Speight's Brewery Tour

So I went on my first of age brewery tour! Speight's Brewery is a brewery based in Dunedin and is one of the largest producers of beer in New Zealand. Speight's began in 1876 when three friends from the UK got together and decided to emigrate to New Zealand to begin producing beer. By 1880 they were winning awards across New Zealand and by 1886 they were the largest beer producer in New Zealand and most of Australasia as well. They continue to be a huge producer of beer and sponsor many favorite New Zealand past times like rugby and cricket.

We toured the original brewery right here in Dunedin. Only one of the original buildings of the first brewery still stand after the brewery rebuilt most of them in 1940. Also, Speight's had just finished at 32 million dollar retrofitting of their brewing equipment to increase production 250% to cover the loss of their other brewery in Christchurch that was demolished in the earthquake. Our tour guide said they had just sent the German engineers home a month ago and were now producing fully with the new systems. The cool part about this meant that we got to see all of the old equipment and it was when it was in production without being in the way of any of the workers.

A view of the old brewery with all 140 employees out front.

The old water boilers, they now hold fresh water for the new equipment.

The old chimney, the beer barrel at the top was actually a joke played by the architect's assistant but James Speight liked it so much he kept it as a marketing tool.

The malt crushing equipment, used in production from 1940-2013.

The building with the curved top is the last part of the old brewery built in 1876, the black building next to it is the new brew floor.

Some of the old copper brewing apparatuses.

Of course, at the end of the tour we got to taste test all of the beers that Speight's currently makes. They had six options: Speight's Gold Medal Ale, Old Dark, Speight's Summit, A Pilsner, Distinction, and a hard cider. My favorite was Distinction which was about halfway between a dark beer and the Gold Medal Ale, very tasty.

Taste testing session! (ignore the old guy photo bombing)