Brewing Dreams: Hannah & Andrew Childs of Churly’s CBD

ANDREW: I was born and bred in Wellington. Grew up in Miramar, about a car’s length away from the airport. 

I started out working as a public servant. About three years into that, I started home-brewing beer, and I really got the bug for it – until one day, I realised I had to quit my day job and really commit to it. Within about nine months of brewing, I won the Clemenger's Wellington in a Pint competition. Four of the home brew winners, including myself, got to brew a commercial beer with four breweries. So we brewed the ‘Celia Wade Brown Ale’ with the Yeastie Boys, named after  – Celia Wade-Brown herself, lovely lady – [laughs] she’s since told us that it’s still the best publicity she’s ever had. 

Soon after that, I finally went for it and started Behemoth Brewing. I had no idea what it would turn into. Since then we’ve opened our own brewery on Dominion Road in Auckland’s Mt Eden and gone on to win awards, travel the world, contract brew pretty much all over New Zealand, and open four venues – including Churly’s CBD. 

HANNAH: I was born in the States – in Portland, Oregon. I’ve always been in hospitality, since I was about 15. 

I started in kitchens, and I just loved it immediately. I ended up going to culinary school and then went off travelling. My whole 20s were spent shuffling around the world, doing every hospo job under the sun: bartending, waiting tables, out the back – you name it. I often had multiple jobs on the go.

Then I had the opportunity to start learning butchery when I was living in the UK. In the beginning, I was only doing it to be a better chef. I never expected to love it. I was used to working in boiling hot, chaotic kitchens, doing 100-hour weeks, with arms covered in burn marks from the oven doors. But butchery was quiet, cold. It was basically the opposite of everything I had been doing, and I found it very peaceful.

Once I got to 29 and started asking myself: okay, where can I still go? New Zealand was on the list – and then I landed a butchery job. That was it. I packed everything up and moved. 

I met Andrew six months later.

ANDREW: At a bar [laughs], while I was singing with Jordan Luck. They were playing at a place called Brew on Quay in Central Auckland – 

HANNAH: We were drinking beer.

ANDREW: – and I was making a fool of myself up on stage. I can actually hold a tune, for the record [laughs], but I didn’t think it would be enough to impress someone like Hannah.

HANNAH: He spotted me, came over and said hi. We just ended up chatting and losing track of time and – yeah, we’ve been together ever since. 

Ten years in December, married for almost eight.

HANNAH: Oh man, it’s everything. The food and the drinks are made to go together. They really raise the whole experience. 

If you have a beer, say our ‘Something Hoppy’ IPA – and it’s delicious, a bit fruity, with a good hop profile – when you pair that with some of our IPA salami, all of a sudden the fruitiness of the hops is intensified. You can taste the pink peppercorn and the fennel in the meat even more. 

Then you have another bite of the salami, which makes you a bit thirsty. So you take another sip of the beer, and so on. It all works in unison. 

ANDREW: Exactly. I also think, why would you serve subpar food with an excellent beverage offering? And vice versa as well. 

There are a lot of restaurants around the country, including really high-end ones – I won’t name names – with a beer selection that’s absolutely rubbish. They have a whole list of $200 bottles of wine, and then the best thing they have is a subpar, mainstream macro beer. [Laughs]

Treating the drinks menu with equal importance as the food menu is something we definitely believe in pretty strongly. 

HANNAH: Wellingtonians are perhaps a bit more discerning. They are used to having amazing food, given there’s a long history of being the food and drink capital. 

When I moved here ten years ago, Wellington was leaps and bounds ahead of anywhere else.

ANDREW: Meanwhile, Auckland has spent the last ten years catching up [laughs].

I think it’s arguable whether Auckland or Wellington has a better dining and beverage scene these days. But per square metre, Wellington beats everywhere. 

I don’t know many cities in the world that have as many great options as Wellington does, all within walking distance from each other. 

HANNAH: Plus people in Wellington, generally speaking, are just more into food and drink than they are in Auckland. Take Wellington on a Plate or Burger Welly, for example, which people get behind in droves. 

And because of that, I think there’s a higher level of accountability to make sure your offering is of really good quality. 

ANDREW: I mean, you’re always nervous before opening any venue. It’s a big commitment and undertaking – and it takes a really good team to be able to do it. But I was super excited to finally have something back in my home city. 

I think it's pretty funny that of the three largest independent breweries in New Zealand, the first two are in Wellington, and the third one (us) was created by someone from Wellington. [Laughs]

ANDREW: We’re super excited to be a part of Wellington on a Plate this year with our ‘Pink Panther’ – a boozy twist on everyone’s favourite childhood ice cream float. I loved nothing more than a trip to Cobb & Co. as a kid, so this definitely feels like a nostalgic nod to that. 

We’ve participated in heaps of events over the years, but no one in the world really does it like WOAP does. 

HANNAH: A ‘Half Way Down’ Lager plus some pork and chive dumplings from Nam Nam across the lane. The fruity characters of the beer really complement the rich, salty dumplings.

ANDREW: Ooh. Hard to choose. Outside our own menu? There are so many things to choose from, but I’d say the Yangnyeom Chicken Burger from Crack Chicken – sweet, spicy and juicy – paired with our ‘Something Hazy’ IPA.