My beer making success with Te Aro Brewing Co's 'Obligatory' fresh wort pack
✎ Update (2026): you can't buy this one anymore
Sad news for anyone who came here to grab an Obligatory fresh wort pack — it's no longer sold. Brewtopia, the home brew shop that sold them, has closed, and Te Aro Brewing has since grown up and moved to Brewtown in Upper Hutt, where it now runs as a full commercial brewery, taproom and restaurant. The Obligatory Pale Ale itself lives on as the occasional pour (it was Te Aro's very first beer), but the DIY wort pack is a thing of the past. I've left the original review below because it's a cracking product worth remembering — just don't go hunting for the kit.
I was lucky enough to catch up with Nathan from Te Aro Brewing Company (we used to be workmates at a fairly well known internet company some years back) and to meet the brewery's founder Karl Kayes.
The brewery had a front-of-shop known as Brewtopia, wherein they shared with me a taste of some of their wares.
Nathan offered me a sample of their Obligatory pale ale beer. A fine tasting beer, I offered my compliments. He then blew my mind by offering me one of Te Aro Brewing Company's 'Obligatory' fresh wort packs to try out and review.
Such is my sophistication when it comes to beer making, I'd never heard of a fresh wort pack before but soon enough I was lugging around 20 litres of ready made Obligatory wort back home.
On arrival my wife looked at me with some suspicion.
What had I brought home in this mysterious black container.
Petrol? Insecticide?
No darling, beer!
So, I grabbed the fermenter and gave it a clean and then sanitized with some sodium percarbonate.
I was extra particular about this process and I rinsed it all out with boiling water. There was no way I was going to let this special treat from Te Aro get ruined by poor preparation! This took me about 10 minutes.
Before I started this cleaning process I actually got the yeast going by adding it to a glass of warm water. The yeast was the popular home brewer's choice of Safale US-05.
So, now it came time to prepare the beer.
I emptied the 20 litres of wort into the fermenter, making sure it splashed around quite a lot to ensure the wort got some oxygen into it (this helps with fermentation).
It was a nice light brown colour and not as thick as I imagined it would be (probably as I'm so used to making brews with beer kits).
And then less than a minute later, I was ready to pitch the yeast.
It was almost too easy.
I put the lid on the fermenter and added the airlock.
I did not add any hops at this stage. Not my normal approach, but I intended to follow Nathan's instructions as best I could so I added the hops at day 5.
So straight away I was able to see the benefit of using a pre-made wort — you save a lot of time, there's no need to go and buy a beer enhancer or DME and it's a lot less messy than dealing with a beer kit.
Indeed, there's no mess with a wort pack!
You could even recycle the wort pack container by taking it back to Brewtopia on a brewing day for a new wort and a wee discount, as you were using your own storage device!
Nathan recommended that the brew is stored in a dark place with an average temperature of between 14 to 22 degrees centigrade and that 16–20 is best. I'll be frank, I have no idea what the temperature was but I left it in my warm kitchen for 48 hours.
I then transferred it to my man shed outside and covered it with a whole pile of old sheets and towels.
Classic move eh?
At this point I noted that no bubbles were coming out of the airlock, nor did I observe any scum or residue lining the inside of the fermenter, early days though and the lack of bubbles after two days does not mean I have a brewing disaster on my hands!
At day 5 I added the hops — a combination of some delicious smelling Nelson Sauvin, NZ Cascade and Motueka. On opening the fermenter's lid I was now able to see a great layer of bubbles and scum so clearly something good had been occurring.
So now it was a waiting game to let the brew do its thing.
Bottling day
I prepared the Obligatory on the 27th of September and bottled two weekends later on the 9th of October. This was a couple of days shy of the time recommended by Nathan but whatever, close enough!
Bottling was a straightforward exercise and I was very diligent with sanitizing the bottles.
Now it's an even longer wait!
So while I wait, let's talk about the ingredients of the beer and whether fresh wort packs are worth it.
Wort pack ingredients
Malt: Gladfields American Ale Malt, Gladfields Pale Crystal, Gladfields Toffee Malt
Hops: Nelson Sauvin, NZ Cascade and Motueka
I gotta tell ya, that combination of hops was one of the most delicious smells. I kept them in the fridge until it was time to add them and every time I opened the fridge, I got the most delightful whiff of them.
Pricing and whether a fresh wort pack is wort(h) it
So what was the cost? Let's be clear, this was not a cheap product. It was a quality product so you paid a quality price of $70 for the wort.
That also included the Safale yeast and the hops, which should make your wallet feel a bit better.
There was no need for an enhancer because Te Aro had made the wort exactly as they would make their Obligatory to sell to their keen punters and the local Wellington bars that want quality craft beers to serve their fickle* patrons.
Compared to using a beer kit, fresh yeast, extra hops and an enhancer, you're looking at approximately $40 a brew (that is if you use a lower range beer kit). So that $30-odd dollar difference was buying you a beer quality well above what may be achieved with a standard beer kit.
It was also buying you time.
It took only a few minutes to get the fermenter clean and the yeast pitched into the wort. And that was the longest part of the whole brewing exercise.
So if you were time sensitive, a fresh wort pack was the way to go.
Let's be clear, I'm not knocking beer kits, I think they are great!
The verdict. How did the Obligatory taste?
I'm not a patient man, I could hardly wait a week, let alone three to try the Obligatory.
So, I tried one a week after bottling.
I gotta tell you, I had some high expectations around this brew and I was not disappointed.
This was a most excellent tasting beer, even only after a week of conditioning. It possessed a bold, hoppy taste.
It felt oakey in some way, which sounds pretentious but it's not.
It has an excellent mouthfeel with some good body.
It's a very easy drinking beer and I look forward to enjoying it further with the first BBQ of the summer season.
I firmly recommend this to any beer maker who is looking for a quick way to make genuine quality home brew beer.
Update — after a two week conditioning period I had another crack and the flavours were even more amazing. This is probably the best tasting beer I have ever brewed.
Can you still buy the Obligatory wort pack?
Sadly, no — and it's the reason for the note at the top of this review. The Obligatory fresh wort pack was sold through Brewtopia, and that home brew shop has since closed its doors. Te Aro Brewing, which started life in the back of Brewtopia, has grown into a proper commercial operation and now brews out of Brewtown in Upper Hutt.
The good news is the beer didn't die with the wort pack. You can still track down the Obligatory Pale Ale on tap now and again, and you can see Te Aro's current range — and visit the taproom and restaurant for a beer and a feed — over at tearobrewing.co.nz.
If it's the wort pack experience you're chasing, all is not lost: plenty of NZ home brew shops still sell fresh wort packs, so it's worth asking your local. And if you'd rather go the classic route, my step-by-step guide to home brewing will get you a cracking beer from a kit.
*fickle, yes I said that. Beer drinkers can be the worst snobs.
