Renaissance has taken over the brewery in Kaiapoi that was previously home to Chinchiller and, before that, Eagle Brewing and Five Peaks.
It’s the third home for Renaissance, which started in Blenheim in 2005 before moving to Christchurch under new owners Brandhouse, who bought the brewery in 2018 after it had gone into receivership. They had been sharing brewing space at Wigram.
At this stage it’s uncertain what will happen to Chinchiller. The brand continues but at this stage they haven’t released any beer since September 3 (according to Untappd) and their website no longer works.
I approached majority owner Granville Denton for more information, but he preferred not to comment.
It’s the second big Christchurch move this week after we revealed on Monday that Three Boys had been sold.
It’s a good news story for Renaissance as they were constrained by capacity issues at Wigram, but it may not be their final home as Brandhouse managing director Jason Dellaca said there are plans for a Renaissance brewpub model in Christchurch.
Compared to the Wigram brewery, Dellaca said Kaiapoi was “far more modern, larger, and we can do bigger batches with less beer movement — all that sort of stuff’s great for quality. So, to put all that together, it was a no-brainer, really.”
Dellaca said one of the best things about the Kaiapoi move will be having their beer on tap in The Platform restaurant and bar next door to the brewery.
“We’re working very closely with the owners there to create a bit of a home for Renaissance in that bar.”
Third time lucky
While the Kaiapoi site seems to have been through a run of bad luck with breweries, Dellaca is happy to be there citing “third time lucky” as they’d turned down previous opportunities to move into the space — once when it was first built and again before Chinchiller moved there.
“The first time we were offered it was right back when the developers built it. They approached us to be the inaugural tenant.
“We had a look but at that stage we were still happily brewing in Blenheim, so we didn’t have any real plans of moving Renaissance, but we looked at it from a point of view of having a Christchurch base as well. At that stage they wanted to lease the entire premise — the brewery, the bar in the middle and there’s an apartment upstairs, so they wanted to lease the whole thing in one.
“We had no use for an apartment in Kaiapoi, and at that stage weren’t interested in the hospitality side, so it didn’t work for us at that point. And then the second time was when Eagle got into trouble and the owners approached us again and we had a look at it, which was when Chinchiller ended up taking over.”
On that note, there is a connection between Renaissance and Chinchiller via Jared Stewart, who is a 20% stakeholder in Chinchiller and is now head of brewing for Renaissance.
Former Renaissance head brewer Sean Moss, who has been with them for a number of years, will not be part of the move to Kaiapoi as he is returning back to Blenheim, Dellaca said.
“Sean’s been fantastic. For me, he’s been here since the day we took over Renaissance. He was a massive help in transitioning the business to Christchurch, but he’s decided after a couple of years that he wants to be in Blenheim.”
Brandhouse also own Funk Estate, which started in Wellington. That brand is likely become cider-only. They also own wine and spirits brands, and the distilling side of the operation will remain in Christchurch. In a twist of fate, the original Renaissance founder and brewer Andy Deuchars now works for Brandhouse on the distilling side.
Down the road, Dellaca says there are “ultimate plans of building a new base — a bespoke building that initially will have everything under one roof; the brewery, the distillery, with a brew pub and cellar door on the front of it.
“It is still very much on the cards and we’re actively in discussions around sites about that project at the moment.”
So the move to Kaiapoi for Renaissance might not be long term, but it was necessary as they’d hit capacity issues at Wigram.
“It made sense for us to reposition the brewery out there and take a bit of that pressure off of getting that new building in the future.”
Renaissance growing
The move comes as Renaissance, in its 20th year, is going through a slight uptick in sales.
“When we first bought Renaissance they had quite a high peak in terms of turnover, but it had declined quite a bit. So, when we took it over in early 2018, those first two to three years, we had huge growth and got it back to, and above, what it had peaked at.
“And then Covid had an effect on everything, particularly a couple of export markets we lost. When we decided to move to Christchurch we had a strong look at our structure, our plans going forward, et cetera. So, we kind of spent that first 18 months repositioning everything, getting ready to go forward again.
“Since then, we’ve seen good growth. I wouldn’t say exceptional compared to some of the other parts of the business, but certainly some good growth again in the Renaissance brand and beer in general.
“And that’s quite positive because it’s a pretty challenging market in beer at the moment, so to grab growth anywhere is not an easy feat.”
There will be a brand refresh next year around the seasonal releases which Dellaca said would be “quite different” to the classical look Renaissance has sported for two decades. They won’t be doing too much to the core range beers such as Stonecutter Scotch Ale and Voyager IPA, which are two of their most popular beers.
In other Christchurch news, Concept Brewing has also changed hands with founder-brewer Hamish Jones selling to friends.