Celebrate the three most important ‘inns’ of craft beer in Ōtautahi: Invention, innovation, independence. Ralph Bungard explains.

Hospitality and brewery owners and staff are used to being awake at all hours, but at the moment it’s something less usual keeping us up at night: trying to predict what hospitality and craft brewing will look like post pandemic.

One thing we know for certain is the industry is changing. That change will be painful, and some businesses will not survive, but one certainty is that others will make it through and of those, some will thrive.

Craft brewers are used to change. They have been at the cutting edge of almost everything that we now see as modern beer. Over recent years they have continually modified how they operate as they invent and re-invent to stay outside the ‘blast zone’ of price-cutting giant multinational brewers and their pseudo-craft brands. Craft brewers are the guerrillas of the industry – used to fighting for survival when the odds are stacked against them.

In recent years, many small independent brewers have begun to favour the 'Main Street brewery' model where the brewery builds itself a brew-pub with a local story that allows it to take advantage of the higher margins of retail. Others instead base a successful model on supplying independent bars and restaurants that have a ‘support local’ ethic, and are strong enough to resist the lure of short-term financial rush offered by big multinationals looking for exclusive beer-pouring rights.

For the smaller independents, Covid-19 is the stuff of nightmares. Our once-thriving train of international tourists, thirsty for a genuinely local experience, has dried up. But it may also be the stuff where legends are built, and legacies are cemented.

You can help keep independent local brewing alive in the most enjoyable way. It’s simple: buy local brews. Ask at bars and restaurants to see their locally-made beer lists and don’t be fooled by the pseudo-crafts owned by the multinationals. Ask what local brew is on tap and ask where it was made. And remember, a dollar you spend on a local business is a dollar that locals get to spend!

Celebrate invention, innovation and most importantly independence.

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