Australians are being urged to have a beer tomorrow night and tweet their support of friends in New Zealand affected by the Christchurch quake.

As we reported earlier in the week, venues across New Zealand will be hosting low-key functions as a show of solidarity for Cantabrians. A number of Australian venues, led by the Local Taphouses, have in a very short time organised their own functions to acknowledge the disaster and raise funds for the Red Cross.

The Local Taphouse will have large donation tins on all bars at both venues, and also be selling beer that has been donated by a number of breweries, with all proceeds from the sale being donated to the Red Cross. This is a huge commitment from the Local Taphouse at very short notice.

Their efforts has been given a huge kick along by Warwick Little from the Little Brewing Company who has donated beer, and also been instrumental in arranging for a large number of kegs of beer entered into the Royal Sydney Beer Show being made available to the Taphouses’ Darlinghurst venue for sale. The generosity has included breweries such as Matilda Bay which has donated 5 kegs of beer – many of them newly medalled at the Beer Show – or the cause.

Others will be taking part in tomorrow night’s show of solidarity, including Beer DeLuxe which will have two New Zealand beers on tap and encouraging donations to the Red Cross appeal.

All venues are interested in being involved and can do so just by raising their patron’s awareness of the tragedy and encouraging them to Tweet their message of support using the hashtag #eqnz. Even if you can’t get along to a venue, have a quiet beer at home and give an electronic shout out while you do.

Congratulations and thanks to all – including some who may have been omitted above in trying to get this update posted – who have jumped in to generously lend their support a very important cause.

Finally, the Local Taphouse has announced that on Saturday May 21st, their autumn beer festival will be the Kiwi SpecTAPular. While more details will be forthcoming, all door proceeds from the events in both venues will also be donated to the Red Cross appeal.