Big Mountain Mead brewers Austin Hobson and Nicole Jerez with keen student Neil Fisher check on fermentation progress.
Photo / Bevan Conley
Big Mountain Mead brewers Austin Hobson and Nicole Jerez with keen student Neil Fisher check on fermentation progress.
Photo / Bevan Conley
Mead is an ancient brew that pre-dates other alcoholic beverages by a few centuries and it is now being produced in Ruapehu.
Big Mountain Mead in Ohakune produces a selection of modern sparkling mead flavours made with locally sourced honey and botanicals, sold in cans with beautifully designed printed labels.
Expatriate Englishman Austin Hobson found his perfect home in Ohakune 20 years ago after travelling to many of the world’s best skiing and snowboarding destinations.
“From a climate change perspective, it’s not responsible to keep moving around because you’re contributing to the planet’s problems,” he said.
“For people who love snow sports, the best thing we can do is settle somewhere and help care for the environments we love.”
Hobson established his beer brewing company Ruapehu Brewing in 2017 and when his friend Greg Hickman approached him about starting mead production alongside the beer brewing Hobson believed it would add some extra sparkle to Ohakune.
“Greg had been living in Asia and said there was a market for mead and not many brewers making it,” said Hobson.
“Using New Zealand honey and botanicals makes the mead very attractive to international customers.”
Big Mountain Mead and Ruapehu Brewing Co are happy bedfellows in Ohakune.
Photo / Bevan Conley
Big Mountain Mead opened in October 2022 and has proved popular with local customers as well as being a great export product.
The partnership is supported by food technologist Nicole Jerez who joined the team in 2021 to provide management and quality assurance at the Goldfinch St premises.
Around 75 per cent of the mead produced is destined for Australian, Asian and North American markets but Hobson said it would be great if New Zealanders developed more of a palate for mead.
“The mead industry is still very small in New Zealand and people who have tried it in the past often remember it as a syrupy concoction.
“When it has been brewed the way we brew it and carbonated it’s a much more refreshing drink and you still get the health benefits of honey.”
There are three varieties in production and each has its own specially designed label.
“There is the Wild Manuka brew, the Manuka, Ginseng, and Ginger and we also use bush and kanuka honey for the Native Botanicals brew.
“You can purchase a six-pack of your favourite or a mixed pack with two cans of each variety.”
Neil Fisher is a student brewer currently studying with Otago Brew School based in Cromwell.
He was working with Jerez in the brewhouse and said being on placement was perfect.
“Ohakune is home to me. I was a chef at the Blind Finch before I started learning to be a brewer.
“I have always been interested in it and this is the perfect place for me to learn more,” he said.
Hobson said helping to grow new brewers in New Zealand was part of the company’s ethos as was helping to provide vitality in the heart of Ohakune.
Hobson and Hickman see their brewery as a starting point for a hub in the centre of the town and Hickman had purchased the historic Kings Theatre building hoping to transform it into small cinema with a tap room and include other local businesses, such as local coffee company Kombi Coffee.
The building proved unsuitable for the upgrade but the plan has not been abandoned and materials salvaged from the old cinema will eventually be incorporated into a new building.
