Brewing up new business

Craftwork Brewery founders Michael O'Brien and Lee-Ann Scotti show off their range of six Belgian...
Craftwork Brewery founders Michael O'Brien and Lee-Ann Scotti show off their range of six Belgian-style beers. Photo by Rebecca Ryan.
After their first week of sales, Oamaru craft beer brewers Michael O'Brien and Lee-Ann Scotti are happy, but nervous - nervous that they cannot keep up with demand.

Mr O'Brien and Ms Scotti founded Craftwork Brewery, a collaborative brewing partnership, on March 15.

Working from the basement of Ms Scotti's Tyne St house, Craftwork Brewery could be the smallest legal brewery in New Zealand.

Their intention is to brew small idiosyncratic batches of Belgian-inspired beer, without compromise.

''It's really quite difficult to get a New Zealand-made Belgian-style beer. There aren't many styles out there,'' he said.

They saw that as a challenge and had been encouraged by recent success at home brew competitions, taking home best in class and silver and bronze awards in their first attempt at competition.

''You listen to feedback, people saying 'oh yeah, you should take it further' and so it evolved, really,'' Mr O'Brien said.

Their beer was not ''run-of-the-mill'', and they understood not everyone would have the taste for it.

''It is an acquired taste and if you're not used to it, if you're not adventurous, chances are you won't like it,'' he said.

They are doing it all themselves, hands on. It is small but, for now, it is manageable.

They have a line of six beers ''ludicrously a lot for such a small brewery'', he said.

''On the other hand, because we're so small, we can do what we want, and that's really exciting,'' he said.

While others say craft beer is best served fresh, their mostly-organic beer is different. It is all bottle-conditioned, unpasteurised, unfiltered and it has some yeast in the bottle, which is refermented.

From the outset, they have told their stockists ''it's more about what we can give you, rather than what you want''.

Producing about eight dozen bottles of each brew day, they can only really have between 12 and 18 stockists and even those must be happy with a dozen bottles a week.

While the brewery is small, the pair would like to start producing two styles of sour beer, Lambic and Flanders Red. They think they can fit up to 30 barrels in their garage.

Labels for their craft beer have been designed by local artist Watts Davies and Little River artist Katrina Perano.

With a wholesale licence, they have product stocked at Riverstone Kitchen and South Hill New World, and in Dunedin at The Portsider and Castle MacAdam.

The name Craftwork Brewery, was inspired by German electronic music band Kraftwerk.

It reflected what they were all about, since they do everything from grinding the malt by hand to bottling the finished product.

''It's so hands-on - the labels look rough because they're all hand-torn. I tear them out and stick them on. It's just crazy, but it keeps us out of mischief.''

As they juggle working their normal jobs, most nights and weekends are dedicated to brewing.

''I'm burning the candle at both ends, and then there's been bits cut out in the middle and they've been set on fire too,'' he said.

They are quietly confident about establishing more connections in Wellington and Dunedin.

''If we got about five or six [stockists] in Otago, then we reckon we've got it. We're never going to be selling at every pub up and down the country.''

They have three Saison varieties on the market - Saison Zest, Saison Poire and Saison Anise.

They also have Sharkdealers IPA and It's Spelt Grisette, an organic Belgian-style farmhouse ale. Inspired by a well-known Belgian specialty beer is their ''naughty fruity ale'', Flemish Floozie.

They are happy with what they have produced so far and the feedback from others in the industry had been positive, too.

In blind tastings, Craftwork Beers had come out very well.

The pair are excited about what the future holds.

-rebecca.ryan@odt.co.nz

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