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 �

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

12/06/2026

This week BEER CLUB members are drinking…

BREWERY // Around 2011, nitrogen discharge caps were placed on land around Lake Taupō to protect the freshwater quality of the lake, forcing local farmers to limit fertiliser use and stock numbers. James and Elissa Cooper saw an opportunity - diversifying away from sheep and beef by building a brewery in an old farm utility shed, which happened to sit atop a bore hole providing pristine water naturally filtered through the pumice-rich Central Plateau soil. What started in 2013 as a very steep learning curve with some intense Googling has become one of New Zealand's most recognisable independent craft breweries, with back-to-back Champion trophies at the NZ Beer Awards, plus domestic and international medals piling up. Sustainability remains at the heart of it all: spent grain feeds the heifers, wastewater irrigates the paddocks, and the John Deere tractor pulls double duty loading the delivery trucks. A farm brewery run by small Taupō team who do things their own way.

BEER // Love them or hate them - Hazies are here to stay. I feel like there has been a recent swing away from the haze among beer enthusiasts and for a good reason. The popularity of the style has led to the market being awash with haze, much of it being sub-par beer brewed with one eye on the bottom line. The truth is that it is impossible to make good Hazy IPAs cheaply because there is no substitute for large volumes of high quality hops, which come at a price. The beer you hold in your hands most definitely not fall into that category. It has a soft, full body and is saturated with aroma and flavour from the hop bill. Cryo Sabro brings its distinctive coconut and tropical creaminess, Cryo Talus adds citrus, pink grapefruit and stone fruit, Citra piles on mango and lime, while Nelson Sauvin gives that unique NZ white grape lift. It's a big, plush ripe good time.

BREWERY // Lakeman
BEER // Love Doctor
STYLE // Double Hazy IPA
ABV // 8.7%
ORIGIN // Taupō
TEMP // 5-7°C
FOOD MATCH // Mango achar. Chilli paneer. Coconut sambal noodles. Pineapple fritters
VESSEL // IPA Glass

04/06/2026

This week BEER CLUB members are drinking…

BREWERY // Martinborough Brewery began life in 2015 when locals Hayden Frew and Stephen Fox took their garage-brewing hobby and turned it into a purpose-built taproom just off the town square in wine-soaked Martinborough. They cut their teeth on a tiny 50 L kit before scaling up to keep up with demand. The cosy Ohio Street taproom quickly became a community hub, serving locals and drawing in wine-country tourists year-round. In 2022, head brewer Eugene Black - who had previously been the brewer at Wellington's Occasional Brewer and in Vancouver - took the reins, refining recipes and bringing home national medals. Now majority-owned by Pankaj Patel, who is loving the change of scene after 2 decades in the Californian hotel industry, the brewery stays true to its small-batch ethos while expanding its reach. Their taproom is a must-visit spot next time you're in the Wairarapa.

BEER // History is never as simple as people would have you think. The history of stout and porter history is no different, which is exactly what makes it interesting. The word “stout” originally meant strong, not black, and porter was once the great industrial beer of London: brewed at huge scale, aged in enormous vats, and definitely far smokier, woodier, and funkier than the smooth dark beers we drink today. Oatmeal stout arrived later with a slightly Victorian health-food glow around it, borrowing the wholesome image of porridge with some fascinating branding and advertising promoting it as a healing elixir in the form of 'Invalid's Ale' and the like. Black Nectar is a much more honest modern version of the idea. The oats soften the roast, round out the bitterness, and give the beer that plush middle. Expect dark chocolate, coffee, roasted malt, a little treacle, and a smooth, gently bitter finish.

BREWERY // Martinborough
BEER // Black Nectar
STYLE // Oatmeal Stout
ORIGIN // Martinborough, Wairarapa
ABV // 5.8%
TEMPERATURE // Cool
FOOD MATCH // Mushroom & lentil pie. Dark chocolate.
VESSEL // Dimpled Handle

28/05/2026

This week BEER CLUB members are drinking…

BREWERY // ​Shortjaw Brewing is a proper West Coast homecoming story. Founder Luke Robertson grew up in Westport before spending years in Melbourne as one of Australia’s sharper beer voices, writing, podcasting and generally championing great beer through Ale of a Time, the blog and podcast that became his platform in the Australian beer scene. In the 2021 midst of a Covid-stunned world, Luke and his partner Emma Bemrose decided to leave Australia to take over Westport’s old local brewery, a place with a long and tumultuous brewing history. They set about reviving decades-old equipment, bringing fresh recipes, ideas and a community-minded approach. They named the brewery Shortjaw after the native shortjaw kōkopu, one of the West Coast’s whitebait species, and the whole thing is properly rooted in Buller. The taproom is a genuine local hub, where you will find small-batch beers, South Island ingredients, visitors, locals, a food truck, and this weekend, apparently, a plant swap. We're happy to be sharing a taste of the West Coast with all of you this week.

BEER //​ NZ Draught is our distinctly New Zealand beer style. A hybrid of British pub ales and industrial lager brewing. Amber-brown, lightly sweet, low in bitterness, it's a beer that has been drunk for well over a Century that was built for hard-working pubs and six o’clock swill drinking culture. Shortjaw's version shows up those mass produced Draughts and gives us an idea of what the style should taste like when made with care and the finest local ingredients. It's still an easy-drinking Kiwi beer but everything is elevated. This Fresh Hop iteration uses Motueka which adds a fresh zesty limey foil to the caramel malt that is perfectly balanced. It was possibly our favourite release of this year's fresh hop releases. It would have been easy to have thrown off the balance of this relatively delicate style but Shortjaw absolutely nailed it to create a beer that is both nostalgic and completely fresh.

BREWERY //​ Shortjaw
BEER //​ Fresh Hop Draught
STYLE //​ Draught
ABV // 4.2%
ORIGIN // Westport
TEMP // 6-8°C
FOOD MATCH //​ Cheese rolls, mince and cheese pie, mushroom burgers
VESSEL // Chilled Handle

21/05/2026

This week BEER CLUB members are drinking…

BREWERY // It's hard to believe that Garage Project was the only Wellington inner city brewery when a pair of old friends opened the doors to the former petrol station in 2011. Jos Ruffell was looking for a change after years working in the computer game industry and Pete Gillespie wanted to take charge after a decade of brewing commercially in the UK and Australia. Pete had been attempting to start a brewery in Australia but faced regulatory roadblocks, Wellington seemed the obvious choice. They started with the 24/24 programme - brewing and releasing a single keg of a different beer each week for 24 weeks. It has been an incredible journey for them over the past 15 years with many projects and innovations such as their magical Wild Workshop filled with barrels, amphora and foeders of wild beer, the Hāpi programme of hop development and Ruffell's Phantasm product which some describe as "MSG for beer".

BEER // Mild ale used to be the everyday beer of Britain. Not some niche dark old-man pint, but the default pub beer of factory workers, club regulars and post-shift drinkers across the Midlands and North of England. Originally “mild” simply meant fresh beer, and many were pale or amber long before the style drifted dark and low-strength through wartime rationing and changing tastes. Garage Project’s Chufty Badge reaches back into that older history with a golden mild that feels both historical and modern at once. The name comes from Northern English slang meaning an imaginary badge of self-congratulation for doing something fairly minor, which feels fitting for a beautifully understated 3.5% beer. There’s soft malt sweetness from pilsner and dark crystal malt, then modern American hops Adeena and Lórien layering in lemon zest, wildflowers, fresh hay and gentle pine. It’s subtle, ridiculously drinkable, and immaculately executed.

BREWERY // Garage Project
BEER // Chufty Badge
STYLE // Golden Mild
ABV // 3.5%
ORIGIN // Wellington
TEMP // 8-10°C
FOOD MATCH // Cheese and onion sandwich, Welsh rarebit, roast veggie pie
VESSEL // Nonic pint glass

14/05/2026

This week BEER CLUB members are drinking a very clever beer. I just hope you have a cheeseburger to go with it…

BREWERY // It's shocking to think that it's been almost a decade since Urbanaut started brewing in beautiful Morningside in 2017. The original team are Bruce, Simon and Thomas who became friends during their days at Rangitikei College and they've been joined by a fantastically talented crew over the years. In the early days they were focussed on lager and IPA styles but they now have a reputation for pushing boundaries with their experimental beers including a transparent IPA Beervana release and brews inspired by donuts and gummy worms. Brewer Bruce honed his craft working with legendary breweries Fullers and Meantime in London while Simon and Thomas ran a property development company so their combined skills came in handy when converting an old props hire warehouse into a sparkling brewery & taproom at the end of the Auckland Beer Mile where Burgernaut serves up fantastic burgers.

BEER // It's a sign of how far beer has come that we aren't all in shock at this especially peculiar-sounding beer. As odd as it sounds, the building blocks here are all very familiar. Sour, salty beers have been around for centuries with Germany's gose style, a tart wheat beer traditionally associated with Goslar and Leipzig, proving long ago that a little salinity can make beer incredibly refreshing. Lemonade and beer are also happy bedfellows in shandy, or Radler, as it is known by German cyclists. Pickle juice took a more chaotic route to respectability, most famously through the pickleback, the Brooklyn-born ritual of chasing whiskey with pickle brine, before bartenders and brewers started realising that dill, salt, acid and sweetness are not novelty flavours so much as the same things that make chips, fried chicken and burgers impossible to stop eating. Which brings us to this week's beer. It pours bright, tangy and light with plenty of lemonade-style citrus up front, a tart sour snap through the middle and then a savoury dill pickle edge that lands more refreshing than confrontational. The brininess makes your mouth water, the citrus keeps it lively and the low-ish abv means it is very smash-able. Most importantly - it is super quaffable, very funny and genuinely tasty. This could well be the perfect cheeseburger beer.

BREWERY // Urbanaut
BEER // Pickle Lemonade
STYLE // Sour
ABV // 3.8%
ORIGIN // Auckland Beer Mile
TEMP // 3 - 5 °C
FOOD MATCH // Smashburger with pickles and American cheese. Fried chicken with hot honey. Fish tacos with lime crema. Salt and vinegar chips. Reuben sandwich. Halloumi fries with dill yoghurt.
VESSEL // Willi Becher. Straight from the can at the beach.

07/05/2026

This week BEER CLUB members are drinking…

BREWERY // 8 Wired was born on a Christmas morning when Søren Eriksen unwrapped a Coopers malt extract kit from his future wife, Monique. Fast forward a few successful homebrews and a swift career change from biochemist to brewer, and Søren was crafting his own beers, starting as a contract brewer while still holding down a day job. The beers were extremely well received and they soon found a home to build their own brewery in beautiful Warkworth. 8 Wired is known for their wide range of traditional and innovative beer releases, as well as their extensive barrel-aging program, which includes seven large foedres and hundreds of wooden barrels. Their trophy cabinet is heavily laden with awards. A few recent highlights are winning Champion Brewery and Champion Beer (for Wild Feijoa) at last year's Brewer's Guild Awards and getting Supreme Winner at the 2024 New World Awards for Desperate Glory, brewed in collaboration with Small Gods.

BEER // The Kölsch Konvention demands that the style must be pale in colour, top-fermented, hop-accentuated and highly attenuated, though of course it also states that Kölsch can only be brewed within the metropolitan area of Cologne (Köln) which 8 Wired have politely ignored here. To the uninitiated the style is reminiscent of a lager, but Kölsch is actually fermented with ale yeast before being cold conditioned, giving it a subtle fruitiness while remaining as gleamingly fresh as its bottom fermented cousin. Gesundheit is a beautiful example of the style - exquisitely executed without giving in to temptation to give it a modern ‘craft’ twist by ramping up hops or adding adjuncts. Soft German malt gives gentle bread and cracker notes while the hops bring a delicate floral citrus edge rather than modern hop-bomb aggression. It’s the sort of beer that explains why Cologne drinkers traditionally consume Kölsch in tiny 200ml Stange glasses endlessly replenished by stern waiters carrying circular trays through crowded beer halls. One glass quickly becomes five.

BREWERY // 8 Wired
BEER // Gesundheit
STYLE // Kölsch
ORIGIN // Warkworth
ABV // 4.5%
TEMPERATURE // Cold. Straight from the fridge
FOOD MATCH // Halver Hahn (rye roll with gouda, mustard & onion). Himmel un Ääd (black pudding with apple & potato). Pretzels with mustard
VESSEL // Stange

30/04/2026

This week Beer Club members are drinking…

BREWERY // In 1919 Minnesotan representative Andrew Volstead's Act led to Prohibition in the USA. Quite a few years later Volstead Trading Company opened its doors as one of the cosiest bars in Christchurch with a marvellous selection of beers and comfy sofas. A few years after that, they made the smart decision of buying the brewery next door and Volstead Brewing was born. It was a natural progression for owner Jason Ray to start brewing their own beers after many years of serving (and sampling) the best beers round. He bought brewer Mike Cheer in to get things set up and together they quickly started cranking out world class brews. Volstead have primarily focussed on hop forward styles and embraced the use of Kveik yeast strains (learn more about kveik in my interview with Mike on the Beer Jerk Podcast). We're very happy to see their beer in cans so that those of us outside Christchurch can enjoy it too. If you're a fan of Volstead, you could own it - the brewery and bar are currently on the market...

BEER // West Coast IPA used to mean pine, bitterness, and attitude. In 90s California, brewers kicked against bland macro lagers by taking the English IPA style and amplifying everything for a full-noise experience that was divisive and “not for wussies”, as Stone proclaimed on bottles of Arrogant Bastard. There are now endless subcategories of the style, and this week’s beer harks back to those earlier days, when brewers would counter the hop assault with some chewy malt for a touch of sweetness, often using a little (horror) crystal malt. Gold Pan is loaded with a trio of fantastically distinctive hops, resulting in a trans-Pacific good time that blends the best of US and NZ varieties. Nelson Sauvin brings that unmistakable white wine character. Gooseberry, a touch of lime, something slightly sharp and lifted. Nectaron follows with a fuller, juicier hit. Pineapple, stonefruit, a soft tropical push that fills out the middle. Then Mosaic comes in underneath, adding structure. A bit of citrus peel, a bit of resin, maybe even a hint of blueberry. The 90s are now ancient history, and the once proudly independent Stone has changed hands again (from Sapporo to Duvel), but beers like this still echo those early, exciting days of modern craft beer.�
BREWERY // Volstead Brewing Co
BEER // Gold Pan Tea
STYLE // West Coast IPA
ABV // 6.6%
ORIGIN // Christchurch
TEMP // 6-8°C
FOOD MATCH // Roast pumpkin with sage. Mushroom and thyme pie. Sharp cheddar with oat crackers
VESSEL // IPA Glass or Teku

23/04/2026

This week Beer Club members are drinking…

BREWERY // Canyon opened their doors in June 2018 as a brewpub and restaurant in an incredible and unique location. Perched in the canyon of Arthur's Point near Queenstown, the beer garden overlooks the fast flowing Shotover River with views of occasional jetboats and adrenaline junkies swinging from the canyon bridge. It was started by the people behind local family-owned tourism company Real Journeys, one of New Zealand's most iconic tourism businesses. After the tourism year from hell of 2020 they decided to sell up, and local hospitality expert Jimmy Nicholson couldn't pass up the opportunity. Together with his business partners, the Paterson family - generational Central Otago farmers James, Jane and Jack - they took over at the end of 2020 and quickly set about growing the operation. The brewery has expanded to a second site at Robrosa Station, the Patersons' working sheep and cattle farm in the Cardrona Valley. Being farmers, they also grow their own malting barley, with their first harvest of 20 tonnes producing the region's first brewed-and-grown lager, Canyon Gold. Head brewer Kit Clinton-Baker puts out a steady stream of small batch and boundary pushing beers that receive no small amount of medals and trophies.

BEER // Farmhouse ales are an impossible to define style rooted in the European history of brewing small batches to sustain workers. Utilising whatever the farm had to hand, differing from village to village and farm to farm. Embracing 'terroir' and the seasons, these beers are a far cry from the industrial mega breweries that almost eradicated them in the 19th Century. This Central Otago take began with a light, dry farmhouse base that was left to rest in French oak for eight months, picking up a gentle structure, a touch of rustic depth, and a hint of vanilla. From there it’s re-fermented on strawberries from local Red Bridge Berries, giving a soft, natural fruit character that is fresh and Summery. The twist is the addition of staghorn sumac, which brings a sharp, lemony tang that lifts everything and keeps the beer bright and snappy. This unique beer is somewhere between a table saison and a rosé-adjacent farmhouse ale. Blushing pink, lightly funky, crisp and dry, with just enough oak to hold it all together. It’s also delicate. After reading all that you may be surprised at just how balanced and drinkable it is. Which is exactly what you want to drink after a long day labouring on the farm.�
BREWERY // Canyon
BEER // Red Bridge
STYLE // Strawberry & Sumac Farmhouse Ale
ABV // 4.2%
ORIGIN // Queenstown
TEMP // 6-8°C
FOOD MATCH // Goats cheese with honey and thyme. Grilled asparagus with lemon. Strawberry, basil and burrata salad
VESSEL // Teku or Tulip Glass

16/04/2026

This week BEER CLUB members are drinking…

BREWERY // Canyon opened their doors in June 2018 as a brewpub and restaurant in an incredible and unique location. Perched in the canyon of Arthur's Point near Queenstown, the beer garden overlooks the fast flowing Shotover River with views of occasional jetboats and adrenaline junkies swinging from the canyon bridge. It was started by the people behind local family-owned tourism company Real Journeys, one of New Zealand's most iconic tourism businesses. After the tourism year from hell of 2020 they decided to sell up, and local hospitality expert Jimmy Nicholson couldn't pass up the opportunity. Together with his business partners, the Paterson family - generational Central Otago farmers James, Jane and Jack - they took over at the end of 2020 and quickly set about growing the operation. The brewery has expanded to a second site at Robrosa Station, the Patersons' working sheep and cattle farm in the Cardrona Valley. Being farmers, they also grow their own malting barley, with their first harvest of 20 tonnes producing the region's first brewed-and-grown lager, Canyon Gold. Head brewer Kit Clinton-Baker puts out a steady stream of small batch and boundary pushing beers that receive no small amount of medals and trophies.

BEER // 2018 saw the launch of Canyon brewery, the invention of Cold IPA and the release of the unique hop variety, Sabro. The style is the result of brewer Kevin Davey at Wayfinder Beer in Portland wanting to make a beer that was 'wester than West Coast'. Putting a focus on the hoppy glory of a WCIPA by minimising malt character and embracing the best qualities of a good lager. Making it cleaner and drier by fermenting with lager yeast and stripping the malt bill back to almost nothing, creating a blank canvas for hops to do their thing. Wild Thing isn't as stripped-to-the bone as some Cold IPAs as it has a little malt softness, supported by a touch of wheat. It's hopped with Mosaic, Moutere and Sabro - a trio that delivers blueberry and tropical fruit, soft white grape from the Moutere's Nelson Sauvin heritage, and Sabro's distinctive coconut-tangerine edge, all riding on a clean lager-fermented base with wheat adding just enough body to carry those aromatics. It's the anti-hazy.�
BREWERY // Canyon
BEER // Wild Thing
STYLE // Cold IPA
ABV // 5.5%
ORIGIN // Queenstown
TEMP // 4-6°C
FOOD MATCH // Spicy peanut noodles. Halloumi with preserved lemon and mint. Cauliflower fritters with chilli sauce
VESSEL // IPA Glass

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2/2 Shaddock Street
Auckland
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