The Winning Kereru Team

We want you to enjoy our beer in the best condition possible. We go out of our way to source the best quality NZ grown malt, hops and specialty ingredients. The water in Upper Hutt is some of the best for brewing beer.

Our Gluten-Free beers are made with extra care using only sorghum, rice, millet (certain beers), hops, yeast and water. As we make traditional barley-based beers on the same plant we take special measures to make certain that our GF beer meets the tougher Australia and NZ requirements for being called “gluten free” (none detected at 3PPM vs 20PPM elsewhere). Have a look at our Auro gluten-free beer to learn more about this.

We guarantee that only the best and freshest beer will be sent to you, or our re-sellers. To ensure this we operate an independently verified Custom Food Control Plan which adheres to the principles of HACCP. This is a higher-level of food-safety than New Zealand law requires us to operate under and means you can be confident that we take freshness, quality and food safety seriously so that you can enjoy our awesome beers with friends and family.

OUR INGREDIENTS

Whenever possible, our ingredients are locally-sourced and NZ-produced. And when we’re finished with them, a local farmer collects spent grains to feed his animals.

SUSTAINABLE ENERGY

Our brewery uses a co-generation heat recovery system. Instead of sending the waste heat from our chiller into the sky, we generate our own free hot water year round.

NO PLASTIC CUPS!

Our cellar door only uses corn-based tasting cups that biodegrade quickly.

SUPPORT OUR LOCALS

We spend mindfully. Our dollars make a difference, and whenever possible, we support family-owned and local businesses.

Native bird life in New Zealand is essential to the wellbeing of the environment. The native New Zealand wood pigeon (kererū / kūkū / kūkupa) was a natural choice as the symbol for our brewery – they are beautiful and gregarious birds. They have been known to get into trouble after consuming overripe fruit and attempting to fly while overladen, or inebriated. They can be injured if they fly into (or through) windows. 

We donate a portion of the proceeds of  our Bird Alert Stickers and other merchandise to Project Kererū which seeks to rehabilitate injured birds for re-release back into the wild.

Our people are always more important than our products. We designed our manufacturing environment to ensure our staff’s personal safety. We manufacture our products under HACCP principles and a strict Custom Food Control Plan registered with MPI to ensure the safety of the public who are consuming our products.

We pay our staff Living Wage or better, assist with training costs to enable staff to gain relevant industry qualifications as well as professional memberships. We offer flexibility for staff (when possible) to allow for flex-time, time-in-lieu, working from home and general well-being.