The brewery: " Breweries big and small regularly win international awards, and Kiwi beer lovers are spoilt for choice. This wasn’t the case in 1981. Back then, the word craft was only used was to describe the crocheted socks your nana churned out for the church fair.
Then, in 1981, a man called Terry changed all that. He was a publican, and didn’t think much of the beer he could get for his pub, so he thought: ‘What if I brewed some myself?’. No-one had applied for a brewing license for 50 years, and no-one could even remember what forms you had to fill out. But he persevered, and he got his forms, and he got his license, and he brewed his beer, and what he brewed was Mac’s."
The beer: "Black Mac is a smooth Porter with hints of caramel, liquorice & chocolate. Earnestly made from a combo of 5 different malts, topped with Fuggle hops. Black Mac swims with dark undercurrents of caramel, liquorice and chocolate, topped off with the unique aroma of the Fuggles. Yes, they’re really called that. No self-respecting brewery can do without a spectacular dark ale hogging the limelight, and of course no brewers are more self-respecting than Mac's. It tempers the smoothness of its toasted malts with the characterful presence of its hops. No wonder it's proven such a perennial favourite."
December 2023.