Tag: Mac’s Brewhouse

Wellington Craft Beer

It seem that everywhere you go in Wellington there is either a craft brewery or a cafe/bar/restaurant with an exceptional range of craft beers. With only 36 hours in Wellington this post probably only touches the tip of the iceberg of the craft beer scene in the city.

Mac’s Green Beret IPA 5.4% Amber/Gold, clear, light head, citrus, grapefruit, touch of caramel. Very drinkable.

Mac’s Interstate APA  5.0% Amber,clear with little or no head.Low/medium bitterness. Full flavour and refreshing.

Mac’s Great White 5% Wheatbeer. Yellow, cloudy, good head. Lovely flavours of tropical fruit, banana and bubblegum. Nice texture. A nice drink.

Mac’s Hoprocker 5% Yellow/gold in appearance, refreshing pilsner style beer.

Mac’s Sassy Red 4.5% Dark amber in colour, nice malty, caramel flavour, low bitterness.

Parrotdog Bitterbitch IPA 5.8% Named after the problems associated with controlling the bitterness one early brews this is an amber beer, slight haze, light head. yeasty, malty, nice bitterness, hoppy, full flavoured. very nice.

The Garage Project. The Pernicious Weed 8%  Golden, slight haze, light head, full flavourIntensely hoppy but balanced with a nice touch of caramel. A fine beer.

Fortune Favours The Nine Nine APA 5% Pale amber, slight haze, crisp, clean, low bitterness. Nice easy drinking style.

Fortune Favours The Adventurer 5% Pilsner, yellow/gold,  low bitterness,  touch of caramel. Refreshing, you could drink a lot of this. Very good.

Te Aro. Pilsner 5.1% Golden, clear, good head. Lemon, quite rich in style, smokey, full flavour.

Brewmoon. Hophead Pale Ale 5% Amber,clear, no head at all. Low bitterness, caramel/malty. easy drinking style.

36 Hours in Wellington

With only 36 hours in Wellington a good plan is essential. This is our guide as to how to spend that precious time.

  1. Mount Victoria. A must for those awe inspiring 360 degree views of the city. I have posted a few photographs here
  2. Take the cable car. Located at 280 Lambton Quay this is another way to get some good views. It is actually a funicular railway but don’t let that put you off. Cars run ever ten minutes and it costs 7.50NZD for a return trip. Once at the top you can visit the Cable Car Museum, The Observatory,  the  Botanic Gardens or simply grab some excellent coffee at The Kowhai Cafe before heading back down again.

3. Walk along the waterfront. A great free activity and always plenty so see. there are also numerous bars and restaurants along the way

4. Te Papa. The national museum of New Zealand is yet another free attraction. So good it deserved a post all on its own, You can read it here

5. Visit a gallery. We had hoped to visit The City Gallery, located in Civic Square,  but it was closed until early March 2018 so  made do with the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts, which is also free. Currently housing an exhibition of the 26th Annual Wallace At Awards winners.

6. Cuba Street. Reportedly Wellingtons coolest street. Partly pedestrianised it has an eclectic mixtures of buildings, shops, cafes, bars and restaurants.Time spent strolling up and down and exploring its heart is well worth doing.

7. Visit a bar and sample some of the many craft beers made in the city. here are three places worth a visit.

Fortune Favours – 7 Leeds Street and very close to Cuba Street. Opened in 2016. You can see the beer being brewed before your very eyes you sample some of their previous efforts. the beers are really rather good. Fortune Favours

Goldings Free Dive – 14 Leeds Street. A great bar that features some nice beers. The atmosphere in here is amazing even late afternoon. The Star Was memorabilia around the place keeps you busy making sure you spot it all. Goldings Free Dive

Mac’s Brewbar – 4 Taranaki Street. Down by the waterfront and with seating both inside and out. The beer is good and there is even a restaurant attached. They also have an interesting display of lampshades!

8. All the sightseeing will probably make you hungry, well it does to me, so here are couple of suggestions out of the many on offer.

Nikau Cafe – Round the back of The City Gallery and only open until 4pm so an ideal lunch spot.Get here early, the outside seating fills up very quickly with all tables taken by 12.30 on the day we visited. The cooking here is excellent and on par with many restaurants where you might have to pay considerably more, their kedgeree was outstanding. Nikau Cafe

Beach Babylon – 232 Oriental Parade. Directly opposite Wellingtons beach which I am led to believe was created by importing sand. Beach Babylon is open for breakfast at 8am until late. The cooking here was very good and reasonably priced. they have some great beers too. Beach Babylon