So the next morning we woke up late again (woopsy!) and left the campsite around 11am with none of the tom foolery mark mentioned in the last blog!

We planned to explore the Otago Peninsula today before heading back to Dunedin for our Speights Brewery tour. Well unfortunately we over estimated the size of the peninsula and within 20 minutes or so of leaving the campsite we arrived at Taiaroa Head, at the peninsula’s eastern tip. This also happened to be home to the world’s only mainland Royal Albatross colony, however unfortunately the only public access to the colony is through the centre which charge you $35 for an hour guide. We weren’t sure what the benefit of taking the tour would be as, unsurprisingly, being birds they often like to spread their massive wings (wingspan of up to 3 feet!!) and have a fly, therefore you could watch them for free by standing in the carpark, which is what we did!
Just below the carpark in a small bay called Pilot Beach live a colony of the world’s smallest penguins, the Blue Penguin. Although it was still early afternoon we had a walk down ‘just in case’ but saw only more Sea Lions and Fur Seals dotted about. So it was still early afternoon and we really wanted to see either of the penguins come ashore before we had to leave so we decided the best bet would be to go back to Sandfly Bay and see the yellow eyed penguins as it was closer to Dunedin and we should then have enough time to get back for the brewery tour.

We arrived there around 1:30 so we parked up and had some lunch before setting off towards the beach around 3pm. At this point we were the only people on the cliff top and you could understand why. The weather was horrendous with gale force winds sweeping up the cliffs and waves thundering so far up the beach that we wouldn’t have had enough room to walk along it without clambering over Sea Lions to get to the look-out hut. We made a swift about turn and headed back to the campervan, where we sat for a few minutes thawing our toes out!! Feeling a bit disgruntled we decided to make a dash back to Pilot Beach and try and spy some Blue Penguins instead. We stood there for 30 minutes or so, all the while the wind and rain whipped at our faces, before we had to leave to make the tour! Not a very productive day at all!

Anyway, the thought of ‘free’ beer soon cheered us up and Mark was all excited like a kid at Christmas! With it being Sunday, and the fact our tour was at 6pm anyway, the factory itself wasn’t operating which we hadn’t even thought about otherwise we probably would have waited ‘till Monday but in a good way it meant we could have a proper look around the place and at the machinery. The tour guide explained that we wouldn’t have been able to see much of it up close due to Health & Safety as the machines get quite hot. Also in the fermenting room the CO2 levels sometimes got too high so we probably wouldn’t have been able to go in there either!

Anyway some history on the Speights brewery itself;

The factory was founded by 3 Englishmen, one being James Speight, in 1876 and still occupies the original site. All the copper brewing kettles and machinery were shipped over from England and even the floors were tiled using Royal Doulton. Effectively, we’re in New Zealand, in what was originally a Scottish settlement (Dunedin) and yet the brewery is most definitely English in origin.

Mark…..

In 1940 a massive fire broke out and burnt the whole factory to the ground, save from the basement and lower floor. As the rebuilding process gathered pace the following year and the blue prints for the new factory were drawn up, one junior brewer happened across these plans and scribbled a barrel at the peak of the chimney, obviously as some kind of prank.
As it turned out however, the plans were never re-checked, the chimney remained within the blue prints, eventually being built in 1941. The barrel can still be seen today.

Today, Speights has numerous breweries around New Zealand and brews many household names such as Heineken and Guiness for bottling and export. Speights is also imminently due to be overtaken by a Japanese brewery.

If your thinking about taking the tour though, fear not as the original Speights brewery here in Dunedin still only brews the 6 ‘traditional’ ales and even then only for distribution through the taps in bars in order to retain maximum quality. They do not bottle or can any of the ales brewed here. They also only brew to order, with generally 3 days per week being dedicated to brewing.

Effectively the original brewery still operates in much the same way as it would have done when first founded.

So, our tour began with some of the basic history on the company, as I have outlined, along with some more general history in terms of brewing and beer related history.

For example, if you have ever wondered where the term to “skull” your beer originated, I shall now enlighten you…

This phrase dates back to the Vikings as, following victory in battle they would gather the skulls of their defeated opponents, cut off the top and clean it before finally drinking from it. This was done to bring the victor good luck as they believed that if they did not do this, after the next battle it would be their skull being drunk from!

Nice huh!? That’s definitely not what I thought it referred to but interesting none the less.

After the history lesson we began passing through the various rooms within the brewery, detailing each stage of the brewing process. The factory itself was really quite interesting as you wandered through almost seeing the past meet the modern age as the process was a strange mix of the original copper machinery shipped here in the late 1800’s along with numerous computer systems and electronics dotted around, both working together to produce the Speights ale.

As we finished the tour of the brewery itself it was finally the moment we had all been waiting for…

The tasting session!

The main reason we came on the late tour was due to the Aussies we met at Milford telling us that the late tour occasionally got an extended session in the bar at the end. Well, not ones to look a gift horse in the mouth we followed their advice and it paid off as we had around half an hour in the bar at the end as opposed to the 15 minutes that is advertised (result!).

The tasting session is conducted in a private bar within the brewery that is basically a single bar with 6 beer taps, one for each of the traditional ales, of which you can pour yourself, as many as you want in the time you have.

All in all it’s a free bar free-for-all. After a few glasses people began to talk and mingle, discussing ale and the various ‘aroma’s’ that they could taste and smell…

We tried all six (obviously) and to give you an idea I’ve included a brief outline of each below along with our own ratings:

Name Description Ratings (Mark) (Aimee)

Pilsner Light lager in the style of the Czechs. 7 2
Porters Rich dark ale with a coffee flavour. 8 5
Distinction The original Speights ale. Middle of the road. 5 7
Old Dark Mild traditional style ale. 4 4
Gold Medal #1 ale in NZ for the past 6 years. 7 6
Summit Light lager. Think Corona but not as nice! 6 4

All in all we both enjoyed it, just a shame the free bar wasn’t even longer!

Finally, after dining on a supper of Porters sausages and mash (unfortunately not included in the tour though!) we had one last thing to do…

One of the reasons that the Speights ale brewed here in Dunedin is reputed to taste better is down to the unlimited supply of natural spring water the brewery has as a result of the site sitting upon a massive natural spring.

As well as producing all of their ales using their own pure water however, Speights also has a tap situated outside of the brewery on the street allowing the public free access to this natural spring water.

Over 1 million litres of spring water were given away to the public last year according to Speights themselves.

Well, we’d done our homework and about a week or so ago began retaining our empty water bottles in preparation for our visit here.
Upon leaving the brewery therefore (and making sure there was no-one in sight - we still felt bad in some strange way) I sneaked across the road with a bag full of empty bottles to fill…

It is easily the nicest, most pure water I have ever tasted. Ever. They do say things are so much better when there free!

All that was left for the evening was to head to our campsite just out of the city centre and bed down for the night ahead of our visit to Cadburys in the morning.