Region & History

Anyone wanting to know where New Zealand's most famous hop varieties come from ends up in Nelson, at the top of the South Island. The Māori name for the city is Whakatū; its English name honors Admiral Horatio Nelson. British settlement began here in 1842, on a bay known in Māori as Te Tai-o-Aorere and in English as Tasman Bay. The area belongs to Te Tau Ihu, the northern part of the South Island, where the Iwi, the tribes, had lived long before ships arrived from England.

Beer arrived only with the settlers. As early as October 1843, Poalo and Pelham opened the young city's first breweries, with Hooper & Co. following shortly after. In 1854, the English businessman Joseph Dodson bought into this company, and after George Hooper's death the firm became J. R. Dodson and Son. By the end of the 19th century, the Nelson area counted 19 breweries, a remarkable number for such a small city.

Hops came along with beer. More than 150 years ago, German and English settlers planted the first hop gardens and found a climate that suited the plant well. From these beginnings grew a growing region that, by most accounts, today supplies nearly all of New Zealand's hops. Unlike the Hallertau, Nelson hops have no protected designation of origin; they are not listed in the EU register.

Beer saw a fresh start only in 1981. Terry McCashin and his wife Bev opened their brewery, and on September 26, 1981, the first Mac's beer was unveiled in the presence of then Prime Minister Robert Muldoon. Until then, the two major breweries, Lion and DB, dominated the market. In 1999 the family sold the brand, though not the brewery, to Lion, a subsidiary of the Japanese Kirin group.

Founders Heritage Park shows how it all connects. This open-air village, recreating Nelson between 1880 and 1930, was built by volunteers starting in 1977 and opened to visitors in 1986. In a former brewery building, a hop and beer museum tells the story of how imported brewing craft became a distinctly New Zealand beer style.