Garage Project’s Wild Workshop & Friends 2026

Garage Project is opening the Wild Workshop over Beervana weekend and pouring beers from three Belgian producers that almost never reach New Zealand: 3 Fonteinen, Boerenerf and Cantillon, alongside their own Wild Workshop range, by the glass or in flights.

If you have any interest at all in spontaneous and mixed fermentation, this is the single best-value thing happening that weekend. Cantillon and 3 Fonteinen are the reference points for lambic and gueuze; getting them side by side, fresh, without a plane ticket, does not happen here. No tickets for the tasting sessions, you just turn up.

In Garage Project’s words

More than most brewing, the craft of spontaneous fermentation is an international passion, so this Beervana weekend, we’re bringing some of the best in the world here to Wellington for your tasting pleasure. This is your chance to try the big dogs of contemporary mixed fermentation brewing without even leaving the country.

Session times

• Thursday 20 August, 4pm to 9pm
• Friday 21 August, 2pm to 9pm
• Saturday 22 August, 2pm to 9pm
• Sunday 23 August, 2pm to 7pm, brewery tours only, book online

Food is house-made hotdogs, hot bretzels with warm cheese sauce, plus specialty cheeses and charcuterie.

Wild Workshop brewery tours (Sunday only)

Sunday is tours rather than open pouring. Each tour is an hour or so through the barrel hall and tanks, covering brewing, blending and cellaring, with six beers and matching snacks. $60 per person plus booking fee, and these need booking in advance through the Wild Workshop page.

Tour times: 2pm, 3:15pm, 4:30pm and 5:45pm.

For anyone curious about barrel-ageing or blending, the Sunday tour is the more instructive half of the weekend. Worth booking early, there are only four slots.