An obituary for Canterbury Draft

First person – I can’t remember the last time I had a Canterbury Draft. Not the first time either, now that I think about it. But ever since I got old enough to drink, I’ve always considered myself a Canterbury Draft girl.

I spent most of my childhood in Christchurch, where my father was head brewer at Lion’s Canterbury Brewery. My family had moved there when Lion closed its Hawke’s Bay factory in 1997, and when I got old enough, the sweet, slightly bitter, but largely inoffensive taste of Canterbury Draft attracted me.

I went to high school parties armed with a six-pack of Canterbury Draught, sipping from the cold black and red cans while my friends downed bottles of raspberry Vodka Cruisers and Smirnoff Ice RTDs. “I don’t know how you can drink something so bitter,” they would say.

Canterbury Draft has always faced a bit of a challenge in maintaining a strong presence in a market saturated with beers of the same style, including fellow Lion brands Speight’s and Lion Red, as well as Tui and DB Draft from its biggest competitor, DB. .

But CD drinkers were fiercely loyal. My father told me that a student at Canterbury University once legally changed his name to “Canterbury Draft” for a year, with the promise of free beer on a regular basis. One of the old stands at Lancaster Park had the roof painted in the Canterbury Draft branding, despite DB being the main sponsor of the Canterbury men’s rugby team at the time.

And when my father appeared alongside former All Black and coach Alex “Grizz” Wylie in a TV advert for Canterbury Draught, he was stopped in public by children and asked for his autograph.

When I moved to Wellington to study, I was disappointed that neither the liquor store in Karori nor the two supermarkets in the suburb of Canterbury sold Draft.

When I visited Christchurch the following month for my older brother’s 21st birthday – held in a function room at the Canterbury Brewery on St Asaph Street, no less – I shared my conundrum with one of my father’s fellow brewers. “Lion Brown is almost exactly the same,” I was told. “Drink that.”

And so I did. And Kasteelpunt. And Zuidelijke diepgang. All Lion-brewed sweet, carbonated, brown ales that gave my Canterbury Draught itch. But every time I got home to Christchurch, I’d grab a cold CD from the fridge – my old friend.

A few years later, my friend brought home a four-pack of Belgian beer from the New World where he worked that they had just received. It tasted so different from the beer I was used to. It had so much flavor! So much complexity! And so I started drinking all kinds of different styles of beer; first pilsners and wheat beers, then stouts and porters, and I even expanded into sours.

Independent craft breweries were popping up everywhere and their beers were becoming more widely available. My dad lost his job at Lion and when I came back to visit Christchurch, the fridge was full of beer from Matson’s, his new employer. But even when I saw Canterbury Draught on tap at a bar, I had to try it.

The news that Lion has pulled the plug on its Canterbury Draft brand, while perhaps not surprising, came a bit out of the blue. Lion is too big a player and the tap style is too ingrained in New Zealand beer culture to let the growth of craft beer be behind its demise.

Canterbury Draught’s demise likely became a foregone conclusion when Lion was forced to close its Christchurch brewery after it suffered extensive damage in the February 2011 earthquake.

While Canterbury Draft was still brewed in Auckland and Dunedin, the fact that the large, red and black building at 36 St Asaph Street no longer loomed large with its copper brewing vats in the large street-facing windows would certainly not have helped CD’s business have helped. . Having to compete with the ever-popular Speight’s for market share would also have played a role.

Lion’s decision brings an end to 34 years of Canterbury Draught, the beer that started me on my journey to becoming a beer lover, a judge and now a certified cicerone. While it’s a sad moment for this Canterbury Draught girl, I know all is not lost; I can just sit back and enjoy a cold can of Lion Brown, close my eyes and let the beer take me back to all those Canterbury Draught memories.

*Denise Garland is a certified cicerone® and beer judge and was the winner of the 2019 Brewers Guild of New Zealand Beer Media Award