To understand Eruption Brewing’s place in Lyttelton, it helps to zoom out — first a couple of centuries, then a few million years. The town sits inside the remnants of the Banks Peninsula volcano, long extinct but still shaping the landscape and, fittingly, inspiring the brewery’s name.
Founded in 2012 in a Lyttelton garage by two mates, Steve Leftly and Shaun Crossan, Eruption Brewing moved into its current home — Lyttelton’s restored former BNZ building — in 2017. The 2011 earthquakes hit the town hard, and Eruption quickly became part of the rebuild, offering jobs, a meeting place, and a revived sense of community identity. In a twist of irony, the quakes had earlier claimed The Volcano Café, so their presence kept the geological connection on London Street.
Beer has long been woven into Lyttelton’s social fabric. From being home to Canterbury’s first pub in 1849 (The Mitre Hotel), to its peak in the late 1800s and early 1900s, when the compact port town boasted at least 20 pubs. By the 1990s there were more than 40 licensed premises — impressive for a population of less than 3,000. Yet the town somehow never had a recognised commercial brewery until Eruption arrived. (Home brewers, of course, have always kept things lively.)
A delayed flight and a very patient wife gave me the perfect excuse to visit Eruption and spend a morning with head brewer and brewery manager Scotty Calvert. He welcomed me in before Sunday opening, offering the first glimpse of a building that demands attention. The award‑winning, three‑level design combines a working brewery, bar and taproom, first‑floor restaurant, and a rooftop deck with harbour views — and, in classic port‑town fashion, water pistols to deter ambitious seagulls.
The brewery layout is tight, efficient, and full of clever touches. The original bank vault now stores something far more precious than cash: full tanks of fresh beer. Removable stairs help staff move around the brew floor without interrupting bar operations. It’s a practical space with character.
Scotty joined the business in 2021, bringing experience from Cassels, ChinChiller, and Brew Academy. Since then, quality has continually lifted and awards have followed — most notably a gold at the 2024 NZ Beer Awards for Big Victory Double West Coast IPA, impressively achieved from its very first batch.
The 1200L brewhouse is visible from both the bar and the mezzanine dining area. A small canning line installed two years ago allows around 200 cans to be filled from each batch. Eruption’s lineup includes eight core beers, with Scotty experimenting through 200L small‑batch brews that often reach the brewery’s 12 taps. Around 90% of sales come from the taproom, supported by strong kitchen and front‑of‑house teams who help fuel consistent year‑on‑year growth.
The citizens of Lyttelton are the mainstay of patronage, but a significant portion of visitors are from over the hill or further afield. Lyttelton is inextricably tied to Christchurch as its port, but other than sharing support for the Crusaders, it is wise not to call a citizen of Lyttelton a Christchurch resident. However, if a Lyttelton business can attract Christchurch wallets for a 30‑minute sojourn through the tunnel to the harbour town, then it’s not so bad.
Not everything has been smooth sailing. A few years back, a blocked pipe caused a 10‑metre hop geyser during double‑dry‑hopping, sending green spray two storeys high into the mezzanine dining area. Scotty was quick to purchase a hop doser shortly thereafter!
Scotty’s favourite creation is Volcanist IPA, a piney, resinous, bitter‑balanced beer with a deep malt character. True to form, he’s still tweaking it — “too malty” at the moment he says. Meanwhile, the top seller remains Lyttelton Lager, and for every 10 pints poured in the taproom, Eruption plants a native tree on the hills visible from the rooftop bar.
Perhaps the best part of brewing in such close‑quarters is seeing drinkers’ reactions firsthand. Recently, a father and son shared a moment many brewers never get to witness: the father abandoning a lifetime loyalty to a certain three‑starred bottle, and the son declaring he was done with cheap Mexican lager forever. Craft conversions don’t get much sweeter.
A trip to Lyttelton simply isn’t complete without stopping by Eruption Brewing. With its rooftop bar, restaurant, taproom, and working brewery, it delivers the full experience—without losing the authenticity of being, at heart, a bloody good brewery.
