NOTHING about mike’s Organic Brewery is orthodox. Not even the name. (The lower case m is not a typo – it’s a mistake director Ron Trigg decided to keep).
“It’s just a little bit quirky and we’re a bit that way inclined. Maybe they think we’re a bit backward here in Urenui [Taranaki].” Oh, right. Not backward: “different”.
And now, following success in the BrewNZ Beer Awards, it appears difference pays. The company’s two-year-old “big and bold” Premium Organic Whisky Porter took out the Capital Times’ Beervana People’s Choice Award and the Premium Organic double India Pale Ale won silver.
“We’ve never won a medal for that [organic whisky] beer. To go out there and for everybody at the awards to say that: ‘hey, this is the most popular beer’ was a huge vote of confidence.”
mike’s Organic Brewery is New Zealand’s second smallest, bottles and labels by hand, caps just like home brewers do and makes runs of beer of 1,000 litres. The commercial guys deal with eight to 10,000 litres at a time and Trigg says that means his smaller company can viably experiment with small runs of new beers – the big guys can’t.
The whisky porter – which retails from $25 to $40 per bottle - was an initial run of 402 bottles that sold out in the first week.
“People just wouldn’t have bought that a few years ago. It’s just been phenomenal. The bigger guys can’t really do these sorts of weird as beers,” the Zimbabwean says.
Mike Johnson set up the brewery in 1989. It began as a shed in a paddock and “I’ve been home brewing for yonks”. Trigg and his dad bought it three years ago. Even now, it’s one of only four in the country that is organic.
“We’re a bit different. That whole organic thing we take quite seriously but it’s not a religion.”
So that’s it. Simplicity pays. “We can’t compete with the big guys, so we don’t even try.”