Harrington's Breweries

Harrington's Brewery began in 1991 on the site of the original Wards Brewery. The Kilmore St brewery had only a 1000 litre brewing capacity and hoped to brew 3000 litres a week.

The first brews were a draught, lager and dark beer. The beers were brewed to the German purity laws, and the only ingredients are water, malted barley, hops and yeast.

Set up next to the brewery was a bottle shop for the whole malt beers to be available in flagons and riggers, at a price to suit the working person's pocket. Within two weeks of opening, John Harrington (founder & director) had realised he'd underestimated the brewery's potential. The brewery underwent some alteration so they could extend the brewing capacity to approximately 12500 litres per week.

In 1993 a second brewery was opened in Ferry Road to help keep up with demand batches of up to 6000 litres were made, and 35000 litres in total were brewed weekly. It now had a range of eight different naturally brewed beers, and an alcoholic ginger beer.

In May 1999 Castle Rock Brewery was purchased by Harrington's in Ferrymead, which is at the opposite end of Ferry Road. This purchase expanded the brewing capacity by 30%. The Ferrymead brewery was ideal for lower-volume brewing, and freed up capacity at the main brewery for gearing up to move into the bottled beer market. The bottle store beside the Ferrymead brewery would become the seventh Harrington's bottle store in Christchurch.

Today Harrington's Brewery produces over 17 different styles of beers, including limited release and special editions, an alcoholic ginger beer and a non alcoholic version too. It also produce a number of different R.T.D's (ready to drink) and also produce spirits in bottled form or available when bringing one's own bottle for a refill.

Hand crafted beers
Naturally brewed and hence are naturally low carb i.e. no sugar is added to speed up fermentation.
No preservatives
Use only the pure waters of the South Island