are changing and craft beer is leading the way. “You don’t buy a big slab of beers – you buy three or four bottles and you savour them, taste them and I think that’s done a lot for curbing excessive drinking,” Hebblethwaite says. “I think there’s so much more substance to them craft beer – there’s more in them, not just the flavour, there’s more things inside a craft beer so it kind of fills you,” Hebblethwaite 52 APRIL 2016 says. “Consumption is dropping and a lot of that is about people’s tastes maturing,” Jackson says. Hebblethwaite has lived in New Zealand for the past 12 years and he notes that his first exposure to craft beer came while visiting here. “When I first came to New Zealand as a visitor in the ‘80s or something they’d just launched Macs – that was the big news – that was the first I knew of – a range of beers that actually tasted quite good. And we thought they were fantastic,” Hebblethwaite says. Although the industry is growing there are still challenges ahead for new breweries. “It’s a very competitive market and if you look, every week there’s another little brewery opening up. What is starting to happen now, that I’ve noticed is that some are closing down, not quite getting off the ground. There are way too many breweries, I think, for the size of the market at this point. “You’ve got 150 odd breweries and you’ve got enough craft brew drinkers to keep 150 breweries going but, of course, the most successful guys are immediately investing their money in more equipment – bigger fermenters, bigger brew houses – making more and more beer, so the little guys are getting marginalised. It’s not good enough just to make a good beer. There’s small breweries opening up, making good beer but just can’t get it out to the customer. They go to the bottle stores who say ‘we’ve got limited shelves, sorry’. Then pubs with taps and you really battle to get on a tap.” It’s clear after spending time with Hebblethwaite and Jackson that they have carefully worked out their turf and while they see opportunities to grow their business, the focus is essentially on West Auckland. “Black Sands is pretty much Auckland focused and in particular West Auckland. All along it’s been our strategy to focus on West Auckland – hence the name. Black Sands’ label carries a stylised image of Piha’s Lions Rock. Black Sands was the connection to the West Coast beaches. We thought that said West Auckland without being too obvious. Westies got it but other people didn’t so now we have ‘proudly brewed in West Auckland’. “Again, the priority for us is West Auckland – to try and do a better job, to really get into the bars out here and the long term goal – more restaurants. So we’ll keep focusing on West Auckland and of course, there’s a lot of opportunities in Auckland itself – in the city – to get into more bars, to get into more bottle stores,” Ian says. I have to give credit to two men who have taken their love of beer and home brewing to a whole new level. Black Sands’ range of beer is outstanding and it’s clear that Mark and Ian love what they do. “This isn’t really about the money for us,” Ian says. “It’s about the fun.” “Black Sands is pretty much Auckland focused and in particular West Auckland. All along it’s been our strategy to focus on West Auckland” B R EW T E C H
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