The Country 13/11/25: Greg Menzies talks to Jamie Mackay

Emerson’s busy marketing manager takes a break from pouring pints at the Tiny Pub to talk about the latest Mackaiser brew.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
But this man's very, very busy. He's going to get
RSI pouring the pints here and the Emerson's Tiny Pubs,
Greg Mensi's marketing manager. Greg. We do these all around
the country. There's such a lot of fun and how
exciting would it be to take this thing to Wellington
for an EU function with Lawrence, our good friend from
the EU.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Hey, I do anything for the country if it helps
out with relations, We'll definitely be there.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Yeah, good on you. Hey, So who decides, because I've
only had my first taste like ten not ten minutes ago,
just at the top of the hour of this thing,
I wanted to try it fresh sort of on air?
Who decides? How you make it up? Each year we
know it's a pilsner and then you guys just have
a play with it.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Yeah, we just have a player with it. We just
try something new each year. This year we're kind of
going back to a beer that we brewed a couple
of years ago where we used hop oil. This year
we're using a hop called Matchawacre hop and we add
the oil and right at the end so to get
a real kind of hoppy flavor. And then this particularly
the case has turned beautiful.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
Well, it's very crisp and I'm a bit of a
crafty these days. Really boring, isn't it. Yeah, but I
do like the citrusy lemon sort of flavors. Actually, ross
Hireland asked whether you were using hops and you've said
they're from Nelson, but from Garston. The McNamee family down there.
You might remember there was a really good country calendar
program on them, great rugby playing family from the ethel

(01:23):
Garston area. Do you use their hops at all?

Speaker 2 (01:27):
We do. Over the years we've used their hops quite regularly.
This year the big beer that we did with them
was our fresh Hot beer. And the flavors of the
hops down there are amazing. They're really good and obviously
coming from Southland, it's pretty amazing that you can grow
hops down that far and good hops.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
So there's no rest at all for the wicked, namely you,
because you're here today with us, which is fantastic. We're
hoping to see plenty of farmers through the door. If
you're coming to the show this afternoon, you will be
here till about five, won't we yep, So we want
you to come in and sample this. There's no strings
attached to it at all, but then it's off to
the races quite literally for you.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
Yeah, back to the races though. We did Andington Races
on Tuesday, which was heaps of fun obviously at the
show today, and then ricket In on Saturday, and then
take it home again and then we're off down south
in a couple of weeks, which.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
Yes, can we kind of officially fly this.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
One as well?

Speaker 1 (02:23):
Well, you phoned me up a couple of weeks ago
and you said you wanted to do something for the
farmers in the south who have been smacked by the wind,
So we can't. We haven't. We sort of finalized the venue,
but we are going to South Otago and you and
your stable Mat Spates are going to put on an
afternoon for the farmers and the local Lions Club is

(02:43):
doing a barbecue. It's all laid on and it's just
a way for Emerson's and Spots to say, look, we're
thinking of you.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
Yeah, well, I think it's it's a good opportunity to
go and give back. I mean a lot of these
farmers go into pubs around the place and drink a
lot of Emersons and Spates, so it's good for us.
To give back, and she's a funny story of the
tiny pub that we're in at the moment. We were
smacked around by the wind a little bit as well.
Picked the big gust that came through Dedad and picked
this up and drove it into a fence.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
So yeah, it was the park at the back of
the out of the.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
Back of the brewery. So yeah, so we've had a
bit of a crisis as well, but nothing like the
farmers have gone through.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
And just to put that into context. And zac Av
which is just next door to where the Emerson's Brewery
is in dned and there were big oak trees I
think they were oak trees that were blown over and
a zac Av has been there for over one hundred years. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
Yeah, it was an incredible gust of wind. I mean
this the pub weighs three and a halftime. It had
its brakes on, so there'd be another ton of pressure
on that, so it just yeah, it dragged it.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
So I must have some hairy moments driving this around
the country.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
I don't drive it, no.

Speaker 1 (03:47):
Job, all right, Greg, you're a champion bloke. I don't
know how missus Menzies puts up with you because You're
never at home, but we appreciate the association