Pukehina's Lumberjack Brewing produces Blue September beer

Ian O'Malley from Lumberjack Brewing in Pukehina with the special beer brewed to raise funds and awareness for the Prostate Cancer Foundation of NZ.

Its aim is blue, but its colour pink - well, pinky purple.

Pukehina's Lumberjack Brewing has a new brew, created to raise funds for and awareness of the Prostate Cancer Foundation and its work.

The release of the beer has been timed to coincide with Blue September, the foundation's annual awareness and fundraising campaign.

Alert level restrictions caused some delays, but the first kegs of Twig n Berries were sent from the brewery last week.

Brewer Ian O'Malley says the beer is fruited with raspberries and blueberries.

"You get the flavour of raspberries that dominates. The blueberry's quite a watery flavour generally, so you get a nice deep purply colour that comes from the blueberries, but most of the flavour is raspberry.''

The beer was being developed for the Auckland staging of Gabs (The Great Australasian
Beer SpecTAPular), which was cancelled this year and last.

''It never eventuated because of Covid, unfortunately. We were sitting in The Barrel Room with [owner] Stewart [Gebbie] and [Rocky Knob Brewing Company co-owner] Stu [Marshall]. We had another event going on and we were discussing things like doing a Blue September fundraiser.

''We'd just heard that they wouldn't be going ahead with Gabs so I thought instead of doing a small batch for Gabs that would be about 100 litres, we'd do a big batch as a fundraiser for Blue September.''

That equated to around 600 litres.

Ian lost a friend and co-worker to prostate cancer this year.

He says he feels the brewery's image and branding appeals to males, making the tie-in a good vehicle for promoting prostate cancer awareness.

''Males are notorious for not getting things checked when they aren't right and, with all cancers, the sooner it's found, the better the prognosis for you and the chances of your outcome.

''So we just thought we really wanted to raise some awareness for the cause, and hopefully raise some money as well.

''Unfortunately, the Prostate Cancer Foundation don't get any Government funding, it's all reliant on the generosity of people. It's insane that they aren't supported.

The beer is loosely based on a berliner weisse - a typically sour wheat beer.

''We made ours not very sour at all. It just tastes kind of like the same tartness as raspberries, just to make it more approachable. So it's not necessarily exactly to style, but I think for the masses, it's a really nice beer that will be enjoyed by a lot of people.''

The obvious thing might have been to create a blue beer, but that wasn't all that successful.

''We tried to use just blueberries but it turned out grey.''

The beer is available at Anann Pineapple Pub in Te Puke, Okere Falls Store, online and at the Lumberjack Brewing tap room, open Fridays from 4pm and Saturdays noon-
3pm.

''There will be other places as well, as soon as we start releasing it to suppliers.

''We are donating $2 per litre of what we sell from the taproom at the brewery and online and we are selling the kegs at a really low price point to bars and asking if they are able to financially support the cause as well, just to donate to our donation page, but regardless of whether they can or not it's still really nice awareness for the cause.''

He says that although the launch of the beer is during Blue September, there is a good chance it will continue to be produced to raise funds and awareness.