‘Funky’ Mount brewing team named ‘Best in the Bay’

Mount Maunganui craft brewers have celebrated being named Best Brewery in the Bay of Plenty, saying “life’s too short to drink boring beer.”

The Funk Estate team received the award from the Society of Beer Advocates Inc., *SOBA, on Saturday (February 24) in Tauranga.

Mount Maunganui-based Funk Estate re-located from Auckland in 2017 to team up with Mount Brewing Company and share brewing facilities at the Rising Tide brewhouse and eatery.

Funk CEO Jordan Evison says that after years of working hard the team is thrilled to be named Best Brewery in the Bay of Plenty.

“ Of course, it’s been very much a team effort – my partners are Dylan Shearer and Shigeo Takagi – and we are all stoked with the win and looking forward to seeing how we can continue to grow Funk Estate while naturally, ‘staying funky.’

“Funk has made it a personal mission to keep things fresh and funky on the craft beer scene – by thinking outside the box to consistently develop award-winning, unique quality brews,” he says.

Highlights of the year have included their Jungle Boogie, a “blood orange” sour ale, being named at 18th place in the GABS (Great Australasian Beer SpecTAPpular) Top 100 Beers.

Another highlight has been the launch of a tangy blackcurrant cider called Purple Rain, Mr Evison says.

“We’ve been blown away by the response we’ve had on Purple Rain, our first foray into cider has gone great!”

Funk’s range of canned beers and kegs are distributed widely throughout New Zealand, and are available at all good beer venues, he says.

“Funk now annually produces hundreds of thousands of litres and exports beer to countries including Australia, Japan and Thailand and has also exported to Taiwan.”

BACKGROUND

*SOBA is a “consumer-based organisation with a mission to educate, promote, and advocate for the appreciation of, and access to, a diverse range of quality beer.”

Funk Estate was launched in Wellington in May 2012. The company spent two years brewing from premises in Grey Lynn in Auckland before relocating to Mt Maunganui in late 2017.

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