By CHRIS DANIELS
Every day of the week, 96-year-old Morton Coutts arrives for work neatly dressed, including jacket and tie.
His office and laboratory in the sprawling Montana factory at Glen Innes is simple, with a small bar heater the only luxury for this legend of New Zealand brewing.
Despite first transmitting television pictures in 1940 and shortwave radio signals in 1926, the contribution of Mr Coutts to New Zealand history is close to our heart - beer.
A grandson of brewing pioneer Frederick Joseph Khutze (the surname was changed to Coutts during the First World War), Mr Coutts invented and patented the process of "continuous fermentation," still used in breweries around the world.
Now Mr Coutts has a new invention and a new tipple to tempt drinkers.
His barley wine - like a high-strength beer without the hops, is now ready for production by any company that wants to pick it up.
High-strength premium beer overseas is often called barley wine, but what Mr Coutts has developed is fermented barley - without the hops.
To make this special brew, Mr Coutts has again used his inventor's touch with a method of preparing barley in low heat that does not destroy its nutrients.
His latest patent is described as a "unique system for sterilising alcoholic beverages at low temperatures."
A firm believer in the health-giving properties of barley, Mr Coutts says his barley wine will take the world by storm, filling the market gap between beer and wine and also providing an easy alcoholic blend for many other drinks.
And he should know - he has been drinking barley extracts for more then 70 years.
With barley available all year round, he says it takes only 16 days to produce the finished product.
His business acumen is as well respected as his inventing genius, for Mr Coutts is no eccentric genius.
With capital provided by his father, he founded Otahuhu's Waitemata Brewery in 1926 and sat on the board of directors of Dominion Breweries from 1946 to 1982 while technical director throughout.
Montana is not planning to introduce or develop the barley wine, but in exchange for allowing Mr Coutts to use its facilities for the past two years, the winemaker gets first rights on any invention.
When it does eventually reach the bottlestore shelves, the marketing gurus will not have to look far for its greatest walking advertisement - the inventor is living proof.
Still brewing up a storm at 96
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