BOP craft beer boom

Mount Brewing Co (Newton Street, Mount Maunganui) owners, Glenn and Virginia. Photo/file

The Bay of Plenty has become part of New Zealand's craft beer boom.

There are more than half a dozen craft brewers active across the region, ranging from micro producers to substantial companies combining brewing with hospitality operations, such as Mount Brewing Company, and Croucher Brewing Company.

The BOP craft sector is noted for a generally collaborative approach aimed at growing the market overall, several brewers told the Bay of Plenty Times Weekend.

Craft beer sales nationally have surged 35 per cent over the past year to more than $100 million, according to ANZ's New Zealand Craft Beer Industry Insights report, released last month. Craft brands now account for 15 per cent of the total beer market, up from nine per cent three years ago. The 168 craft breweries operating across the country are producing more than 1,500 unique brews, the report says.

Demand was rising thanks to enthusiastic and increasingly discerning consumers at home and growing international interest, resulting in diverse opportunities across the industry, says ANZ agribusiness manager John Bennett.

Glenn Meikle, who owns Mount Brewing with his wife Virginia, said the beers produced by the major breweries tended to taste pretty similar.

"Customers' palates have really changed and they are asking for more robust flavours in craft beer paired with full flavoured food. Following international trends, we have seen the demand for mainstream products has dropped and a 15 per cent rise in our craft beer sales in the last year."

Mount Brewing recently celebrated two decades in business with a large-scale renovation of its Mount Maunganui premises and the opening of The Rising Tide - Brewhouse and Eatery.

The Meikles started their family brewing operation from an industrial premise in 1996.

"Our operation reached maximum operational capacity in the last 12 months and due to high demand during the peak summer season we have struggled to maintain production of all our beer varieties, both locally and around the country," said Mr Meikle.

In response, the company overhauled its Newton Street brewery and revamped the former Brewers Bar as The Rising Tide. "We will now be able to meet the high demand for our beer from both customers and suppliers around the country," he said.

The brewery has steadily increased production to around 10,000 litres per month, with the renovation providing more space for a new bottling machine and new fermentation tanks so production can continue to rise. The aim was to produce one large eating, drinking and working space where customers could interact with the brewers working on their latest creations.

"There are 32 taps dedicated to craft beers and local wines - a mix of our brewery's own as well as showcasing other local artisan wines, beers and ciders on high rotation," said Mr Meikle. "Committed craft beer drinkers want variety and they want to try freshly made beer on tap."

He added that the BOP's craft market was very collaborative. "We support other local breweries on our taps. Wellington has really grown its craft beer market and we want to do similar things here. If we all help each other out, we can have a bigger voice. We have been fortunate there has been impressive growth in the craft beer industry in recent years and fantastic support from our local BOP craft beer community."

Paul Croucher, who with Nigel Gregory co-owns Croucher Brewing and two pub outlets, Brew Tauranga and Brew Rotorua, said the growth in the sector was part of a worldwide phenomenon.

Croucher Brewing, which was set up a dozen years ago, initially opened Brew Rotorua six years ago because at the time it was still difficult to get craft beers into local bars.

"We were quite slow into hospitality, but it's quickly become a core part of the business," he said. Brew Rotorua became "an absolute rockstar of a business," he said. Croucher followed up by opening Brew Tauranga two-and-a-half years ago.

The Croucher Brewery produces around 100,000 litres annually at its own site, and also uses Auckland-based contract brewer Steam Brewing Co, which also produces other well-known craft beers such as Epic.

Mr Croucher agreed the local BOP craft beer industry was very supportive of each other's efforts. He noted that Mr Meikle had once stepped into help out with a Croucher export order, rather than have a competitor come in and take it over.

"That was pretty cool. There are all sorts of things like that which have been happening and continue to happen."

However, he noted that with everyone from 18 year old hipsters to retired farmers opening their own craft brewery, there was a lot of beer on the market.

"It's a great time to be a consumer. But as the shelf space gets increasingly congested, we could start to jostle [with each other] a bit more than we have historically. But we have been pretty collegial."

Super Liquor Greerton store manager Sue Edmunds said the rise of the craft beer market was changing everything about drinking.

"Even the young guys now are coming in and instead of buying their usual box, they will buy a couple of really nice craft beers," said Ms Edmunds.

Super Liquor Greerton serves as the buying and distribution centre for 10 stores owned by Dwight Harvie across the BOP and Waikato and stocks a "massive range" of craft beers from the BOP as well as across NZ.

"You can sit down and have a 500 ml bottle of beer that is completely different to something you've tasted before," she said. "Some of them have a quite high alcohol percentage, some of them are not so much, but they all have a very different taste."

According to the ANZ report, the fastest moving style by some distance is pale ale, which accounts for as much as 65 per cent of all New Zealand craft sales.

Ms Edmunds noted the growth of craft beer was also paralleled by the growth in low alchohol beers which was driven over years of increasingly tight drink driving laws.

"With craft beer you can go out and just have a couple of beers, or take a couple of bottles rather than taking a box as in the past," she said. "We're growing up about drinking."

[SIDEBAR]
Craig Fitzpatrick, co-owner of Tauranga-based Fitzpatrick's Brewing Co, which is at the smaller end of the craft beer scale, describes the local craft market as a collaborative environment.

"It's sort of the little guys against the big guys," said Mr Fitzpatrick, who co-owns the micro brewery with his wife Catherine.

"It's a growing pie - everybody can have a slice and it keeps getting bigger for the craft guys."

Fitzpatrick's got its licence in 2012 and now produces around 13,000 litres a year.

"I was brewing from when I was a young fella, and really liked the combination of art and science," said Mr Fitzpatrick.

"It's a bit of a hands-on thing. We focus very much on the local Tauranga market. Our motto is that beer is very much like bread - you want to have it fresh and local."

[FACTBOX]
ANZ New Zealand Craft Beer Industry Insights
A forecast 200 ha increase in land used for hop production over the next three years.
Potential for New Zealand craft brewers to keep growing to the point where they accounted for 30 per cent of the market.
Intense competition prompting a growing number of brewers to take up exporting.
Total beer exports in 2015 reached $37.4 million.
Exports of higher alcohol beers - typical of craft styles - up from $1 million five years ago to $4.5 million last year.