HACCP accreditation completes great month for Marlborough based brewery

Renaissance Brewing, a Marlborough based craft brewer, is celebrating a number of successes. At the end of January Renaissance collected two gold medals in the RateBeer 2010 Beer Awards. The week after Renaissance appointed their first overseas distributor by engaging BGS Intertrade to look after its beers in Ontario, Canada. The month was completed with the successful accreditation of a HACCP food safety programme by the New Zealand Food Safety Authority, a project that had been successfully managed by Australasian Food and Beverage consultancy Aura Sustainability.

The gold medals in what is billed as “the world’s largest beer competition” were awarded to only 10 beers in Australia and New Zealand and were presented to Renaissance for their Elemental Porter and Stonecutter Scotch Ale. Andy Deuchars, Head Brewer at Renaissance says, “We really enjoy making these beers and find that they have a good following within the craft beer scene. Having worked as both a brewer and a winemaker here in Marlborough I enjoy making beers that extend the palate and match well with food, these two beers certainly deliver great food pairing options.”

Marlborough has long been famed for its wines, but now there is a real groundswell of great craft breweries emerging. Brian Thiel, Managing Director, thinks the path that Marlborough wineries have trodden will make it easier for the regions craft brewers to gain a stronger foothold.

“Marlborough has developed into New Zealand’s gourmet province, and as producers of top end beverages, the craft brewers of the region have a great opportunity to leverage off the wine industry. The Moa brand produced by Josh Scott is testament to this. With other craft breweries emerging such as 8 Wired, as well as the old staple of Pink Elephant, Marlborough beer has a very strong story and great quality to take to the world.”

Renaissance has been in operation since 2005 and an array of local accolades, as well as the internationally recognised HACCP accreditation, has put them in a position where they are ready to expand into export markets. Thiel says, “We recently appointed a distributor in Canada that looks after a number of international beers as well as a few Marlborough wine brands. We are also in discussions with partners in the USA, Australia and Hong Kong. It’s an exciting time for us and we are definitely finding that the Marlborough name is helping us in this development.”

Roger Kerrison of Aura Sustainability, who designed and implemented the HACCP system for Renaissance Brewing said, “Having Food Safety accreditation is of vital importance to the brewery as they now have very stringent systems in place to ensure product quality. They had been told by a number of large Australasian retailers that food safety was of paramount importance in being able to sell directly into central supply chains. Not only will it benefit their own brands development, but also the brands of the contract beers they make for independent clients.”

Renaissance have a core range of 7 beers* and the beers are available in 500ml bottles and 50 litre kegs in New Zealand direct from the brewery or through its distributor BeerNZ.

*Perfection Pale Ale, Discovery American Pale Ale, Paradox Blonde, Marlborough Imperial Pale Ale, Elemental Porter, Stonecutter Scotch Ale, Craftsman Chocolate Stout.