If there’s one thing that says holiday cheer, it’s a cold jug of Shadow’s cold beer. Unfortunately for students and local party goers alike, the University of Auckland’s fan favourite bar Shadows will not be the place to quench that yeasty thirst this Christmas.
Carbon dioxide shortages throughout Aotearoa means breweries won’t be able to produce enough beer to tide over the pubs this Christmas season. Shadows has decided that without its signature beers it just couldn’t stay open over Christmas, despite the fact that they are never open over Christmas. Shadows told Craccum “We love our beloved student crowd, but they’ll just have to find somewhere else to go. We can’t just go around replacing our beer like a former ex-girlfriend, we love our beer too much! We strive to only serve the best, and we aren‘t putting out pitchers of G&T as a replacement!”. It seems not even the founders of the sacred grounds know what life would be at the local drinking hole without its staple drink.
Students are concerned about what the closure will mean for their summer, and offered some possible solutions to the issue. One local Shadow fiend told Craccum “I just can’t comprehend how I’ll spend my summer holiday without the best beer spot in town. The viaduct just isn’t the same, I need the dingy lighting and the lack of windows to really feel at home, not a view of the sea and other white collar workers doing better than me”. Another suggested that they could bring in their own home-brewed beer to help tide over the season; however, that may not align with the food health safety rating. The last person Craccum spoke to suggested robbing Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory to obtain some fizzy lifting drinks in order to lighten the spirits of all those crushed by the closure.