Check out some press about our win at the Asian Beer Awards here...http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10812518 The photo is of our distributor in Singapore, Mr Ngata Tapsell, picking up the win.
On June 8th we learnt that a WilliamsWarn Brewer, Mr Santiago Aon Ratto, won a Gold Medal at the Asian Beer Awards. He beat 45 of the worlds top breweries in the largest category, Pilsner. His NZ$5660 brewery beat a host of breweries worth on average at least NZ$75 million each. Santiago (on the right) and I (Ian Williams, on the left) made the recipe together but he brewed it in his mancave. It's brewing history because its the first time homebrew has been entered in a proper brewing awards and therefore the first time its beaten the big guys. Well done Santiago. It was Santiago's 3rd brew in his personal brewery.
Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi. Here is the first Aussie with one. The fabulous Andrew Jones. It arrived at Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, and he made his first beer in a flash. His email to us was:
"Well first brew is done and dusted!! For a bloke who has never done homebrew before, this is a walk in the park. Had no dramas during the process and everything worked like a charm!" Cheers Andrew.
Now that we’ve proved it in in NZ, we've picked Australia as our first port of call and we’re really happy to be working with Winequip in Melbourne as our distributer. They’re a great company and a perfect match for us.
“Australians love good beer and we have one of the world's staunchest homebrewing scenes so we see a huge opportunity for the WilliamsWarn not just in the home, but also in offices and workplaces around the country," says Andrew Watt, Director of Winequip. "We predict it won't be long before it's reasonably commonplace to see a WilliamsWarn Personal Brewery in and around the mining towns of Western Australia and other remote outback locations where there are strong home brewing traditions."
Negotiations started after Winequip bought an initial test unit off the Auckland-based company in July this year.
"We saw immediate potential for the WilliamsWarn in Australia from the moment we tried the first batch," says Watt. "The beer is the same quality as what you’d buy in a bar, or better, and the WilliamsWarn gives the brewer freedom to customise their own brews to produce a unique drop they can proudly serve to friends, family, colleagues, and clients."
We are thrilled to be able to offer Aussies the first chances to get their hands of the WilliamsWarn before we expand into other parts of the world.
A month ago WilliamsWarn entered in the BNZ Virgin Business Challenge. A challenge for New Zealand companies to win $100,000 in prize money, flights all over the world, access to the Virgin meeting rooms, mentoring by Virgin and BNZ executives and an exclusive mentoring session with Sir Richard Branson.
Pretty soon we heard we were selected to be one of ten businesses out of 264 that had made it into the final. This meant we would have to pitch to 5 judges in a Dragon's Den. We started a special BNZ Virgin Business Challenge brew straight away. Brewing a Blonde Ale with some Motueka hops.
The day before the pitch, in-between presentation preparation, we brought the machine over to the BNZ building. At 2pm Thursday we entered the Dragon's Den. Already some big companies had been in here before us. We presented as best we could in the 10 minutes allowed, served a beer, had 20 minutes of question time and that was that.
At the award dinner that night, we saw films of our competition. Some really awesome companies. Unfortunatly we didn't win... But you know how it works, there is one winner and nine seconds. We were really happy to be in the final ten, as the criteria was you had to have the potential to be a 50 million dollar company in 5 years. We'll get there yet! Check it out here
Seven days after we started the brew, the very first Stout poured out of the tap. With super fresh liquorice, chocolate and dark roasted flavours it's a success! Don't think this one will last very long.
Last Friday was the big award night of New Zealand's Best Awards. We were nominated in three different categories:
Packaging
Product design
Brand identity
The Product design and brand identity got silver awards and the packiging received a bronze award.
Click on the categories to see it on the Best Awards website.
It was a great night and we are very happy with the results.
Big thanks to Studio Alexander and Burroughs Pilcher!
Yesterday DJ Simon Morton visited the showroom to ask Ian all about the WilliamsWarn. In the following weeks we will be in his 'This Way Up' show. Aired every saturday between midday and 2pm. Keep a close eye on WilliamsWarn's Facebook and Twitter pages for the exact airing date!
Our German friends have written about us. Roughly translated it says: Germans are beer lovers since the beginning of time. In the USA home brewing is an upcoming trend. But it still isn't easy to brew your very own commercial quality beer. This machine makes that possible. The WilliamsWarn is a New Zealand invention by Ian and Anders. You can now brew your very own cold, clear and perfectly carbonated beer in just seven days. You can even experiment with new flavours.
After an exciting interview and photo shoot at The Cloud. We made it into the NZ Herald. Read the great article here...
