Urgent upgrade to meet cracker demand + video

Mike Cheyne and James Chatterton of Wanganui's Mash Tun Crackers are trying to raise enough money to set up their own cracker bakery in Wanganui East. Photo/ Bevan Conley

What started as a useful way of getting rid of brewing waste has turned into a business expanding faster than Mike Cheyne and James Chatterton can keep up with.

Now the Wanganui pair are looking for people to back their Mash Tun Crackers business.

The pair make crackers from the waste grain used in the brewing of Tuatara beer, baking pale ale, pilsner and porter varieties. They first released the product at Wellington's Moore Wilsons during Easter last year and it quickly spread around the country.

But baking one day a week at the Wanganui bakery they hire can't fill the demand.

"It's labour-intensive," Mike said. "And we can only get access there on Saturdays, so we're forced to bake all day and night."

"We outgrew it a long time ago," James added.

To expand the operation, they've begun to set up at a premises in the old UCOL building in Wanganui East. But they need $30,000 to kit it out and move the entire operation in-house.

"At the moment we've got bits of our process shifted around Wanganui," Mike said. "To have it here all in-house is going to save a lot of time and effort, and we can really refine our process."

To get the money, they've turned to online crowd funding through a page on Kickstarter. People can pledge different amounts of money in exchange for product or services.

"It's different increments," Mike said. "It's from $5 up to about $5000, and there's a series of rewards and prizes."

Rewards include the chance for someone to have the grain from their own brew made into a cracker or their name printed on a run of packets.

"The theory, I think, behind Kickstarter is a lot of small bits make a big bit," James said. Or: "Numbers in action. Spreading the word," as Mike puts it.

The pair said having their own seven-day-a-week premises could open up more opportunities for them and other business in Wanganui.

"This is a big project for us, and we're still only a few steps into it," Mike said.

"Our story's not uncommon for food producers. They create something that's tasty and delicious, better than what they can find on the shelf, so they start baking as fast as they can or as much as they can. Then, after a year or two, they start to realise, well, you've got take it to the next step. Hopefully, we can be a bit of a road map ... and also get people with similar passions inside this building as well."

So far just over $4000 has been raised, and the campaign finishes on October 10. Check out Mash Tun's Kickstarter campaign at www.kickstarter.com and search Mash Tun Crackers.