Open a week, the Oak Bar is based in the Royal Oak complex, off Buckingham St, and Arrow Brewing Company Ltd co-directors Darryl Jones, Greg McMeeken, Alan Eyles and Glen Morrison and head brewer John Timpany said residents and visitors were responding well to their beers, all made with natural, predominantly South Island ingredients.
"The whole brewing philosophy is to keep it pure," Mr Jones said.
"We use hops mostly from Nelson, malted barley from Canterbury and water sourced from a natural bore in Arrowtown."
The Oak bar, bakery and restaurant has four beers on tap, including a light honey beer called Gentle Annie, the thirst-quenching Foxs Session ale, the traditional English-style Tobins cask ale and Oak Organic lager, which is brewed with organically grown hops and barley.
Roaring Meg Powerhouse black ale, brewed in the 200-year-old German tradition, the medium Schist Dark and the winter warming Jopps old ale would come on stream in the next two weeks.
"Because we're a smaller brewery, we have the luxury of being able to experiment," Mr Jones said.
"Such as, we could use fruit and berries from Central Otago."
The company has brewed about 6000 litres of beer since it began operations.
The second batch of Tobins cask ale was brewed on Christmas Day and was quietly fermenting when the Otago Daily Times visited yesterday.
"We don't pasteurise or filter the beer like most breweries," Mr Timpany said, a professional brewer since 1993.
"We want them to have character and a wide range of flavour to cover a wide range of tastebuds."
Mr Jones said the directors planned to introduce at least one new beer every couple of months.
In the next few months the brewery would refine its process and introduce hand pumps on the bar.
Special beverages were proposed to tie in with major Southern Lakes events, including the Arrowtown Autumn Festival, Michael Hill New Zealand Golf Open and Motatapu marathon.