Tour-atara

It was an exciting day. My friend Hamish had organised a tour around the new Tuatara brewery in
Paraparaumu. After the dilemma of how we were going to get there and back (thanks for agreeing to drive Andy, although five burly lads packed into a Toyota Corolla is pretty tight going. Lucky we are all friends.) Suitably situated in an industrial area we pulled up to the wood paneled warehouse which serve as the new Tuatara brewery. After years being up at owner Carl Vasta's farm in the hills above Paraparaumu they finally ran out of room.

We all started out with a pint of the Aeotearoa Pale Ale before seating ourselves around the big table to listen to Fraser McInnes, one of the founders of the brewery and former owner of bar Bodega, tell us all about the history of Tuatara and the history of beer. Not sure about the factual accuracy of it all but it was pretty convincing that beer is the reason we have civilisation as we know it.

That was the right amount of time to finish our pints before making our way out the back to where all the magic happens. It being the weekend there was no work underway but it meant we could comfortably walk through without getting in people's way. Fraser showed us how they make their mash, the tanks for brewing, the freezer where they keep a dizzying array of hops and the big bottling machine which filled, labelled and capped leaving the "Oompa Loompas" to fill the boxes at the end. He also revealed that they do some contract brewing for some of the smaller Wellington brewers, like Yeastie Boys.

After that we were out the front again, each with our tasting rack filled with fou little glasses. We had selected the Pilsner, the Tripel, the Aotearoa Pale Ale, and the Double Trouble. Suffice to say it was very pleasant sitting outside in the autumn sun sipping on our beers. I won't talk about all the different beers. Can save that for another time, other than to say Fraser said that he thinks the Tripel (the current seasonal brew) is a bit sweeter than they had hoped, but if you buy some now and put them away they should be tasting just right by the end of the year.

Sufficiently lubricated we decided to finish things off with a bit of shopping. Must have gotten a bit excited by the whole thing as I walked away with a t-shirt and a half gallon flagon of APA. Apparently you have to drink it within 24 hours of opening. Might need some help with that one....