At the first Hop'n'Vine festival, they entered and won the home brew competition.
Tomorrow, they come back to the Invercargill event as the Richmond Bros - one of 20 breweries presenting their beers at the ILT Stadium.
Brendan Perkins, Nathan Turner, Glen Cunninghame, Paul Nicholson and Hamish Graham are building their own brewery at Sprey St.
Mr Nicholson said victory at the event was a motivation for them to get the project across the line.
"We had a great and very positive feedback and decided to develop our own brewery. We hope to open it before the end of the year."
All five friends still have their jobs and work on the brewery project in their spare time.
Mr Turner said they wanted to produce beers that represented Southland.
"We want people to be proud of the beer and call it their own."
Hop'n'Vine organiser Kevin Downie said the Southland market was one of the most traditional ones and breweries from across the country were descending on Invercargill to present their wares.
"We will have breweries from the North Island coming to engage with the customers ... the Southland market is one of the hardest to break."
This is the festival's third consecutive year and Mr Downie is expecting 1500 attendees.
In 2016, also over a pint, he and Chris Montgomery decided to create the festival.
"We didn't think there was a lot down here for craft beer and we knew that was something to explore and now it is the big event of this type in Southland."
He said the event was not only for beer fans, as food stalls, cocktails and wines would also be available.
Hop'n'Vine is an R18 event.
