East Taratahi brewer hopes to peak at awards

Peak Brewery owner Rhys Morgan is once again scaling national heights with beer he brewed in the shelter of the mighty Tararuas.
Mr Morgan, who in a former life worked in the computer industry, has for the past three years brewed a range of German and British style beers at the East Taratahi Road property he shares with his wife Klaudia and two young children.
In September he will submit three styles from his Peak Brewery range Drachenfels Lager, Monkey Point and possibly Cornhill Porter in the 7th annual BrewNZ Awards, a national contest he first entered last year.
He failed to place at the 2007 contest but walked away with marketing leads and valuable feedback from competition tasters all the same, he said.
Mr Morgan began his love affair with beer as a hobby brewer more than two decades ago while living in Scotland and Germany.
It was in Germany he picked up both the language and the ambition to brew professionally, he said.
He now produces 200-litre batches of beer every two to three weeks, which he sells each Saturday at the Farmer's Market at Solway Showgrounds in Masterton and at "quite a few" pubs and restaurants in Wairarapa and Wellington.
His beer is available to buy by the bottle, dozen or in 60 litre kegs and prospective drinkers have a selection to choose from including Drachenfels Lager the newest brew in his range Alb Weiss pale wheat beer, Sollinger Bock, Cornhill Porter, and Monkey Point Indian pale ale.
He said a thread connecting the brand to each label name in the range and to the brewery location itself "is the mountain or the hill".
"That theme runs through our whole range and even where we are Taratahi one peak.
Cornhill was a major grain market in London, Monkey Point was the location of the first brewery in India and Drachenfels is a hill in the Siebengebirge, or "Seven Hills" south of Cologne, he said, "where Siegfried slew a dragon and became invincible after he bathed in its blood".
Mr Morgan also has a hectare of sauvignon and pinot noir vines planted at his property that may soon become a market venture for the boutique brewer.
n For more information call (021) 149-6996 or go online to www.peak-brewery.co.nz