This beer is a love letter to Blackball, a firebrand of a town with fiercely convivial charm. We first visited out of curiosity & left utterly smitten. By the time we landed, miner Patrick “Wild Bill” Hickey had already refused to leave his pork pie after a measly 15-minute break on a 10-hour work stretch. It was 1908, & his act triggered an 11-week miner’s strike eventually sparking NZ’S Labour movement & solidifying Blackball as a magnet for broadminded folk who eat politicos for breakfast, & mine their own good luck. On our second visit, we stayed at Formerly the Blackball Hilton, drank dark lager, laughed with locals & watched a reveller get ferried home in a wheelbarrow. Pure gold. We’ve been back since & will go again because Coasters in Blackball have wit & more true grit than any lump from a mine.

4.8% ABV | 500mL