Moa Beer comes in a variety of different sizes from 330ml, through 375ml and 750ml, up to 1.5L magnums (which save on corkage at your local BYO restaurant). The glass is thicker and heavier than most so they can handle the bottle fermenting and conditioning process and are sealed with either a crown cap or a cork and muselet. A muselet is that little cage thing.
Moa Beer is made the way beer used to be made, before everyone started making it differently. It is fastidiously handcrafted in the traditional method and rounded off through the use of winemaking techniques, including barrel ageing and bottle fermentation and conditioning (like they do with Champagne). It’s quite a time consuming process and not terribly economical.
Moa Beer isn’t just one beer but actually a whole bunch of different beers.
There’s Moa Original, Moa Methode, Moa Blanc, Moa Noir, Moa Pale Ale, Moa Imperial Stout, Moa St Josephs, Moa Blanc Evolution, Moa Five Hop and Moa Breakfast. We even make Weka Apple Cider and Weka Pear Cider. So the Moa family is a bit like Brad and Angelina’s with children from all over the place. This is because making the same thing everyday gets boring, and bored workers become unhappy workers and unhappy workers set fire to the brewery which costs a lot of money because insurance companies hardly ever pay out the full amount despite what they tell you on telly.
If you don’t like the taste of one of them then there are others.
Moa Beer is brewed with fresh locally produced hops and smells a bit like dak. This is because dak and hops actually come from the same plant family – something they don’t tell you in fifth-form horticulture – and the reason you can’t smell it in most beers is because most breweries use heavily processed hops which are cheaper and a bit crap.
Part of the science of Moa Beer is not to use science. So Moa Beers are brewed without adjuncts like rice, sugar or corn, which are used by some other breweries to speed up fermentation and lower production costs. Moa Beers are unfiltered, definitely unpasturised and not force carbonated. There’s a big difference between brewing and manufacturing, which is something most breweries have forgotten. Because they’re dicks.
A natural artesian water spring flowing directly beneath the brewery adds to Moa’s distinct flavor profile and the superior quality of the brew.
We don’t have a picture of the spring. But imagine something 200 feet below the earth, in the dark, and inaccessible to photographers.
The Moa Brewery is nestled amongst the vines of the world famous winemaking region of Marlborough, New Zealand. The pristine surroundings provide the perfect environment for brewing, and it’s actually quite a nice place to live. The name “Moa” (New Zealand’s giant, flightless, dinosaur bird) also derives from the region, as in the early days Josh used to hand deliver brews to archaeologists working a Moa bone dig near the brewery. Even half-cut they found some Moa bones, so archaeology can’t be that hard.
