people drink. With margins tightening, even the fun stuff — like collabs — has become harder to pull off.
Still, Brew Union’s backbone is its beer. The bar runs 21 taps: 10 dedicated to Brew Union pours — eight core beers (including Swamp Juice Hazy IPA, Palmy Gold British Golden Ale, and Kissing Rock WCIPA) plus two seasonals. Another 2–3 taps cover cider and ginger beer, and the rest are reserved for guests, with a strong bias toward fellow craft breweries from the Central North Island.
That connection to the Manawatū runs deeper than a postcode. Local ingredients regularly find their way into the Brew Union kitchen, and the spent grain gets a second life as animal feed with a nearby farmer — a neat little circular economy, Palmy-style.
After spending time at Brew Union and meeting Murray and Jules, I kept circling back to the same word: authenticity. It’s also right there in the name, as their website spells out — Brew (brew /bruː/ — verb: to make beer) and Union (union /ˈjuːnjən/ — noun: the joining together of people with kindred interests).
In other words: a fusion — an association — a place where good beer does what it’s always done best and pulls people together. Brew Union.
Follow Brendan’s journey to visit every brewery in New Zealand at The H0ptimist