Across New Zealand, sales of craft beer are growing. Cities like Wellington and Nelson are now known as destinations for beer lovers and soon Wanaka might deserve to placed alongside them.
Four breweries, Wanaka Beerworks, Sidewinder Brewery, Ground Up Brewing and Maverick Craft Beer, produce all their beer in Wanaka.
B.Effect beer is developed in a garage operation in Wanaka and then brewed in Invercargill and Christchurch.
When Rhyme and Reason brewery opens at the end of the year, it will be the town’s sixth.
Together they will produce more than 300,000 litres of beer in 2017.
Co-owners of Rhyme and Reason, Jessica Wolfgang and Simon Ross, spent six months looking at locations in both Australia and New Zealand before they settled on Wanaka.
Brewing equipment had been ordered from China this week and it would be three months before it arrived, she said.
"It’s been a long time waiting for this moment and now we have finally got our brew-house ordered, it’s starting to feel real."
Miss Wolfgang will be the head brewer and has experience working in Australian breweries.
About $500,000 would be spent on the brewery, which at full capacity would produce about 120,000 litres a year, she said.
The increased competition was a good thing and meant more local beer in the bars and restaurants in town, Wanaka Beerworks’ head brewer Andrew Boulton said. Since it opened in 1998, Wanaka Beerworks was the only local brewery, until about 2 years ago.
"What happens is space is made for the smaller breweries in the restaurants and bars by getting rid of the commercial beer which means more opportunity for everyone," Mr Boulton said.
"I’ve wanted to push Central Otago beer for a while, but now it seems Wanaka can do it by itself, which is really cool."
It appeared people in Wanaka wanted to buy local products, which would be why craft beer was did well in the town, he said.
Demand meant the brewery needed to expand and the plan was to produce about 150,000 litres next year.
"At the moment, we sell most of our beer in Wanaka and Central Otago, but, hopefully, we start to get into markets outside our local area."
Otago Daily Times beer writer Rick Oram said new breweries had started up all around New Zealand, but he was surprised Wanaka had so many.
Wellington and Nelson were the established craft beer locations, but there was no reason Wanaka or Central Otago could not be similar, he said No-one imagined how big the wine industry in Central Otago would grow when it first started.
"Of course, beer is different ... but having something local when you visit a place adds to the experience and that includes local beer."
Because craft beer was still a small part of the beer industry, breweries would continue to expand, he said.
"Just look at Richard Emerson. I think in his first year he produced about 20,000 litres of beer. Now he has a single tank which can hold that amount."
Growth is something one of Wanaka’s breweries has had to deal with sooner than expected.
Oliver Boyes and Julian Webster, owners and brewers at Ground Up Brewery, decided to sell their beer and become full-time brewers after their home-brew hobby grew out of control six months ago.
Demand had not slowed since they went professional and 12 hour days were becoming normal for the pair.
When they met, working as industrial abseilers, they never thought they would be full-time brewers, Mr Boyes said.
"When we first started, I thought ‘we can do this but we will probably have to have a job on the side because it won’t be enough’, but now we can’t keep up with demand."
Differing from the other breweries, Wanaka brewer B.Effect owner James Hay does not brew in Wanaka.
The beer is brewed in both Christchurch and Invercargill.
He planned to open a brewery in Wanaka in about six months and brew all his beer in the town.
While other breweries had grand plans, Lucan Waite and David Telfer, owners of Sidewinder brewery, were more conservative.
The pair went to school together and decided to start commercially brewing after attending Wellington beer festival Beervana.
"A lot of the other brewers are just mates who got together and have a good time doing what they love and went and decided just to do it," Mr Waite said.
The pair brewed about once a month and produced about 400 litres each time.
At the moment they had not planned any expansion and were happy keeping brewing a part-time job, he said.
