Surprisingly, numbers were down on previous years, even more curious when you take into account the increase in Wellington SOBA members over the last year. The group of about 30 SOBA members disembarked the train at Paraparaumu and climbed aboard the friendly Sunshine Tours bus for the short trip up the road to Waikanae. 

Once at the brewery our first impression was surprise at the growth since last year's visit. The new fermenters and whirlpool tank left little room for the group to wander around as they had last year. Just as we were starting to wonder where our host was Carl turned up on cue and directed us through to his new cool room, which until finished was being used as a dry store for the malt.

In the middle of the room bolted onto the bottling table was a hand pump and under the table a keg of Tuatara IPA. Carl began filling glasses and talking about the growth they had had over the last year. Tuatara Brewing is a great story of craft beer success and it was great hearing from Carl about how the cool room would allow them to increase production by not having to use the fermenters as uni-tanks. It was interesting to me that as you improve each step, another completely unrelated step becomes the bottleneck.

Carl's new assistant brewer Mike Neilson then turned up with box loads of mixed Tuatara bottles on a fork lift. The SOBA group soon started to loosen up. Being a big homebrewer himself Mike has plans to try out some new styles with Carl which sounded quite promising, Carl telling me he had a few Kgs of Simcoe hops he's keen to try out in the near future.

The hand pulled IPA was tasting better with each glass. It's such a fantastic beer served flatter from a hand pump. The whole group was starting to feel the effects of the hospitality and began to form smaller groups and beer conversation matched the flow of beer. The weather was gradually improving and Carl went outside to spark up the barbeque.

The call then went out that we had to leave to catch the bus back to the train station. Carl insisted I fill my bag with some of the remaining bottles of Tuatara, so I made my way back down the Akatarawa road clinking with each step. Sunshine tours greeted us and we were soon off back to catch the train and off into town for a meal and and few more beers.

Thanks Carl and Mike once again for your fantastic hospitality and your support of SOBA, I had a great time and am looking forward to next year's tour already. Thanks also to Ian Caig who did another brilliant job organising the whole shindig.