Beer Jerk

Beer Jerk A beer shop on the internet Beer Jerk is the home of great independent craft beer in New Zealand.

Our webshop stocks a huge selection of carefully curated beers from the most talented brewers around. We also have awesome subscriptions and a warehouse bar, The Fridge & Flagon �

20/08/2026

This week BEER CLUB members are drinking…

BREWERY // Brothers Geoff and Clayton Gwynne purchased the Northland institution, the Waipu Pizza Barn, in 2003. A decade later, they decided to open a brewery next door. The McLeod's name and design aesthetic pay homage to the Scottish settlers of Waipu, while their beer names often celebrate the stunning seaside landmarks nearby. McLeod's Brewery is one of the most highly regarded in the country, earning praise from judges, drinkers, and fellow brewers alike. Their 802 series of unfiltered IPAs get haze bois frothing every time and their Smugglers Cove series of barrel aged and mixed ferment beers are heavenly. The brewery and their beers have won countless medals and trophies - far too many to list here. No trip North is complete without stopping in for a beer and one of their famous pizzas.

BEER // Around 1720 a new beer style turned up in London and was named for the countless river and street porters who were the lifeblood of the city, and consumed this dark beer in prodigious quantities. Eighteenth century porter was mid brown and became more heavily hopped to compete with the more fashionable Pale Ales that were taking over. Those brown malts gave the beer depth and flavour that was somewhat reduced in the nineteenth century when the beer turned from brown to black. Those brown malts were much more expensive than pale malt because they were less dense (the extended time in a hot kiln dried and degraded the starch) and had a worse yield. So brewers found they could use mostly pale malt with a sprinkle (perhaps just 3% of the malt bill) of patent black malt which gives lovely black colour but virtually no flavour. Pioneer is very easy to drink and has all the character of those brown malts, Geoff describes it as "toasty rather than roasty". It's dry, restrained, cocoa and toast instead of burnt coffee, with a little US Cascade in there as a tip of the hat to the American West Coast porters.

BREWERY // McLeod's
BEER // Pioneer
STYLE // Brown Porter
ABV // 5.6%
ORIGIN // Waipū, Northland
TEMP // 8-10°C
FOOD MATCH // Mushroom pizza. Aged cheddar. Dark chocolate.
VESSEL // Nonic pint or tulip

14/08/2026

This week BEER CLUB members are drinking…

BREWERY // Sprig + Fern is a brewery that marches to the beat of its own drum and that's probably linked to the unique story of owner Tracy Banner. Liverpudlian Tracy has worked in brewing for four decades since she got a job in a brewery lab straight out of school at the age of 16. She worked at iconic breweries including Greenalls, Bass and Lion before becoming head brewer at Speight's and Mac's. As possibly the most respected beer judge in the country, Tracy judges at the AIBA's in Australia and the Beer World Cup in the States. Hers is one of the palates NZ Hops trust to assess experimental varieties before the rest of the world gets near them. Sprig + Fern is in Tasman District, right among the hop gardens and there are 16 taverns in Nelson, Wellington and Christchurch that are all designed to fit Tracy's ideal beer drinking environment.��BEER // Single hop beers are nothing new. For most of brewing history you used whatever grew nearest, which is why Pilsner Urquell has been Saaz and nothing else since 1842. In more recent times, specific varieties have been bred for their bittering or their aromatic qualities meaning most beers are brewed with a blend of hops. There are many varieties that can do it all though, and it's a lot of fun to drink beers brewed with a single hop variety to get a proper idea of its character. The breeding programme in Nelson has given the World lots of incredible new varieties including Nelson Sauvin, Riwaka, Motueka and eventually Nectaron. It took almost 2 decades to arrive on the market and Sprig + Fern brewed the world's first commercial beer with it in 2020 to launch the hop. This is that beer (though the recipe has been tweaked over the years). It pours clean and bright and is a perfect showcase for the hop. Pineapple and passionfruit up front, peach and apricot through the middle, grapefruit pith on the finish. Be sure to take it out of the fridge around 30mins before drinking to bring it to a temperature where you'll get the best of the hop.

BREWERY // Sprig & Fern�BEER // Nectaron�STYLE // Pale Ale�ABV // 5.4%�ORIGIN // Richmond, Nelson, New Zealand�TEMP // 6-8°C�FOOD MATCH // Fish & Chips. Grilled Halloumi with Peach. Thai Green�VESSEL // Tulip

07/08/2026

This week BEER CLUB members are drinking…

BREWERY // Alchemy Street is one of the smallest breweries in the country and one of the more inventive, tucked into an industrial pocket of Tauranga and run by brewer Ed Bolstad and his partner Kat. Ed trained as a chemical engineer and grew up in a household where everyone brewed, though he jokes that his dad's early efforts in the 1970s were "the world's most horrible beer". Years working in the West Australian mines funded the return home and the decision to do something they actually loved. He sharpened his skills with an apprenticeship at Cassels in Christchurch, contract brewed around the country for a while, and eventually took over the old Slab Brewing site in Parkvale. The name is a nod to Ed's chemical background and the everyday magic of fermentation, turning grain and water into liquid gold. Unfortunately "Alchemyst" was already taken, which led to some quick thinking and the invention of a Street that only exists in our minds. They made waves with fruit infused sours and big adjunct stouts, and have since built a core range that stands up alongside them. The brewhouse is tiny, the tanks few, and Ed is usually the one pouring in the taproom next door.

BEER // The origin of Mexican lager lies in a European debt collection that got badly out of hand. Mexico suspended payments to its creditors in 1861 and Britain, France and Spain sent a joint fleet to collect, and in 1864 Napoleon III installed the Austrian archduke Maximilian as emperor. It lasted three tumultuous years and ended in front of a firing squad. A story often told is that Maximilian brought Vienna lager with him, but the style actually took hold a couple of decades later when a Swiss brewer, Santiago Graf, brought in the country's first German ice machines making proper 'lagering' possible. The modern Mexican Lager style is a delicious fusion of cultures. That distinctive Vienna malt gives the beer body, plus biscuit and a freshly baked bread melanoidin character. The addition of the fantastic Central American staple, corn, lightens the beer making it that much more quaffable and suited to warm weather easy drinking. The Mex is a great local example of the style. It pours pin sharp and pale, it's crisp and properly dry.
BREWERY // Alchemy Street
BEER // The Mex
STYLE // Mexican Lager
ABV // 4%
ORIGIN // Tauranga
TEMP // 3-5C
FOOD MATCH // Grilled corn with lime and chilli. Bean and cheese quesadillas. Salted tortilla chips with guacamole
VESSEL // Tall pilsner glass

31/07/2026

This week Beer Club members are drinking…

BREWERY // Brothers Daniel and Reuben Rowntree grew up on Goat Island Road so, when they started brewing, the name was a given. The island was New Zealand's first marine reserve and is famous for the incredibly diverse (and friendly) marine life. The English name comes from a common maritime practice: European seafarers would release goats onto remote coastal islands so that anyone shipwrecked or marooned had something to eat. The Rowntrees have been brewing for years and they levelled up their kit a couple of years ago. Their keg-only releases have been popping up on local taps but this is the first time they have canned their beer. When we got a message from Daniel to let us know, we immediately snapped up the offer to share this beer with you wonderful Beer Club members around the country.

BEER // The first recorded XPA was released by Deschutes in Oregon in 2008 where the 'X' stood for experimental but the style as we know it now is a thoroughly Australian one. In the mid-2010s a style emerged which was thoroughly suited to the Australian climate and the growing number of drinkers who wanted something with flavour - eXtra pale and eXtra hoppy, but relatively restrained in abv. The light body makes it quaffable in hot weather and the Antipodean aromatic hops keep things interesting. Examples from the likes of Balter saw the style skyrocket across the ditch but they're still somewhat of a rarity here, which is why we were excited to see this as the first Goat Island can release. They call it a lawnmower beer but we reckon its much more than that - it's certainly crisp, dry, and quaffable but the NZ hop character brings lovely guava and white grape character that elevates the whole affair. It's a very well executed XPA and we're excited about seeing more of their beers around the country.

BREWERY // Goat Island Brewing �BEER // Lil' Ripper XPA �STYLE // XPA�ABV // 4.5% ORIGIN // Warkworth, Auckland �TEMP // 4-6°C �FOOD MATCH // Fish and chips. Grilled halloumi. Salt and pepper squid. �VESSEL // Shaker pint. Willi Becher.

23/07/2026

This week Beer Club members are drinking…

BREWERY // Alchemy Street is one of the smallest breweries in the country and one of the more inventive, tucked into an industrial pocket of Tauranga and run by brewer Ed Bolstad and his partner Kat. Ed trained as a chemical engineer and grew up in a household where everyone brewed, though he jokes that his dad's early efforts in the 1970s were "the world's most horrible beer". Years working in the West Australian mines funded the return home and the decision to do something they actually loved. He sharpened his skills with an apprenticeship at Cassels in Christchurch, contract brewed around the country for a while, and eventually took over the old Slab Brewing site in Parkvale. The name is a nod to Ed's chemical background and the everyday magic of fermentation, turning grain and water into liquid gold. Unfortunately "Alchemyst" was already taken, which led to some quick thinking and the invention of a Street that only exists in our minds. They made waves with fruit infused sours and big adjunct stouts, and have since built a core range that stands up alongside them. The brewhouse is tiny, the tanks few, and Ed is usually the one pouring in the taproom next door.

BEER // Irish red ale is one of the youngest old styles in brewing. It feels like something handed down through centuries of Irish pubs, but the category was put together in France in 1974, when the Pelforth brewery near Lille went looking for a foreign beer to brew under licence and settled on a recipe from a Wexford firm that had stopped brewing twenty years earlier. Coors took it to America, American craft brewers believed the heritage was real and began making their own, and suddenly there was a recognised style that nobody in Ireland had ever thought to name. What those Irish ales had been all along were English style bitters that Irish brewers simply never called bitter, tinted copper by a small handful of roasted barley. That pinch of roast is still the trick: enough to shift the colour and dry out the finish, without imparting too much flavour. Fuil, which is blood in Old Irish, is Alchemy Street's reading of it, though they take the wider Celtic label rather than the Irish one, and brew entirely with New Zealand malt and hops. It pours deep copper and toffee and caramel sit through the middle of it over an aroma of toasted grain. The finish is firmer and drier than most reds with a more pronounced hop character, and it is that bitterness holding the malt in check that keeps the whole thing from tipping into sweetness.

BREWERY // Alchemy Street�BEER // Fuil�STYLE // Irish Red Ale�ABV // 5.4%�ORIGIN // Tauranga�TEMP // 8 - 10 C�FOOD MATCH // Irish stew. Soda bread and Irish cheddar. Colcannon with bacon.�VESSEL // Nonic pint

17/07/2026

This week BEER CLUB members are drinking…

BREWERY // 8 Wired began, as so many good breweries do, with a home-brew kit. Danish-born Søren Eriksen was living in Perth in 2005 when his future wife Monique handed him a Coopers starter kit; the first beers weren't great, but he was hooked. A move to Blenheim followed in 2008 and a job at Renaissance, who let him rent their tanks whenever they sat idle. That arrangement became 8 Wired, a gypsy operation that brewed its first beer in 2009 and, within two years, was crowned Champion Brewery at the Brewers Guild of New Zealand Awards, a startling result for an outfit with no home of its own. After five years borrowing space across four sites, Eriksen finally built a brewery in Warkworth, north of Auckland, where everything is now brewed and packaged. It has become one of the country's most important breweries, the home of Hopwired, arguably the first modern West Coast IPA brewed entirely with New Zealand hops, the mighty iStout imperial stout, and Tall Poppy, a landmark red IPA. Their barrel-ageing programme is one of the largest in the Southern Hemisphere, and you know we liver their steady stream of faithful European historic styles. Rogue & Villain belongs to that lineage.

BEER // The bitter is one of modern Britain's foundational beer styles, and its story is really the story of the industrial revolution. Until the early 1800s, malting relied on wood or straw fires that stained and smoked the grain. The spread of coke, coal baked clean of its impurities, let maltsters kiln barley gently and evenly, producing pale malt for the first time at scale. Combined with better transport, cheaper fuel and the famously sulphate-rich water of Burton on Trent, this opened the door to a new class of clean, pale, hop-forward beers. For much of their history the words "bitter" and "pale ale" were used interchangeably, and the various rungs, ordinary bitter, best bitter and the rest, were simply matters of strength, malt bill and how heavily the beer was taxed. Curiously, "extra special bitter" was never a style at all until the 1970s, when Fuller's of London gave the name to a single beer. Fuller's ESB proved so popular, particularly in the United States through the eighties and nineties, that brewers came to treat the three letters as a category rather than one brewery's brand. In a New Zealand market that overwhelmingly wants a hazy pale, a true-to-style bitter is a genuinely rare occurrence. We're used to the fruity delights of modern and New World hops so it's a refreshing treat to enjoy a beer with traditional English hops that are earthy and floral, with hedgerow character of brambles, nettles and dock leaves. The aroma opens with toffee, malt biscuit and marmalade over dry earth and sweet spice. The palate is weighty and bready, chocolate digestives and golden syrup meeting bitter citrus peel and dried stone fruit.

BREWERY // 8 Wired�BEER // Rogue & Villain �STYLE // Extra Special Bitter�ABV // 6%�ORIGIN // Auckland�TEMP // 8-12°C�FOOD MATCH // Roast beef. Mature cheddar ploughman's. Steak and ale pie�VESSEL // Nonic pint. English tulip pint

09/07/2026

This week BEER CLUB members are drinking…

BREWERY // Punk Heads is the brainchild of Aucklander Martin, who has spent the best part of thirty years in the booze trade. He began importing beer in the mid-nineties, chasing anything with a bit of difference, and gradually shifted into wine distribution as New Zealand's appetite for imported beer faded away. All those years on the road left him with a thick contact book and, eventually, the itch to put out something of his own. The brand was almost called Steampunk, until he discovered an American brewery already had the name, so Punk Heads it became, a nod to the music he grew up on. That heritage runs through the cans: each label carries a hidden song lyric planted to catch out anyone who reckons they know their music, and the steampunk-flavoured artwork comes from Fiona Clark, an artist Martin first met through the wine world. Punk Heads is a contract brewery with no stainless steel of their own. Releases arrive when they arrive, every three or four months, with no fixed core range. Hazy pale ales and IPAs have led the way so far. Hammer Head is his first crack at a pilsner.
​
BEER // The West Coast Pilsner is one of the more recent additions to the craft canon, and a slightly cheeky one at that. For many decades the pilsner sat as the clean, pale, faintly bitter lager that macro breweries churned out by the tanker load, the very beer craft drinkers were trying to escape. The West Coast version takes that crisp lager backbone and loads it with the same big American hops you would expect in a West Coast IPA, with a dry finish and the clarity of flavour that comes from a decent lagering period. The result is a sort of diplomatic handshake between two camps: enough lager familiarity to reassure the pilsner drinker, enough hop punch to keep the IPA crowd interested. Martin made Hammer Head to change the minds of craft drinkers who ordinarily shy away from Pilsners. The hops are Citra, Pacifica and Chinook, the Citra doing most of the heavy lifting on aroma with bright citrus and soft orange zest, the Pacifica and Chinook lending a resinous, punchy edge underneath. In the glass it pours bright and pale, aromatic and lively on the nose. The drinking is crisp and properly dry, with the hops up front and just a whisper of bready pilsner malt sitting in the back palate to stop it feeling thin. It finishes clean and quick, the sort of beer that pulls you back for the next swig.

BREWERY // Punk Heads
BEER // Hammer Head
STYLE // West Coast Pilsner
ABV // 6%
ORIGIN // Auckland
TEMP // 4-6°C
FOOD MATCH // Fish and chips. Spicy fried chicken. Sharp cheddar.
VESSEL // Pilsner flute. Willi Becher.

02/07/2026

This week BEER CLUB members are drinking…

BREWERY // Steve & Hayley Plowman opened Hallertau amongst the orchards of Riverhead back in 2005 as a brewery/bar/restaurant and it quickly became a go-to destination for locals and city folk willing to brave the 20 minute drive from central Auckland. The Hallertau core range is famously solid but it's their seasonal and one off releases that we get really excited about. Inspiration for Hallertau recipes comes from everywhere and they've collaborated with everyone from Quentin Tarantino to rock band Beastwars to make special beers. Hallertau and Thomson Whisky have shared a home since Thomson established its distillery on the brewery site in 2014. Having Hallertau’s brewing expertise on hand gave founders Mat and Rachael Thomson access to fresh wash and world-class brewing knowledge as they built one of New Zealand’s pioneering craft whisky distilleries.
​
BEER // Barrel-aged stout occupies a special place in modern craft beer history. Long before juice bombs and pastry sours, BA Stout releases were the beers people queued for. The style showed that beer could be treated with the same reverence as fine wine or whisky, capable of developing new dimensions through time and maturation. Much of that movement traces back to Goose Island’s Bourbon County Stout. What began in the early 1990s as an experiment with cheap, discarded bourbon barrels created one of craft beer’s defining styles (and those barrels are now dramatically more expensive than they once were). This limited annual collaboration is a very special Winter highlight. The base beer is a rich double stout, packed with layers of bitter chocolate, espresso and dark roasted malt. Time spent in Thomson Whisky barrels adds whisky flavour and it changes the beer itself. Oak contributes soft vanilla and gentle tannins, oxygen slowly rounds the sharper roasted edges, while traces of whisky seep back into the stout, knitting everything together into a party for your mouth. Dark cocoa, espresso crema, burnt sugar, molasses and toasted bread crust with vanilla and a gentle whisky aroma. The balance is perhaps the most impressive part - the whisky does not dominate, it lifts, the beer, adding complexity and warmth.

BREWERY // Hallertau
BEER // Thomson Whisky Barrel Aged Double Stout
ABV // 10%
ORIGIN // Riverhead, Auckland
TEMP // 12-14°C
FOOD MATCH // Dark Chocolate Torte. Strong Blue Cheese. Sticky Date Pudding
VESSEL // Snifter. Teku

30/06/2026

This week BEER CLUB members are drinking…

BREWERY // For the past decade or so, New Zealand has been awash with new breweries opening (as well as many sadly closing), but the beer landscape was a very different one in the mid 90s when Hawke's Bay Independent Brewery started brewing their Mates range of beers in Onekawa, going up against the giants. They weren't adding cacao nibs or grapefruit zest to their beers but were focussed on traditional Kiwi Draught and Lager that they delivered to Hawke's Bay pubs and clubs in their own tankers. They continued innovating outside of beer with a range of ciders, packaged sangria, ginger beers and a range of RTDs including the hugely popular Peach Bomb. Last year the Donovan family sold the business to another family-owned Hawke's Bay liquor group who have been steadily making changes and expanding distribution, while keeping on the brewing staff and not messing with the formula that has been successful for years. The biggest news is their new canning line which the beer in your hand was one of the first out of. We reckon we'll be seeing more of their traditional range around the country and also hoping there will be a few seasonals thrown into the mix occasionally.

BEER // This is an extremely drinkable London Porter that is true to style. Porter developed in 18th-century London as an everyday working beer and became one of the first beer styles to be produced commercially on an enormous scale. It was robust, dark and flavourful, but it was still designed to be consumed by the pint rather than contemplated like a glass of fortified wine. There is a lot going on which keeps it interesting, glass after glass, but it is also reassuringly unfussy. You'll find notes of burned sugar, toast, cocoa and coffee with a relatively light body and a dry finish that keeps it quaffable. It's a perfect 'pub beer' the type of which I'd love to see a lot more of as a pleasant change from generic lagers and low quality Draughts that take up the majority of taps around New Zealand.

BREWERY // Hawke's Bay Brewing Co.
BEER // Black Duck
STYLE // London Porter
ABV // 5%
ORIGIN // Meanee
TEMP // 9-10°C
FOOD MATCH // Mushroom and lentil pie. Welsh rarebit. Miso-glazed aubergine. Sticky date pudding
VESSEL // Nonic Pint Glass

18/06/2026

This week BEER CLUB members are drinking…

BREWERY // A couple of years ago, Ian handed over the reins of Black Sands to his son Craig, who didn’t need much persuading to put his legal career on hold and fully embrace brewery life. The brewery has gone from strength to strength and he’s done a fantastic job of taking Black Sands to the next level, cranking out a steady stream of excellent beers from their cramped West Auckland brewhouse. The tiny Black Sands team are full of energy and passion for brewing with a focus on hoppy styles but they also like to experiment with unusual ingredients, incorporating black rice, chilli and mango in two of their most popular beer.

BEER // It’s a simple but delicious concept for a series - choosing a tasty fruit to build a Hazy IPA around with complimentary hops. Vol. 13 is their first multi-fruit entry in the series and it also contains twice as much fruit as any of those previous 12. Pineapple brings sharp tropical brightness, mango fills out the softer, pulpy middle. The hop bill amplifies the juicy fruit character with plenty of complimentary aroma and flavour but no bitterness. Pale malts give it a pillowy soft, low bite, and full fruit-salad refreshment.

BREWERY // Black Sands
BEER // Latest Squeeze #13
STYLE // Hazy IPA
ORIGIN // West Auckland
TEMPERATURE // Cool
FOOD MATCH // Paneer tikka skewers. Vietnamese tofu salad. Passionfruit pavlova
VESSEL // Smoothie Glass

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