Moa Brewing Company

General information

The Moa Brewing Company was founded in 2003 by Josh Scott, the son of renowned Marlborough winemaker Allan Scott, with a focus on brewing super premium handcrafted beers.

The Moa brewery is situated among the vineyards in the world famous winemaking region of Marlborough, New Zealand, which isn’t surprising considering Josh is also a winemaker and according to him, “It takes a lot of beer to make a good wine”.

The name “Moa” (pronounced “more”) also derives from the region as early settlers to the area hunted Moa (New Zealand’s extinct giant flightless bird), which were in huge abundance in the Wairau Valley. Josh even hand delivered early trial brews to archaeologists working a Moa bone dig near the brewery. Unlike the Moa, the archaeologists survived.

The international multi-award winning range of Moa beers and ciders are proudly brewed using traditional, costly, inefficient and labour intensive techniques with a focus on local ingredients, including internationally renowned New Zealand hops.

Made the way beer used to be made before everyone started making it differently, most of our beers are rounded off through the use of winemaking techniques, such as bottle conditioning where a small amount of active yeast and priming sugar is added to the brew just before bottling (like Champagne). This is why you may find some sediment at the bottom of each bottle.

This traditional technique naturally carbonates the beer, significantly enhances shelf life and longevity, creates dynamic and complex flavours that change over time (like a good wine), and gives the beer an elegant, champagne-like mouthfeel.