Brewing beer: The quest to crack an 'over-subscribed market'
Hopsession currently brews about 200-litres per month and supplies five Invercargill outlets. The plan is to soon ram up capacity to produce 1600-litres a month and grow the business.
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Nathan McKenzie can probably thank Mana Davis for the brewing business journey he’s currently on.
McKenzie had been a wine drinker before discovering different beers during a stint travelling through Europe.
“All of a sudden, we were in places like Prague and it tastes wonderful. This was getting back 15 years ago now and it wasn’t like the beer we had in New Zealand at that time, craft beer wasn’t really a thing. So that really sparked by interest.”
About 10 years ago McKenzie started brewing his own beer for his own self-consumption.
“And I’ve gone down the rabbit hole,” he joked.
He would take his own riggers to parties and a couple of years ago Mana Davis - the long-time owner of Louies in Invercargill - had a drink of his beer.
Davis suggested they put a 20-litre keg on tap at his restaurant and bar to see how it would go.
Things quickly got serious.
“He rang up a week later and said that’s all gone, we need more. I thought I better sort this out like a business then.”
Enjoying drinking your own beer was one thing, but when someone else was paying for it the ball game quickly changed, McKenzie said.
A couple of years on and McKenzie’s business Hopsession Brewing now supplies five Invercargill outlets. Crafty’s Bar and Grill and The Tuatara Cafe are two of his bigger clients.
“It’s not all a bed of roses, there are a few places I haven’t been able to get in to, but we’ll keep working on them.”
He produces about 200-litres a month currently with plans to purchase the required equipment to increase capacity to 1600-litres a month.
“We are still in the hobby business stage but quickly moving into getting more serious and getting some equipment sent over from China.”
At the moment McKenzie juggles the growing hobby business with a fulltime day job and life as a father of three.
McKenzie is well aware the brewing market is a tough nut to crack in the current climate given the share volume of players in the market.
“It is very much an over-subscribed market, every man and their dog wants to make beer. I think my point of difference is all of my beers are named after local people or places.
“I really want my beer to showcase Southland and my beer to shine through. So, when my beer does get into cans and goes throughout the country people pick up a can of Foveaux and go, ‘Oh, Foveaux’ and there will be a delicious cold IPA in there.”
He has built up a range of beers.
It started with the Hatches Hill Hazy, a hazy IPA. Then come the Daffodil Bay Hazy which Mckenzie said was more of a “geeky” beer where he played around with more bitterness and strong flavours.
There’s Burt [named after Burt Munro] which is his American pale hale, Stumps [named after Stump the Hump or the Humridge Track], a pilsner.
McKenzie recently released his two newest beers at the Beer Wine & Food Festival in Invercargill which are Rakiura, an American amber ale, and Foveaux, a cold IPA.
“Hopefully it’ll bring a smile to people’s faces when they come across those names.”
McKenzie has been able to keep costs down by turning his home garage into a licensed brewery. Even when he upscales equipment to be able to produce 1600-litres a month that can still be done from his garage which will continue to keep the overheads low.
“Want I don’t want to do is scrimp on the ingredients. I don’t want to scrimp on the product, I don’t want to have that conversation with myself.
“We are making craft beer, it’s got to be good, and it’s got to have plenty of hops in it. If it’s not, then why bother?”