Brave Brewery making lemonade out of festival lemon

Brave Brewing owners Gemma (left) and Matt Smith haven't been deterred by the postponement of Saturday's Hawke's Bay Craft Beer and Food festival. Photo / Warren Buckland.

If you can't go to the festival, then bring the festival to you.

That's the approach of Brave Brewing Co founder and head brewer Matt Smith.

The postponement - due to fears of wet weather on Saturday- of the Hawke's Bay Craft Beer and Food Festival is no one's fault. These things happen and you have to adapt.

Just as Smith has.

Brave was set to debut four new beers, at the event at Tremain Field, amid quite widespread interest.

Local beer enthusiasts have actually been given a cheeky wee preview of one of them - Wonder Juice - at the brewery's Hastings taproom in recent days and it's nearly all gone.

Smith hadn't intended to have all the new beers on tap so soon but, when the world gives you lemons, you make lemonade. Or at least beer, in this particular case.

"Yeah, it's a bit disappointing, but I'm sure it was beyond anybody's control,'' Smith said of the festival's postponement.

A new date for the event has yet to be announced, but it appears plenty of beer drinkers are still coming to Hawke's Bay this weekend anyway.

"We're lucky to have our taproom and eatery to showcase our beer from, so we will be releasing the four beers in our taproom on Saturday instead,'' said Smith.

If you're quick enough, you'll still get a taste of the Wonder Juice, which is a hazy IPA, as well as the pilsener, double IPA and summer IPA that were set to be unveiled at the festival.

"Anybody who was keen to check them out at the festival can come down to the taproom over the weekend and try them. We have been fielding calls from out-of-town folks who were travelling here for the festival and are still coming, so I think it will be a busy weekend for us still,'' Smith said.

Perhaps a couple of beers at Brave on Saturday would be some consolation for Auckland talkback radio host Lloyd Burr, who took to Twitter to declare that "Napier, you're dead to me'' after news of the festival's postponement sent his planned trip to the event into a tailspin.