I was in Dunedin last week brewing a beer for Regional Wines and Spirits with Richard Emerson. It’s the third winter in a row that has seen me visit the southern Scottish tinged city with its icy dark streets, snow clad hills, old stone buildings and warm cosy ale houses. 

One thing that always strikes me about Dunedin is that it’s a city that makes things. While Wellington leaves visitors with the impression of a city fuelled by government, administration and creative industries, Dunedin is dominated by the Cadbury chocolate factory, the railway engineering yards, the now unused Willowbank Distillery and of course the historic Speights Brewery.

Alongside Lion Nathan’s Speights there are five other breweries in Dunedin with Emerson’s Wickliffe Street Brewery being easily the largest independent operation. Emerson’s Brewery is unique in that it allows the brewers to produce beer in 200L, 1200L, 2400L or 5000L batches.  

This year we brewed 1200L of a ‘sessionable’ Best Bitter called Regional Best Bitter or R.B.B. for short.  R.B.B. combines a rich toffee tinged malt character, zesty earthy hops and a fruity rounded yeast note and will be released during the annual Emerson’s Long Weekend next month.  It’s the sort of beer that presents complex flavours and full body while delivering moderate alcohol, the sort of beer you can drink several pints of and still get up the next morning and go to work, in short it’s the sort of beer that’s perfect for people who make things.

Cheers!