Last night we were taken on a tour through Monteith’s Brewery in Greymouth. The parent company – DB Breweries – will be shutting the Monteith’s Brewery in July to knock it down and rebuild a shiny new one, the opening of which is planned for February 2012. So we were pleased to see the old brewery before it gets knocked down.
The tour started off talking about the three ingredients of beer that Monteith’s uses: barley, hops and water. Pilsener barley is grown in Canterbury and is the only barley that is locally sourced in New Zealand. All other barleys are imported. The malting of the barley is varied by the degree of roasting (as with coffee beans). The hops is grown on the Tasman Bay coast between Nelson and Motueka. And the water is glacial mountain water that is very mineral-rich by the time it reaches the brewery on the West Coast.
Rather than spelling out the brewing steps, read it about it on the Monteith’s website: http://www.monteiths.co.nz/brewery/brewing
The tour ended rather aptly in the Monteith’s bar which is like a little brewing museum. We sampled all of the current brews (including Apple Cider). My favourite was the First Harvest and Sarah’s was the Black Beer. Unfortunately when the tourguide offered for us to get behind the bar and pull our own pints, we had to rush off to a restaurant booking at Jones Cafe.
This blue machine below was made by one of the employees at Monteith’s when the parent company baulked at buying one for NZ$1.2million. The ingenious fellow cannibalised an old Bedford lorry to make the machine, added some custom computer components and completed it in three months for a total cost of NZ$17,000. The same guy also invented a keg-straightening machine to fixed dented kegs, thereby saving the brewery a small fortune in keg replacement costs. Clever chap!
Last but not least, I couldn’t resist taking this photo in the gent’s toilet – a great advert for recycling!
