A Cock and Bull Story: End of an era for brewpubs

19 July 2012

A Cock and Bull Story

End of an era for brewpubs

SOBA is disappointed to learn that the recent sale of the Cock & Bull pubs to Nourish Group will lead to the phasing-out of the Cock & Bull's award-winning craft beers. Nourish Group, which owns restaurants such as Euro & Jervois Steak House as well as bars such as O'Hagans and Wellington's Shed 5, has confirmed that they will be phasing out the locally-brewed craft beers from the Cock & Bull pubs starting from early August.

The Cock & Bull pubs were established in Auckland in 1995 by Kieran Meyer and partners to produce English-style ales of the highest quality. The brewery, which was later separated off to form Steam Brewing, launched the careers of modern-day legends of Kiwi brewing such as Ben Middlemiss & Luke Nicholas, creator of Epic. Beers such as Classic Draught, Blue Goose, Fuggles & Monks Habit were instrumental in kickstarting the craft-brewing revolution in New Zealand and went on to win many awards at national and international brewing competitions. Monks Habit by itself has won over 60 awards, including Supreme Champion Beer of New Zealand on 2 occasions.

Now these beers seem likely to disappear from the New Zealand market. Nourish has confirmed that they have a supply deal with Lion Breweries and that, as a result, the Cock & Bull beers will be phased-out from early August.

SOBA, which campaigns to promote greater availability of a wider range of quality beers in New Zealand, feels that this is a disappointing backward step for the beer industry. The recent City Of Ales festival, organised by SOBA and held in Auckland, showcased a wide range of quality beers produced in New Zealand's largest city including Fuggles and a trial beer based on Monks Habit.

SOBA spokesman (and City Of Ales festival organiser) Martin Bridges said "The Cock & Bull pubs introduced me and countless others to a delicious range of quality beers. It is sad to see these beers disappearing at the same time as the craft beer industry is growing strongly across New Zealand and Auckland is its largest market. We appeal to the Nourish Group to reconsider their decision and to retain at least some of the Cock & Bull beers in their pubs."

SOBA was formed in 2006 in order to increase awareness of and appreciation for flavourful crafted beers.

www.soba.org.nz

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