Parrotdog is a Wellington craft brewery founded in 2011 by three friends all named Matt — Kristofski, Warner and Stevens — along with Paul "Wattie" Watson, who became the brewery's first employee and is now its managing director. The brewery takes its name from the fact that one of the founders had a pet parrot and the friends called each other "dog."
What began as home brewing in 2009 grew into contract brewing, then a brewery on Vivian Street in central Wellington by 2012, and eventually a purpose-built brewery in Lyall Bay, funded via two record-breaking PledgeMe crowdfunding campaigns (the first raising $2 million in under two days). The Lyall Bay site has been operational since 2017 and now includes the Parrotdog Bar, an old-school-pub-style bar that opened in 2018.
Parrotdog's core range includes Bitterbitch IPA — the beer that launched the brewery back in 2011 — alongside Birdseye Hazy IPA, Raptor APA, Sundog Pilsner and Thunderbird Bright IPA, with limited-release beers including the Rare Bird series and a rotating "name" range of 440ml bottles. The brewery now employs 65 staff and holds an off-licence to sell liquor for takeaway.
Parrotdog began, as so many good stories do, with three friends, a home brew kit, and no master plan. In late 2009, Matt Kristofski did his first home brew on a kit given to him by his then-girlfriend's father, teamed up with flatmate Matt Warner to save money on booze, and started serving the results at parties. The home brewery needed a name — Parrotdog, after Kristofski's pet parrot and the friends' habit of calling each other "dog" — and a logo, drawn up by a mate in London that's still in use today.
As the two Matts got deeper into Wellington's emerging craft beer scene — spending time at Hashigo Zake and getting mentored by regulars at The Malthouse — a third Matt, Stevens, and honorary fourth member Paul "Wattie" Watson joined the project. In 2011, with graduation looming, the crew decided to give brewing a real go, moving from home kit to contract brewing at Mike's brewery in Taranaki. Their first big batch, an IPA, nearly got dumped down the drain after a hop-quantity mistake made it far too bitter — they saved it by dry-hopping heavily with Nelson Sauvin, and the beer kept its name: Bitterbitch. It launched at Hashigo Zake in July 2011, sold out fast, and won people's choice at Beervana that same year.
By July 2012, Parrotdog had its own brewery on Vivian Street in central Wellington, funded by more than $100,000 from each of the Matts, backed by parents who remortgaged their homes. The founders assembled the imported brewing equipment themselves after the engineers who were meant to help never showed up. Warner led brewing, while Stevens and Kristofski built the business — for six months, none of them took a wage.
By 2016, Parrotdog had grown to 10 staff and outgrown Vivian Street. Rather than sell to a larger player during an era when "Big Beer" was buying up craft breweries, the team launched a PledgeMe crowdfunding campaign in August 2016 that raised $2 million in under two days — PledgeMe's biggest campaign ever at the time. That funded a new brewery in Lyall Bay, operational by April 2017, followed by a second PledgeMe raise later that year to build out the sales team and add a canning line.
What started as plans for a small, kitchenless bar at the Lyall Bay site grew into the Parrotdog Bar, which opened in autumn 2018 modelled on an old-school pub. Kid-friendly and dog-friendly, with burgers, pool tables, a cosy beer garden and fortnightly quiz nights, it quickly became a neighbourhood favourite.
Bitterbitch remained Parrotdog's flagship for nearly a decade, until 2020's Birdseye Hazy IPA, launched during lockdown against advice, took off in a way no one anticipated. Coming in at 5.8% and priced a few dollars below comparable craft hazy IPAs, Birdseye became a go-to beer for many drinkers and now accounts for close to half the brewery's total production.
At the ten-year mark, Parrotdog moved from committee-style leadership to a single managing director: Paul Watson, the brewery's first employee, stepping up from head of sales. Kristofski became marketing and brand director, Stevens commercial director, and Warner brewing director — with a team that's grown to 65 employees, but with no major fallouts among the founders along the way.