Red-blooded Wairarapa beer drinkers may be frothing at the mouth next Friday over a flying visit back home by the Tui Brewery Girls. Hailey Bloore, head Tui Brewery Girl, said five "all women" workers who first set beer drinkers dribbling through TV adverts, have "downed tools for two weeks to sharetips on the sacred trade of brewing with guys ? and probably a few girls" during a 14-date tour around the country from Whangarei to Invercargill. The tour kicks off in Wellington on July 12, she said, and the girls will be in at the Stella bar in Masterton on July 14 to instruct patrons on the art of the amber. The Mangatainoka brewery ? and iconic seven-storey tower ? is in northern Wairarapa, and was established in 1889 by colonial entrepreneur Henry Wagstaff. Brewery marketing material has Mr Wagstaff being struck by the idea to open a brewery after drinking a cup of tea from the Mangatainoka River. The business may have been shaky in the beginning as a newspaper report from the time outlines how customs seized the North Island Brewery plant in January 1896 as Wagstaff teetered on bankruptcy, returning the "beer and plant" to his control once fines and costs were paid the following month. There is also a record in an early Wairarapa newspaper citing the imprisonment of Harry Wagstaff for "drunkenness and larceny" two years later. The plant was bought by Tui Brewery in 1969 and now also features a gift shop and a museum with guided tours. Another hometown connection with the plant is former Wairarapa man Brian Blake who is the present managing director of the now parent company DB Breweries. Ms Bloore said the women on tour are not the key characters from the advert, as the actors were mainly from Brazil and were unavailable. Cross-dressing advert character Brucetta won't be joining the tour either, she said, which is "unfortunate for all show patrons". Unfortunate? Yeah right.
