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It's all in the mix!
Four main ingredients go into the mix when making beer: Malt, water, yeast and hops. Craft Beer Tours NZ is also made up of four key ingredients...
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Explore!
About
Explore. Drink. Eat. Repeat.
Hi, I’m Mike and I’m very proud to call myself a Wellingtonian.
I spent just over 20 years travelling and living abroad. Some of the things that kept me exploring were people, food, music, cultures and of course, beer.
More About Us> Sustainability>I've made my living from pouring beers and working bars. That lead to my passion for beer and the brewing process. The rest of the time I've been working as a tour guide throughout 18 different countries.
I love Tour Guiding. Meeting people, taking them to places, showing them new things and leaving them with something unforgettable. I put that trade into practice when I returned to New Zealand in 2012 and have been a Tour Guide here in New Zealand since.
In 2016 I created "Craft Beer Tours NZ". It started off as fun. Getting friends into Craft Beer, taking them to Brew Pubs and getting them to recognise and appreciate the ingredients that go into making a good brew.
I’ve taken things a lot more serious since those days. It’s now how I make my living. A few things remain the same though. I still enjoy a good laugh, good people and a good brew.
Sustainability
What Is Sustainability?
Imagine you have a magic beer glass. The glass refills itself, so every time you take a mouthful of beer, more beer just appears in the glass. Beer all the time! Sounds pretty sweet, right? With the magic beer glass, the beer is sustainable. That means that you can keep using it for a long time without it running out. It doesn't matter how much you take out of the glass, because more beer will just appear. It's magic!
But in the real world, we don't have magic beer glasses like that. If you keep taking beer out of a real glass and never put any more back in, the glass will eventually become empty. Taking beer out of a regular glass without putting any more beer back in is not a sustainable practice. You can't keep doing it for a long time, because eventually the glass will run out of beer.
Our Mission.
Our mission is to give back more than what we take and to do what's right for both people and planet.
Our Goals.
- Become a Zero Carbon certified business by 2022
- Reduce food waste from our tours by 100% by 2025
- Increase of local and organic food products by our supply chain by 2025
- Reduce printed materials by 90% by 2022
- Include an annual tour conducted in bothTe Reo Maori and English by 2025
- Complete at least 250 volunteer hours by 2025
- Work with 3 or more charities each year by 2025
- Complete equality in the workplace by 2022
What are we doing now?
Our Sustainable Practices and beliefs can be broken down into what we consider to be our “Three Pillars of Sustainability”. People, Planet and Community.
People - our customers and crew are our most important people. We work hard at offering the best possible experience to our customers and value what they think after with feedback and Reviews. Our crew is what really makes us and who Craft Beer Tours NZ really is. Our workplace encourages equality, diversity and one which supports our team well beyond the Living Wage in New Zealand.
Planet - in September 2021 we were accredited as a “Carbon Friendly Business” by offsetting, (balancing out), all of our carbon emissions from April 2020 until March 2021. Craft Beer Tours NZ is proud to be certified Carbon Friendly with EKOS. We have offset 4.824tCO2e with certified carbon credits. These offsets grow and protect indigenous forests in New Zealand and the Pacific Islands while helping to deliver climate resilience, waterways protection, erosion control, biodiversity conservation and community economic development.
Craft Beer Tours NZ’s emission and offset summary can be found here.
Community - we are proud to work with and continually support Look Good Feel Better NZ and have supported such organisations as the Red Cross NZ, Child Cancer Foundation, Bowel Cancer NZ, Look Good Feel Better NZ, Prostate Cancer Foundation of NZ and Pinc and Steel NZ by either fundraising or donations. We also work with and support Whistling Sisters Beer Co. who operate primarily to support a foundation in which they set up to support research into advanced breast cancer.
Click here to see how and why $2 from every person booked on one of our tours goes towards supporting Look Good Feel Better NZ.
Why?
We want to walk the talk and serve this as a benchmark for our progress while holding ourselves accountable for the goals we have set ourselves. By committing to this transparency, we want to establish trust with our customers and open the conversation for much appreciated feedback from the very people who keep us in business. Our ears, hearts and views remain open as we explore new ways to use our business as a force for good. It's not just about the planet but people and community too.
Thank you for your support. We couldn't do this without you!
“What we give back is what we get out but if we keep taking,
eventually the glass will be empty.”
- Mike & Vic-
Look Good Feel Better Foundation
We proudly support the Look Good Feel Better Foundation in New Zealand who are a non-profit organisation providing free programmes for any person, with any cancer, at any stage of their treatment.
These programmes provide an opportunity for cancer patients to connect, feel more in control and look more like their normal selves with tips, techniques and the tools to face cancer with more confidence.
Both my parents have had battles with cancer and Mum found it particularly hard. Chemo made her physically ill but the dramatic appearance side effects like losing her hair contributed to her losing her sense of well being and sense of identity.
When Mum was well enough, she and my sister attended a workshop funded by Look Good Feel Better which offered support and the chance to connect with others facing similar challenges. She was part of a small group of women, who had different cancer diagnoses and were going through different treatments. She learnt how to manage the appearance-related impact of cancer and it’s treatment with the help from her personal volunteer.
That work workshop transformed not only her look but most importantly her outlook. It really helped her face her fear and the reality she was going through.
Now, we want to say thank you and to help improve the self esteem and quality of life for women, men and teens undergoing cancer treatment in New Zealand.
When you book any one of our tours we will donate $2 on behalf of every person to Look Good Feel Better which will keep supporting these free programmes and keep supporting people like my Mum.
Craft Beer Tours NZ Emission and Offset Summary
This report is a carbon footprint measurement report of greenhouse gas emissions and offsetting prepared for Craft Beer Tours NZ Ltd. with the following boundaries:
Organisation details Name: Craft Beer Tours NZ Ltd.
Contact person: Mike Henderson
Email: mike@craftbeertoursnz.co.nz
Area of Business: Brewery Tours
FTEs: 2
Report period 1st April 2020 - 31/03/21
Operational Boundary
Business operations emissions resulting from:
- Electricity
- Waste
- Company vehicles
- Non company vehicles
- Freight
Emissions Total emissions = 4.824tCO2e
Offsets Total offsets = 4.824tCO2e
Craft Beer Tours NZ Ltd has elected to offset 100% of these emissions with Indigenous Forest VER’s, (Verified Emissions Reductions and Units), certified to the Plan Vivo standard or Indigenous Forest’s VCU's, (Verified Carbon Standard Units), provided by Ekos.
Through this measurement and offsetting Craft Beer Tours NZ has qualified for Carbon Friendly Business certification for the 12 month period starting 01/04/20 ending 31/03/21.
CloseThe Experience Options
We have a wide range of packages available, including brewery tours, axe-throwing and go-karting from Wellington to Brewtown Upper Hutt.
Choose from the tour options shown below and book online. If you have any questions, Contact us by email or phone 027 535 0008.
Say Hi To Our Mates
...and special thanks to...
Certifications
We're proud to be associated with these organisations...
