New Zealand’s First Brewer Celebrated This Month

New Zealand’s First Brewer Celebrated This Month

New Zealand’s first brewer is being celebrated nearly 250 years on from when he added foliage from rimu trees and manuka shrubs to molasses and boiled it in a cauldron.

Captain James Cook sighted landfall off Poverty Bay in 1769 as he was searching for the great southern continent and, early the following year on January 16, he sailed into Ship Cove in Queen Charlotte Sound.

One of his priorities at Ship Cove, where he made base, was to brew a fresh batch of beer for his crew. He used a recipe of young branches from the North American Spruce tree which were boiled with malt extract and molasses, fermented in the barrel and drunk two days later.

When he couldn’t fine Spruce trees in New Zealand, Cook used young rimu foliage and, after trial and error, he added Manuka (Tee Tree) foliage to sweeten the beer and add ginger and spice to the flavour.

Now people attending Captain Cook packages this month, which include a voyage of discovery to Cook’s landing place, have the opportunity to drink the beer made by New Zealand’s first brewer.

Luxury Lodge, Bay Of Many Coves, is offering the packages betweenJanuary 5-25, as part of its build-up to the 250th anniversary in 2020. The lodge is nestled close to Ship Cove which provided safe anchorage, food and fresh water, a place to relax and timber to repair Cook’s ships, the Endeavour and Resolution.

The authentic beer itself comes from the Wigram Brewing Company in Christchurch which created its first batch nearly 10 years ago.

Managing Director, Paul McGurk, says he was approached by two Canterbury enthusiasts, Mike Bradstock and Bruce Griffiths, in 2005 to produce the beer. “We made it strictly to Cook’s recipe, sourcing the rimu from the West Coast and the manuka, also from the West Coast and Banks Peninsula, and including the best quality treacle,” Paul says.

“We then added our modern day techniques of filtration, carbonation, temperature control and left the beer in the barrel to ferment for five to six weeks.” He says the beer has a spicy, gingery taste with hints of smoked manuka. It has the aroma of native bush.

Paul describes the beer Cook brewed as tasting like paint stripper because it lacked today’s standards of hygiene and was only allowed to stay in the barrel for 48 hours before drinking.

The Spruce Beer, which is one of the unique attractions of the Captain Cook packages, won the Gold Medal for being Best In Class by the Brewers Guild of New Zealand in 2014.

While it’s a niche beer for the award winning Wigram Brewing Company, Paul says he’ll make more as the 250th anniversary of Cook’s circumnavigation of New Zealand approaches and demand increases.

Co-owner of Bay of Many Coves, Murray McCaw, says the Captain Cook package includes a trip on the Dolphin Watch from Picton to Motuara Island where Cook proclaimed New Zealand a British Territory and Ship Cove to view the Cook Monument. On the way guests will experience wonderful and rare wildlife including dolphins, seals and native birds.

They stay at the luxury lodge for two nights where they’ll enjoy Bay Of Many Coves’ award winning cuisine which includes deliciously prepared pork cuts from the Captain Cooker, a descendent of the English pig that James Cook introduced into New Zealand.

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