Now available!
Beer Writer of the Year, Brewers Guild of New Zealand, 2013 and 2016
Shortlisted for the Best Beer Book, Gourmand World Cookbook Awards 2012
Pull up a bar stool and listen to the life story of beer in New Zealand as award-winning raconteur Michael Donaldson spins a yarn about our favourite beverage…
Meticulously researched and warmly told, Beer Nation recounts the foundations of beer, details the often fraught growth of a fledgling industry, exposes the modern age of commerce and big business, and plots the rise and rise of upstart craft breweries — through numerous interviews and first-hand stories from the very personalities behind beer and brewing in New Zealand.
Beer Nation is a rollicking tale that will inform, regale and awaken your thirst for New Zealand’s beloved drop.
Michael Donaldson is an Auckland-based journalist and writer. Born in Palmerston North in 1963, he has a degree in Physical Education from Otago University and worked as a sports writer for most of his 25 years in journalism.
A keen home-brewer, he started writing about beer for the Sunday Star-Times in 2010 and since then has twice won the Beer Writer of the Year title at Brewers Guild of New Zealand Awards. He is the editor of Pursuit of Hoppiness, a magazine published by the Society of Beer Advocates, and his regular columns appear in Your Weekend magazine, published by Fairfax. He is also the chairman of judges at the New World Beer & Cider Awards. He lives in Titirangi, West Auckland, with his wife, Deirdre.
The history of Beer in New Zealand is a real rollercoaster, and I can think of no better way to ride than to grab yourself a great kiwi beer and plonk yourself in a comfy armchair with a copy of this book.
- Hopful Thinking
A valuable resource for anyone with an interest in the New Zealand beer scene - past, present and future.
- The Malthouse