MIKE WATSON
Craft beer brewers seek their ‘empire’
BEER BOYS: Rotorua craft beer brewers Nigel Gregory (left) and Paul Croucher, of Croucher Brewing.
Seven years ago Rotorua craft beer brewers Paul Croucher and Nigel Gregory set out to build an “empire”.
Croucher Brewing has managed to partially colonise the local domestic market plus discerning sectors of Australia and Singapore, and a landing party has made tentative inroads in the United States.
As more awards are added each year for their fine hoppy and malty brews it shouldn’t be long before ‘we are drinking their beer everywhere’.
So far, total turnover is around $500,000. Annual production has reached 50,000-60,000 litres and export opportunities have arisen through assistance from Trade and Enterprise.
The pair formulated the dream over an obligatory pint in Auckland after soul searching for something other than their less than ordinary 9-to-5 jobs in the big smoke.
Croucher, a former pharmaceutical lecturer, and Gregory, a Sky TV marketing manager, were ready to indulge in their passion of brewing a palatable drop.
The vexed question was whether it would be wine or beer they would attempt to get consumers to pour down their thirsty throats, said Croucher.
“A lot of things came to a head at once.
“We were both looking for something different, and then I was offered a chance to set up a pharmacy in Rotorua,” Croucher said.
“Land and house prices looked great in Rotorua – we could swap our swamp in Auckland for a lakefront property for almost half the price.”
“But we weren’t certain whether to do wine or beer.
“I’d worked for Villa Maria where the cellar hands had degrees in wine making.
“In the end making beer just felt better because there was a lot more to explore about whole process.”
The catalyst to make craft beer came when Croucher won a national home brew award.
“That gave us the confidence to start,” Gregory said.
“We wanted to have a point of difference and put our personal mark on the product.”
The award-winning home brew – a pilsener – remains a core product for the business but it was not the beer they decided to build the empire on.
A pale ale was produced instead to give the fledgling business “some street cred”.
“We wanted a signature style from New Zealand hops, something which was more malty and more hoppy than the commercial beers.”
When launched, the pale ale won a bronze medal at the Brew NZ awards.
By contrast, the pilsener won the champion beer prize at the Brew NZ awards in 2010.
Around 25,000 litres of pilsener is now produced and sold each year.
While the pilsener and pale ale remain the flagship of the brewery, there is ongoing experimentation to brew different “seasonal” beers.
“We can take risks the bigger breweries may not be able to.”
The pair have made fruit beers with traces of coriander and orange, or a black fruity lager cherry bock beer style.
Other styles are malty, hoppy, or black with labels such as “Mother’s Milk” stout and “Vicar’s Vice” fruit beer.
A recent successful experimentation had been the “The Patriot” – a dark malt with masses of hops to give a fruity, bitter after-taste.
The Patriot recently topped a blind tasting to win the NZ Beer Cup.
Brewing beer was a high energy consuming production and capital intensive and massive power bills were part of the pain, Gregory said.
The business partners struggled at first getting their beer into bars but have had more success with local supermarkets stocking the full range.
The multitude of craft beer bars in Wellington had helped soak up production, he said.
In April the pair opened a cafe and brew bar in Rotorua to better familiarise and educate consumers to different beer tastes through a monthly beer club.
“People are becoming more knowledgeable about craft beer.
“Around 40 to 50 will turn up to the beer club nights, many are younger people wanting to develop their taste without getting stupid.”
The pair admit sales is not their strength so a distributor in Melbourne has taken on the task of spreading the word in Australia.
