Dunedin beers to be supped in Singapore

Dunedin brewer Green Man's sales and marketing manager, Kelly Lindsay, takes a break while...
Dunedin brewer Green Man's sales and marketing manager, Kelly Lindsay, takes a break while preparing a pallet of beer for the company's inaugural export shipment to Singapore. Photo by Stephen Jaquiery.
Dunedin micro-brewery Green Man hopes its inaugural craft beer export to Singapore may be a foot in the door to increasing sales around Asia.

Green Man on Friday sent to Singapore 69 cases of beer - its dark Schwarzbier, Tequila Beer and Ginger Beer brands - alongside a half-pallet of craft beer made by the North Island-listed brewer Moa.

Green Man sales and marketing manager Kelly Lindsay said the Asian distributor ordering the beer had about 30 outlets in Singapore. They were a mix of licensed bars and restaurants.

Last year, Green Man produced 40,000 litres of beer comprising its six staple brands and seasonal, summer brews. All the product was sold in New Zealand.

''We're hoping to be able to double production in the future,'' Mr Lindsay said of working towards more export orders.

He said while craft beer popularity was rising, so was the competition.

Exporting offered plenty of opportunities, given domestic demand could be relatively static, because of the number of brewers in the market.

Green man's Ginger Beer, which is a blend of its IPA, Premium Lager and ginger, won a gold medal at the 2012 Asia Beerfest in Singapore.

Mr Lindsay was not waiting for export customers to stumble over Green Man product.

He was finding distributors overseas and pitching the product to them, a strategy that might yet land an Australian export order.

Mr Lindsay said production of the export beer did not have any challenging aspects, other than awareness of its use-by date in a warm country.

The tequila and ginger also acted as preservatives.

The 8-year-old Green Man brewery had exported some beer to Australia about four years ago, and is at present negotiating to get some beer exported to China.

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