Big breweries can turn out their mainstream (4%) beers in less than a fortnight, taking as little as five days to ferment and a week to mature, although premium 5% lagers take a month or more.
Lagers take up to nearly a fortnight to ferment and are then kept at a low temperature for up to three weeks to mature, hence "lager", which means "to store" in German.
The difference in energy costs for refrigeration and the time space is taken at the brewery, plus the higher liquor tax, reflects the price difference of such lagers on retail shelves.
A recent arrival from Boundary Road Brewery is Full Metal High Gravity Lager (6%). It is the big brother of stablemate Haagen Extra (5.2%) and is aged longer (at least a fortnight), allowing its can to proclaim it is a "28-day brew".
It is clean and refreshing with nice hop flavour and a big long-lasting head.
Full Metal is in four-packs of 500ml cans, containing the equivalent of a six-pack of 330ml bottles, and is priced about the same at about $15.
Another recent arrival from Boundary Road is Celsius Freezing Point Lager (5.5%).
"Freezing point" because it is filtered at just below freezing which helps to eliminate haze and therefore produces a clearer beer.
It is in a clear glass bottle and like most in clear glass (Budvar, Corona, for example), is clean but light in flavour and with little bitterness. That is because hop extract with a hop molecule removed to prevent "light strike", has to be used. Darker glass stops light from making the molecule produce a sour, musty, even sulphurous smell.
This one, however, has a gimmick: The white "c" on the neck turns blue when the bottle is chilled to its best drinking temperature - 7degC. It is in 12-packs for about $25.
Price rise
DB intends increasing its prices in six weeks by 3% for packaged beer (including overseas labels Heineken, Tiger and Amstel which it makes under licence) and tap beers by 1%. And that does not rule out another rise from July 1 when liquor tax has its annual hike.
Watch for a similar move by Lion.
Anniversary can
Speight's is celebrating the 30th year of the Coast to Coast multisport race next month with limited-edition cans of Gold Medal Ale in six, 12 and 30-packs. The cans are labelled with an outline of the transalpine route.
Another 30th
It is also 30 years since the Mac's beer label was created by former All Black Terry McCashin in an old cider factory near Nelson. The rights to the name and distinctive bottle are now held by Lion Breweries, which makes the beers in its breweries.
Capital place
Producers like McCashin's have encouraged the brewing industry in and around Nelson to start marketing itself as the craft brewing capital of New Zealand.
The 10 producers in the region have formed a society to promote the craft beer industry, with a craft beer trail and map.