Kiwi Brewers Tap into Growing Demand for Craft Beer

Craft beer drinking is about the search for authentic, full flavoured beers. Craft brewing blends tradition with creative, complex flavour that reflects a brewer’s tastes and style. The craft concept is associated with all that we value as a culture: independence, individuality, success, creation, art. It is about discovering something new, making something better, and it all ties into savouring a good beer at the end of a long day. What isn’t to love about craft brewing?

Not much, considering that craft sales in the United States jumped 14% to 5.1 million barrels in 2011, according to the Brewers Association. Much like the explosion of US craft brewing, New Zealand brewers are seeing a growing demand for craft beer. Many brewers believe that craft beer creations are beginning to transcend the usual mass produced brands. In fact, craft breweries are working diligently to accommodate an exploding demand.

Jarred Maclachlan and Paul Brown, owners of Brown Bay’s Deep Creek Brews and Eats started following craft brewing in 2004 while on an overseas adventure. “I saw how fast it was growing in America. I liked the idea of keeping it local, love drinking beer, love brewing beer. Coming back here, we decided that you can look into it and drink it as much as you like, but until you start brewing, nothing is going to happen.”

And that was that. For three years, inside a Brown’s Bay garage, the two kiwi beer connoisseurs would fine tune award winning recipes that would eventually launch popular flavours like Dusty Gringo, a punchy brew with a superior taste and 309, a New Zealand Pale Ale containing “straight-up ingredients from the finest country on earth.”

“We put in the hours, pushed into craft brewing, and it was the beginning of something great,” said Brown.

So great, that in 2011 they opened Deep Creek Brews and Eats on a site fronting the Brown’s Bay Beach Reserve. To do so seemed daunting at first. There were a lot of regulations to open a brewery in a sought after location that walks out onto the beach.

According to Hamish Firth, principal at Mt Hobson Group, an Auckland based resource planning and consultant group, “We helped them obtain resource and building consents, as well as to meet all of the liquor licencing requirements. Their beer was already in demand and their opening date was set. It was a complex case because everything had to be bundled together to ensure that opening date was not pushed back.” With MHG simplifying the regulatory process, Maclachlan and Brown managed to focus on everything else. They started brewing 500 litres per week and are currently up to 1,000 litres per week. “We basically work 24 hours per day,” said Maclachlan.

One of the most talked about benefits of craft brewing is its ability to introduce different tastes to different patrons. Someone may walk into a brew pub wanting a Heineken and walk out having enjoyed something like Basilica, an award winning vanilla chocolate porter. “You’d be surprised at the different people that like different beer. People actually like flavour if they are given the chance to try something better,” explained Scott Taylor, manager at Deep Creek.

“The community is excited. I’ve personally seen a shift away from store bought beer to good quality beer,” said Maclachlan. “People are prepared to pay for quality, especially when they can see the brewing process from start to finish. We are a brewery, each beer made right here on site. I think it’s obvious that people want quality. They want freshness; and they want a story.”

A good craft beer is renowned and known for its taste. The goal of seasoned craft beer drinkers is to find the perfect blend of place and time, something unique and good. They are in search of something to savour and enjoy. Many people believe that this the beginning of a new brand of beer for an evolving drinker in search of a superior taste experience, rather than a way to kill time with a familiar beverage.

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