But DogStar Brew Lab owners-brewers and musicians Saul Ross and Hadden Gamble say playing their instruments is integral to the making of their beer.
"It’s part of our research and development process," Mr Ross said yesterday.
"When we say ‘research and development’, it means we sit around playing a few tunes and sipping on a few different-tasting beers.
"Playing different styles of music helps us to come up with different ideas for beer flavours — it just puts your mind in a completely different mindset.
"We both get caught up with different rhythms and those different rhythms really drive us to different creative tastes," Mr Ross said.
By day, Mr Gamble runs a transport company and Mr Ross is an IT specialist.
But at night, the duo have played drums and bass guitar in a band together for years.
And because gigs are seldom without a beer nearby, they also have a shared passion for a good brew.
Over the years, their conversations have steered more and more towards starting their own brewery, and then in 2020, they decided it was finally time to bite the bullet and actually put their words into action.
"Over many, many nights of research and development, we came up with the concept and decided to just go for it.
"We’re not getting any younger. We had to do it."
This Friday, they will have their first big outing in Dunedin as one of the 80 food and craft beer vendors at the two-day Dunedin Craft Beer and Food Festival at Forsyth Barr Stadium.
Mr Ross said DogStar Brew Lab was a nano-producer (for now), which meant it could create totally unique, carefully curated, quality fresh brews, delivered as needed in Dunedin.
So it was no trouble for them to come up with some beers specially brewed for the festival.
"We’ve made four unique beers for the festival.
"There’s a Belgian sour red ale which has been aged on bourbon-soaked oak staves, so it’s not going to turn your face inside out. It’s pretty delicious.
"We’ve also got an 8.5% chocolate orange imperial stout, a sour pilsner with citrus flavours, and a hazy IPA with tropical flavours."
An event spokeswoman said Saturday was sold out, but some tickets were left for Friday.
