This is the third instalment in a series dedicated to breweries that have opened up since the Covid-19 pandemic. The past five years have been tough for those in the brewing industry. The data is there: higher costs, lower consumer spend, alternative drinks. All are eating into beer’s share of the beverage market. Despite the doom and gloom a number of breweries have started in the past five years. In this series we visit six from the length and breadth of the country. They are all slightly different but if there was one common denominator it’s that they’re all trying to control their own destiny in one way or another.
DNA Brewing — Opened September 2021
David Nicholls is an elder statesmen of New Zealand brewing, having learned his craft at Tui and worked around the world with Heineken before joining the fledgling Moa brewery in Blenheim.
When he left Moa, he had plans for another brewery but when that fell over he was contacted by a broker who asked him if he knew a winemaker called Ant Moore.
“I’ve known Ant for nearly 20 years, so I gave him a call and said, ‘hey, what are you up to?’
“And he goes, ‘well, I’m building this restaurant and entertainment complex and I need other things beside a winery to attract people here. The logical thing is to add a brewery and eventually a distillery and make it a real destination rather than just a winery cellar door’.
“I said, ‘well, I’ve got the kit’. We ended up into a 50-50 joint venture.”
David had bought a brew kit from the defunct Tinker Tailor in November 2020.
“I went and saw the brewery as soon as we could travel after the first lockdown. I don’t think we would have got the brewery if it hadn’t been for Covid because they would probably have sold it overseas, but nobody could get into the country to have a look at it.
“We picked up the kit after the next lockdown, transported it down to Marlborough, put it into storage for nearly 12 months until the brewery building was completed.
“We’ve added to it significantly from there, it’s only a fraction of what it was.”
The brewery went operational at the Fancy Cow in September 2021 — a huge complex that contains Ant Moore Wines cellar door, DNA brewery and taproom and a restaurant.
The name DNA comes from a play on the first initials of the two founders’ names: Dave ‘n’ Ant.
David’s model was to do a lot of contract brewing while he built the DNA brand.
“We’ve just been very gently growing our brand rather than making a big hoo-ha about it. And that to me is far more sustainable than being the new kid on the block and doing the weird, wonderful and crazy.”
The growth in DNA is reflected in the split between contract and in-house brewing, with contract being around 95% of the production at the start to 50% now.
“We do a lot of co-packing in cider-based products and other alcoholic beverages; wine, wine-based seltzers and other wine-based products.”
To that they’ve added the Hop Federation brand, which they bought off Kono, who’d decided to close the brewery in September. The beer will be brewed in Blenheim and founder Simon Nicholas will stay on as head brewer and the face of the brand.
David sees more consolidation on the horizon.
“I can see the market changing, with more mergers and acquisitions — consolidation rather than breweries just shutting up shop. I do think there’s too much stainless in the country and this will be a way of making things more efficient for everyone.”
A lot of the contract brewing is for South Island businesses.
“Our freight costs from Blenheim to Christchurch, for instance, are not much more than from one side of Christchurch to the other. It’s a pretty advantageous number from a freight point of view. And we can get stock into the North Island cheaply as well.”
DNA is also growing significantly, getting into New World stores, and David believes there’s a market for subscription orders.
“With the wine industry, it’s changed dramatically from traditional liquor store and supermarket purchases to online. We believe with the right impetus, that will change eventually with beer. You’ve only got to look at how well Beerhug have gone.
“We’ve got a project happening over the next few months to increase our direct sales. That’s where we see a lot of the growth happening down the track.”