The Third Pint Theory

“I just wanna make crisp German lagers; I want to fine-tune that and I want to do really well, but these (fruited smoothie sours) are quite fun to make.” Mario Lanz of Double Vision Brewing on the appeal of his Orange Creamsicle beer. Our final episode recorded live at Beervana 2026 sees Martin & Michael sit down with a couple of brewers from the nation’s capital: Tim Ward, founder of Abandoned Br...

“Super exotic citrus — you get yuzu and kumquat, lots of mandarin,” Kelly Ryan talks about why Riwaka is his favourite hop. We’re back at Beervana 2026 for this episode, where Michael & Martin sit down with Kiwi beer legend Kelly Ryan. Kelly takes us through his brewing journey, from learning his trade at one of New Zealand’s most iconic breweries, brewing at Thornbridge in the UK, working at some...

“The great thing with this beer is, just before it goes into the barrels it’s almost undrinkable!” Jesse Sigurdsson of Shining Peak on the inauspicious beginnings of their Vintage Barrel-aged Imperial Stout. Hello from a raucous Friday evening at Beervana 2026, where Michael & Martin sit down with the brewers of two of New Zealand’s best (and quite different) stouts. Niall Harley from Mount Brewin...

“If you’re marketing your beer at men or at women, you’re cutting your market by 50% — it’s not a smart business decision!” Denise Garland of the NZ chapter of the Pink Boots Society on one of the many reasons why “girl’s beer” is a bad idea. Join us again at Beervana 2026, with Michael & Martin chatting to Aynslee Rodger and Denise Garland from the NZ chapter of the Pink Boots Society. It’s an or...

“Creamy, custard, pineapple, cake batter…" Clay Grant of One Drop Brewing lists some of the ingredients of their ‘Aunties Pudding’ ice cream smoothie sour. We’re back at Beervana 2026 for a chat with super-hyped Aussie brewery One Drop! Michael and Martin chat to co-founder Clay Grant and his head brewer Cathal McCarthy about the weird and wonderful beers that One Drop are famous for. We get some...

“There’s ‘Kinky MILF’ on the walls of the Malthouse for ever, which is amazing!” Scott Taylor of Neck of the Woods Brewing on their competition-winning West Coast IPA. Join us for the first of our episodes recorded live at Beervana 2026, as we talk to Scott Taylor from Neck of the Woods Brewing (Tauranga) and Jared ‘Red’ Proudfoot from Bonnie Day (Geraldine). Both Scott and Red are beer industry v...

"If you look at the story of humans and food, we've constantly been flowing towards sweeter, less bitter flavours." Kieran Haslett-Moore on the evolution of beer and human taste. In this episode of The Third Pint Theory, hosts Michael Donaldson and Martin Bridges catch up shortly after attending Beervana. They reflect on their experiences at the festival, noting how working live Q&A sessions gave...

"It's one of those things: sort of it's like the first Sex Pistols gig, you know, everyone says they were there but really there were only,I don't know, probably a dozen of us actually there!" Stu McKinlay talks about the legendary meeting at the Malthouse in Wellington that led to the foundation of the Society of Beer Advocates (SOBA). In this special transatlantic episode, Martin catches up with...

Michael and Martin sit down to run the rule over the results from this year's Brewers Guild of New Zealand Awards. They start by covering off the big winners on the night, including Karamu Barrelworks taking out the overall Champion Brewery title. There is some discussion of the scoring process used to calculate the winner of that title. The duo then dig into the other major winners, including Eme...

Welcome back to another episode of The Third Pint Theory! In this session, host Martin sits down with Maree Shaw, founder and organiser of Auckland Beer Week. Maree shares her origin story in the beer world, humorously admitting that before meeting her partner in 2004, she thought all beer tasted "disgusting." Her perspective shifted when he introduced her to Mac's Copper Hop and Monteith's Celtic...

"I had this outside looking in view of New Zealand on many different levels but one of them was this nostalgia and beautiful memories of the coastal lifestyle... I missed that, you know, being able to go to the seaside and that really resonated with me and in how I wanted to build a brand and so it was about the coast and and the quintessential Kiwi bach represented that." — Craig Cooper on the no...

"I'm always out on the farm as much as I can. Yeah. And in the malt plant as well. So yeah, it's my passion really. I'm a bit of a home boy I suppose." Doug Michael of Gladfield Malt on the importance of his rural roots. Welcome back to The Third Pint Theory! In this episode, hosts Michael Donaldson and Martin Bridges catch up with Doug Michael, the founder of Gladfield Malt. Doug discusses his ro...

"I don't think it's going away and nor should it... what I don't like is when there's five taps and three of them are the same thing... it's just not giving people what they want, it's giving people what they think they want." Greig McGill on the over-saturation of hazy beers. In this fantastic episode, Martin finally makes the journey to the "city of the future" - Hamilton - to sit down with Grei...

“The way we look at it is that Garage Project isn't just a brewery, it's a creative studio that happens to work in beer. It's always coming up with new beers, new names, the way you put on an event. It’s much easier to think of it as a creative studio that just happens to use beer as its medium.” Howard Greive on the essence of Garage Project. In this deeply insightful episode, host Michael Donald...

"I think it's a little bugbear of mine that a lot of people demand or seem to want 'dank'. I think dank is not necessarily a fresh hop characteristic and to expect lots of it in a fresh hop beer is, I think, sometimes misguided." Michael Donaldson on one of the common misconceptions of fresh hop beers. Welcome to a special, guest-free episode of The Third Pint Theory podcast! In this session, host...

"In essence we’re a country pub where people come together, brought together mostly by food and sociability” founder Geoff Gwynne on the magic of the McLeod's Pizza Barn. In this episode Martin makes a pilgrimage to his “spiritual home”, the McLeods Pizza Barn in Waipu, Northland, to sit down with Geoff Gwynne, co-owner of the venue and McLeods Brewery. Geoff takes us through the origin story of t...

Welcome to another episode of the podcast! This time, Martin sits down for a morning pint with Dylan from Brothers Beer at their impressive Mount Eden taproom, built right around a full-size 2,000-litre production brewery. The conversation kicks off with a look back at Dylan's brewing journey, starting with his nearly eight-year stint at Deep Creek. Dylan reflects on the "golden age" of the brewer...

Michael & Martin are joined by Denise Garland and Dave Wood, who own Wellington's Winter Ales Festival. They talk to us about what's involved in running a boutique beer festival and what fans can expect from this year's event. Plus Dave and Denise are veterans of the Wellington beer and hospitality scene, so are well-placed to discuss whether the Wellington hospo scene is as bad as it's made out t...

The annual Rare Beer Challenge, designed to raise money for Rare Disorders NZ, is on this year at Auckland's 16Tun, which takes over from the defunct Fortune Favours as the show host. Martin visits 16Tun owner Ewen Thorpe to find out how a one-time member of the Team NZ yachting crew ended up owning a waterside bar. Ewen also has great insights into the state of the beer economy from the POV of a...

Mount Brewing are celebrating 30 years in business — quite an achievement for the small Bay of Plenty operation. Michael and Martin look back at Mount Brewing's history and Martin chats with head brewer Pawel Lewandowski about how a young Polish tuniversity graduate ended up brewing beer in New Zealand.

Martin visits the just-opened Neck Of The Woods brew pub in Tauriko, just outside Tauranga, and talks to owner Scott Taylor about his journey home to the Bay of Plenty and his years at the ill-fated Deep Creek. This is the first of two pods from the Bay of Plenty, with Mount Brewing next up. Michael and Martin also discuss the recent Rising Tide Lagerfest, and dissect the winners.

New Plymouth brewery Three Sisters are expanding in to Wellington and raising new capital to further grow their production. It's on the back of strong growth both within New Zealand and overseas in 2025, driven by their unique smoothie sour offerings. Martin and Michael usher in 2026 by looking at the success of Three Sisters and analysing the problems facing Behemoth, who are taking on a private...

Michael & Martin look back on the year in beer, looking at the highlights (of which there were plenty) and the lowlights (fortunately, they were few). We name our beers of the year and discuss which breweries impressed us the most in 2025.

Hazy IPA has been part of the New Zealand beer market for just on a decade. Michael and Martin discuss the impact of the haze craze before crossing over to our last Q&A from this year's Beervana festival which features James Cooper and Laura Park from Lakeman and Andrew Childs from Behemoth talking all things hazy.

Michael and Martin discuss the big news stories of the past week — the saving of Hop Federation after Blenheim's DNA stepped in to buy the brand — and the sale of Christchurch icon Three Boys, which is now owned by the head brewer Damian Treacher and his business partner Jason Bass. That links into our Beervana live Q&A with Brian Watson of Good George and Eddie Gapper of Altitude Brewing about th...