A Tauranga brewery nine months into its commercial brewing journey is celebrating being named the country’s best microbrewery by taking a distinctly Bay of Plenty beer to New Zealand’s biggest beer festival.
Neck of the Woods Beer Co, based in Tauriko, was named Champion New Zealand Micro Brewery at the 2026 New Zealand Beer Awards in Dunedin last month.
The win came less than nine months after the brewery opened its doors on November 1, 2025.
For owner Scott Taylor, who has spent about 15 years in the brewing industry and 35 years in hospitality, the result was beyond expectations.
“We didn’t expect to get the gold medals and awards that we did,” Taylor said.
Head brewer Reid Lidington and Scott Taylor’s business partner Virgile Meiller. Photo / Kelly O’Hara
Neck of the Woods entered nine beers in this year’s awards and won six medals – this included two golds, three silvers and a bronze – before being named champion microbrewery.
Taylor said getting the brewery’s new brewing equipment “dialled in” so quickly was a major achievement for head brewer Reid Lidington.
“He’s just really shining,” Taylor said.
Lidington spent about five years at Good George before taking on his first head brewer role at Neck of the Woods.
Scott Taylor celebrating the awards from this year's NZ Beer Awards. Photo / Kelly O’Hara
Taylor was a co-founder of Auckland brewery Deep Creek, helping it grow from a small brew pub into a business exporting beer to 14 countries before it went into liquidation after facing challenges in the Covid-19 pandemic.
Return home
The new brewery represented a return home for Taylor, who grew up in Tauranga, attending Omanu School and Mount Maunganui College.
He said opening his own brewery in the Bay of Plenty had been a lifelong dream. He teamed up with his business partner Virgile Meiller, also a hospitality expert, to build Neck of the Woods. They met while Taylor was selling beer for Deep Creek and Meiller was running the Barrel Room in Tauranga City.
“It’s sort of coming home,” he said. “To be able to build something for the Bay has been incredibly rewarding.”
Success hasn’t been confined to Neck of the Woods.
Neck of the Woods is located in Tauriko. Photo / Kelly O'Hara
Tauranga’s brewing industry had a strong showing at 202s awards. Mount Brewing Co was named Champion New Zealand Medium Brewery and Alchemy Street Brewing in Fraser Cove claimed the Specialty & Experimental Trophy for its beer HOT BOX.
Mount Brewing, which has been brewing in Mount Maunganui since 1996, also collected 11 medals and two category trophies. Alchemy Street picked up nine medals.
New capital?
Taylor said the results prompted a joke among the local brewing community that Tauranga could be the country’s new craft beer capital.
“We’re all very friendly,” he said. “It’s such an incredibly supportive industry.”
Neck of the Woods will make its Beervana debut with a limited-edition Golden Gooseberry Gose, made with 120kg of locally grown Golden Kiwifruit. Photo / Kelly O’Hara
That spirit of experimentation and collaboration was evident in Neck of the Woods’ latest creation.
Today, August 21, the brewery will make its Beervana debut in Wellington with a limited-edition Golden Gooseberry Gose, made with 120kg of locally grown Gold kiwifruit.
The beer was brewed specifically for Beervana, which runs at Hnry Stadium on August 21-22.
Scott Taylor savouring a moment at Neck of the Woods while enjoying a glass of Golden Gooseberry Gose. Photo / Kelly O’Hara
A Gose – pronounced “goes-uh” – is a traditional sour beer originating in northern Germany. Unlike conventional beers, it undergoes bacterial and yeast fermentation, producing the characteristic tartness.
Taylor described sour beers as somewhat like a cocktail, combining strong sweet and sour elements.
For the Golden Gooseberry Gose, the brewery added a hint of vanilla to balance the acidity of the kiwifruit, along with a touch of French tarragon.
“Every single fruit is cut in half, scooped out by hand and pulped before it goes into the brew,” Taylor said. “I’d been wanting to make a beer like this for a while, and when the chance came up to use golden kiwifruit, it felt like the perfect beer to launch at our first Beervana.”
Head brewer Reid Lidington at work in the Neck of the Woods Co brewery. Photo / Kelly O’Hara
Taylor said the process took about seven hours.
Part of the fun
The brewery’s 1200-litre brewing system produced about 900 litres of the finished beer after fruit and other ingredients were added; about 18 50-litre kegs.
Three kegs will be taken to Beervana; the remainder were destined for Neck of the Woods and selected bars for a limited time.
Taylor said the beer’s limited nature was part of the fun: “That’s the beauty about being so small. We can just be very nimble, and we can brew whatever we like.”
Scott Taylor at the Neck of the Woods Beer Co in Tauriko. Photo / Kelly O’Hara
Neck of the Woods has 15 beers in its range. Taylor said the brewers enjoy experimenting with sour beers.
For Taylor, taking a new beer to Beervana is particularly fitting.
He’s attended almost every iteration of the festival over the years, missing only last year’s event while he was building the Tauranga brewery.
“It’s such a celebration of beer,” he said. “The punters there, they love weird and wonderful and things that they wouldn’t have tried before.”
Behind the bar at Neck of the Woods. Photo / Kelly O’Hara
Beervana 2026 features four sessions across Friday and Saturday, with New Zealand and overseas breweries showcasing their drops at Hnry Stadium.
Taylor said the challenge is to see what the next year brings.
“We’ve basically done the Grand Slam [this year],” he said. “We also took out People’s Choice at Lagerfest, People’s Choice at The New Zealand IPA competition in Queenstown, and then we won Champion Micro Brewery.
“We also won champion beer for the West Coast IPA competition in Wellington. It’s quite incredible.”