The Wild Ferment That Changed Everything

At Hakanoa Handmade, we’ve always believed flavour should come from real craft — not shortcuts. Our ginger beer began as a kitchen experiment, guided by curiosity and a stubborn refusal to settle for “good enough.”

We tried every yeast under the sun, from champagne to brewer’s strains, hoping one might deliver the bright, crisp flavour we were chasing. None even came close to what our own wild culture created naturally. That living, vibrant ferment gave us the floral lift, the clean finish, and the unmistakable “Hakanoa” character we couldn’t brew any other way.

Scaling that handcrafted magic, though? That was a whole different journey. Breweries wouldn’t touch our culture; their equipment wasn’t designed for it, and frankly — we didn’t want their yeasts anywhere near our ginger beer either.

Eventually, we found the perfect partner in a boutique cider maker who understood fermentation as deeply as we did. With them, we were able to keep our wild culture alive, keep alcohol levels in check, and create a consistently bubbly ginger beer we could finally share with the whole country.

It’s been a long road, full of trial, error, and a lot of stubborn persistence. Want to see how it all unfolded?

Watch the story here:
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Our Wild Ferment Journey