Asuka N.
Yelp
With some free time to spare on a Sunday afternoon in Welington, we took a bit of an extended walk and made our way over to Garage Project's cellar room (their brewpub is just across the street, slightly down the road, and this will cover that as well). It's a converted gas station with some very cool graffiti / artwork decorating the place and rebranding it definitely as a brewery. Inside the cellar room, a couple staff (probably short a couple, given that there were a good number of visitors) manned the taps and gave folks free samples as well as helping refill growlers and selling other merch. The beers on tap are a broad variety, and I was finally glad to find a place in the Antipodes doing some heavier beers such as double IPAs that really don't seem to exist otherwise. My favorite overall was probably the Pernicious Weed, which is pretty drinkable for a double IPA but does not have as many outstanding flavors or notes relative to the standard double IPA I would find at American breweries. The best I had in a can was the Lack of Faith, which is a Star Wars-themed beer but would be the one that I would buy as a repeat drinker - it's a black IPA that has a nice warmth to it that finishes on a slightly hoppy finish. The rest did not really stand out to me, although I did like that their session IPA had a decent flavor to it while managing to clock in at a meager 2% ABV.
As for the brewpub (which is 91 Aro Street but does not appear to be on Yelp yet), it has all the beers that the cellar room has on tap or in cans/bottles, although some (such as Lack of Faith) were out of stock there. The food menu is relatively sparse, but the piadina with cheese, prosciutto, and rocket was quite good and tasted substantial even though it was a light, airy bite. Overall, I dig the vibe of Garage Project, and I like what they are doing - I just hope that they become more adventurous with the beers they are producing down the road!