McCashin's Brewery, also known as Mac's Brewery in the past, is a small

brewery A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. The commercial brewing of bee ...

based in

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, New Zealand. It was founded in 1980/81 by one of the pioneers of craft brewing, Terry McCashin, who produced the well-known Mac's beer. Today it produces Rochdale Cider and a range of Stoke beers.

History

The property on Main Road Stoke in the Nelson suburb of Stoke started life as the Rochdale Cider factory in the late 1930s. The production facility was located in the rear section of the current building. In the 1930s and 1940s there were around five cider producers in the area, including one just across the road, Robinson’s, but by the 1970s, Rochdale was the only large commercial producer in New Zealand. The current building was erected in the 1950s. It was purchased in 1980 by former

All Black The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks ( mi, Ōpango), represents New Zealand in men's international rugby union, which is considered the country's national sport. The team won the Rugby World Cup in 1987, ...

rugby player and farmer Terry McCashin and his wife Beverley. They continued to make Rochdale Cider, but also began brewing craft beer for the first time in New Zealand, with the help of brewer Jim Pollitt. Mac's beer was launched on 26 September 1981, with then

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, Robert Muldoon, in attendance. The small brewery (sometimes referred to as Mac's brewery) had to compete with the two giants in the market,

Lion Nathan Lion is an alcoholic beverage company that operates in Australia and New Zealand, and a subsidiary of Japanese beverage conglomerate Kirin. It produces and markets a range of beer and cider in Australia, and wine in New Zealand and the Unite ...

and

Dominion Breweries DB Breweries is a New Zealand-based brewing company, owned by Heineken Asia Pacific. Founded in 1930 by Sir Henry Kelliher and W Joseph Coutts, the partners purchased Levers and Co. and the Waitemata Brewery Co. in Otahuhu. Asia Pacific Breweri ...

, and McCashin is today regarded as a pioneer of craft beer. In 1999 Lion bought the Mac's brand, and in 2000 began leasing the Mac's premises. As the popularity of the brand grew, Lion started producing Mac’s beers in

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, then

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and, after the

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s, in

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. Lion established a number of "Mac's Brewbars" around New Zealand. In 2009, McCashin's son Dean McCashin and his wife Emma moved to Nelson, relaunching the brewery under its original name, McCashin's Brewery, producing beer under the newly-created Stoke brand and resuming the production of Rochdale-branded cider.

Description

A range of different styles of beer is produced using traditional methods, organic hops and specially cultured yeast, including

IPA IPA commonly refers to: * India pale ale, a style of beer * International Phonetic Alphabet, a system of phonetic notation * Isopropyl alcohol, a chemical compound IPA may also refer to: Organizations International * Insolvency Practitioners ...

dark ale Ale is a type of beer brewed using a warm fermentation method, resulting in a sweet, full-bodied and fruity taste. Historically, the term referred to a drink brewed without hops. As with most beers, ale typically has a bittering agent to bala ...

and

pilsner Pilsner (also pilsener or simply pils) is a type of pale lager. It takes its name from the Bohemian city of Plzeň (german: Pilsen), where the world's first pale lager (now known as Pilsner Urquell) was produced in 1842 by Pilsner Urquell Bre ...

. The non-alcoholic range consists of Stoke Lemon Lime and Bitters and Ginger Beer, and still and

sparkling water Carbonated water (also known as soda water, sparkling water, fizzy water, club soda, water with gas, in many places as mineral water, or especially in the United States as seltzer or seltzer water) is water containing dissolved carbon dioxide gas, ...

, branded "Palaeo", sourced from a source underneath the brewery, is also bottled and sold. There is also a restaurant called the Brewery Kitchen, which also provides off-site catering.

References

External links

* {{official, http://www.mccashins.co.nz/ 1981 establishments in New Zealand Breweries of New Zealand Kirin Group

History

Description

See also

References

Further reading

External links