On the surface, beer and engineering might not appear to have a lot in common, but Simon Ross has combined the two.
Mr Ross (37) is the owner of MicroBrewTech, an Oamaru-based engineering company providing high quality automation technology - bottling machines - for micro-breweries in Australia and New Zealand.
He has recently returned to his hometown of Oamaru, with his partner Jess Herman, after spending about eight years working in Australia.
After leaving Waitaki Boys' High School, Mr Ross studied mechanical engineering in Christchurch.
He said he could never imagine doing anything else.
While he was studying, he enjoyed flying hang-gliders in his spare time.
One day, he took notice of the the name of the hang-glider company on the wing and applied for a work experience job with the manufacturer in Australia.
Airbourne Australia accepted his application and he worked there twice as an intern, before landing a full-time position for about eight years.
Airborne Australia is a manufacturer of microlights, ultralights, trikes and hang-gliders and provided the perfect kick-start to his engineering career.
''It was just a really cool bunch of people to work for. It was interesting and, because it was a smaller company, I got to do everything,'' he said.
He had never been interested in being a ''one-dimensional engineer''.
''All of the skills I learnt there have allowed me to do what I'm doing now - design, prototype, build, test, refine - and it was pretty cool being able to design products and make them and then use them,'' he said.
Mr Ross had always been ''super keen'' on sports and while he was working in Australia started on some personal projects at home for fun.
But about five years ago, he decided that he needed to start building a business and create his own commercially viable product.
His friend, Phil Scott, also a Waitaki Boys' High School old boy, had established Scotts Brewery in Auckland and made a throwaway comment that he could not find the right bottling machine for his business.
''[Phil] had looked all over the world and there's not very many [bottling machines] out there, so I saw that as an opportunity,'' he said.
''I jokingly said that I would make him one.''
The project was much harder than he imagined.
''I thought it'd take me a year-or-so part time and it ended up stretching out to three years part-time and a year of full-time work, but I just kept going and that landed me in this position where I am now,'' he said.
''It's a complicated little beast - you've got the filling process, the movement ... the crowning process, turning it all into a co-ordinated little dance.''
Last year, he moved back to Oamaru - his partner Jess had been offered a job as a brewer for Scotts Brewery when the business was relocated to Oamaru.
It was a ''good little opportunity'' for Mr Ross to leave Airbourne Australia and focus on the bottling machine full-time.
At present, MicroBrewTech offers a ''REV 500'' bottling machine which caters to small to medium micro-breweries' needs for affordable, quality automated bottling.
''It gets rid of the oxygen in the bottle, purges all of the CO2, pressurises it ... so it'll have a better shelf life and obviously [brewers] can spend more time making beer,'' he said.
It also has a touchscreen operator interface control of filling and fobbing, an automatic crown sorter and simultaneous dual filling, and dual crowning, for perfect capping on the foam.
A REV 500 sells for $33,500 plus GST and has a fill capacity of 1200 litres, or 3600 330ml bottles, of carbonated product per day. His first machine was sold to the Leigh Sawmill Brewing Company earlier this year.
Through word of mouth, owner Mike Sutherland had heard about Mr Ross' new venture and approached him about buying his first bottling machine.
Mr Sutherland is a Waitaki Boys' High School old boy and has also collaborated with Scotts Brewery to do a contract brew for Leigh Sawmill Brewing Company.
Mr Ross does everything - from design, to manufacturing - but that gives him some flexibility and allows him to be based in Oamaru.
''I think Oamaru's a good option; if I was in Auckland, sure my suppliers might be right next to me, but it's hugely expensive to be there,'' he said.
Plus, the Kakanui surf and snow at Ohau were so close, he said.
For now, all of his energy was focused on bottling machines, but he would like to develop the business and get more people involved, which would free up time to work on other projects.
