Three Sisters Brewery is an award-winning craft brewery and bar set inside the beautiful old Taranaki Savings Bank building at 87 Devon Street West, on New Plymouth's main street. Its story began with a homebrew: Rain In The Face won the first Taranaki SOBA Homebrew Competition in 2015, and the team went commercial in April 2017. In 2020, after a PledgeMe campaign by Joe and Sarah, the brewery moved into the former bank — old TSB to the new TSB, as they put it — and a second successful crowdfunding round later increased capacity twelve-fold, with the brewery expanding into the neighbouring premises. The honours have stacked up quickly: NZ Brewers Guild Champion Micro Brewery in 2021, BGNZ Champion Small Brewery in 2022, and back-to-back Champion International Small Brewery trophies at the Australian International Beer Awards in 2023 and 2024 — the largest competition of its kind in the world. Today the Devon Street venue pours beers like Kilt Lifter, Fuzzy Panda Hazy, So Much Noise Triple Hazy and the original Rain In The Face APA alongside a full food menu, with tables bookable online. The brewery's 440ml cans, six packs, mixed packs, merchandise and gift vouchers are all available through its online store.
Three Sisters Brewery occupies one of the most distinctive addresses on Devon Street West: the beautiful, old Taranaki Savings Bank building in the heart of New Plymouth's main street. The team moved in during 2020, after Joe and Sarah ran a successful PledgeMe crowdfunding campaign, and the location felt right from day one — as they put it, old TSB to the new TSB. 'We thought it was very fitting.'
The brewery's story begins even further back, at home. In 2015, a homebrew called Rain In The Face won the first Taranaki SOBA Homebrew Competition, and by April 2017 Three Sisters was brewing commercially. From those small beginnings it has grown into one of New Zealand's most decorated small breweries — a rise backed, in no small part, by its own fans, who supported not one but two PledgeMe campaigns. Joe — 'That's Joe', as the photo caption on the about page cheerfully has it — remains the face of the operation.
The trophy cabinet tells the rest of the story. In 2021, the New Zealand Brewers Guild named Three Sisters Champion Micro Brewery. That same year, a second successful PledgeMe campaign increased capacity twelve-fold at the bank, with the brewery expanding into the neighbouring premises. In 2022 came BGNZ Champion Small Brewery, followed by back-to-back Champion International Small Brewery trophies at the Australian International Beer Awards in 2023 and 2024 — the largest competition of its kind in the world and, as the team proudly notes, perhaps the most prestigious accolade a brewery can win. Their about page signs off with 'watch this space', and they seem to mean it.
Naming is clearly part of the fun here. Rain In The Face, the competition winner that started it all, is still in the line-up as a 5.6% APA. Kilt Lifter headlines the featured collection, while Fuzzy Panda Hazy (5.8%) covers the ever-popular hazy style. For the adventurous, So Much Noise is a triple hazy at a mighty 10.5%, and Banana Smoothie Sour (6.5%) — sold out online at the time of writing — shows the playful side of the brewhouse.
The core range sits alongside rotating releases, and everything goes out in 440ml cans through the brewery's online store: single cans, mix-six packs, or a mixed twelve-can box for the seriously thirsty. Branded merchandise and gift vouchers round out the shop, so a visit easily turns into a take-home haul.
The New Plymouth venue is a working brewery with a bar and kitchen attached. The food menu is published on the brewery's site — posted as images on the Bar Menus page, so it's worth checking for the current dishes before you head in — and tables can be reserved through the online restaurant reservation page. As a licensed premises under the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012 (liquor licence 033/OFF/467/2019), it is strictly an adults-only proposition, and the brewery's published code of conduct sets out the house expectations. Beer fans can also follow new releases and news via the brewery's Untappd, Facebook and Instagram pages.
Note that Three Sisters also runs a Wellington venue with its own reservations page — this listing is for the New Plymouth bar.
Few breweries anywhere can claim a run like Three Sisters': a homebrew competition win turned champion brewery, trading from a grand old bank on the main street. Whether you come for the history, a well-made hazy, or a proper meal in characterful surrounds, 87 Devon Street West has earned its place as one of Taranaki's essential craft beer stops.