Watch: Smoked eel stout on brewery menu

New Zealand's newest microbrewery opens to the public today in one of Dunedin's oldest buildings.

The brewery is based in the 141-year-old Crawford St stables, which has not been occupied by a business since the early 2000s.

Ian McKinlay, owner of New New New, said the brewery had taken three years to complete and he was excited and nervous to show it to the public.

"It's been a very long process dealing with a heritage building."Would I do it again? I'm not entirely sure, but this is the only building of this kind in Dunedin."

While the brewery had retained original fixtures, it was also full of modern technology, from brewing equipment to changing graphic menus, he said.

"The state of the art facilities include New Zealand's first mash filter-equipped brewhouse, allowing the creation of more adventurous beer."

An example was a super rye beer which had a 50% rye to malt ratio, which was not normally possible with standard brewery equipment.

The mixture of old and new reflected the ethos behind the brewery, Mr McKinlay said.

"We are very different to everyone else out there pretending they are mom and pop breweries with lots of history."

The brewery had been producing beer for about a year and had outlets in the South and North Islands.

It had the capacity to produce 2000 litres of beer an hour, but there was not enough room to store it in the four tanks on site, he said.

More tanks would be used to store beer when work on a nearby building was complete.

New New New chief brewer Brendan Bransgrove examines a beer before the opening of the microbrewery in Dunedin today. Photo / Gerard O'Brien

Chief brewer Brendan Bransgrove said the brewery produced beer ranging from a sour Belgian ale to a smoked eel stout.

"I just try lots of beer and different foods and think about how I can replicate flavours and sometimes mess with people's minds a little bit," he joked.

The brewery would be constantly changing, Mr McKinlay said.

"We will have a kitchen with a changing chef.

"There will be guest chefs and a beer garden."It will be a bit like the farmers market, but with beer."

- Otago Daily Times