Queenstown Brewers was established in 2012. “After years of brewing in the back shed, and sick of having no local beer to drink in Queenstown, John Wallace - a long time local, and a few friends, decided it was time to turn some of his award winning brews (very amateur competitions, and mostly voted for by his relatives) into something bigger” and Queenstown Brewers was born.

Along the way we discovered that Queenstown has a rich history of beer brewing and malt growing, and decided to include some of the anecdotes and flavour of the region into our beer names and packaging.

A winemaker for most of his life, John Wallace spent several years in his back shed developing his home brews, and testing them on his seemingly very thirsty mates.

“We use only locally grown malt and hops in the beer production and the beer is not filtered or refined in order to retain maximum flavour.” The intention is to make beer from malt grown on the Canterbury plains and from hops that are unique to New Zealand – giving traditional beer styles a NZ flavour and twist - keeping it local.