Brewprint for making perfect pint

Dr Mark Krasnow said people could ask questions and try beers on tap at the same time. Photo / Doug Laing

Anyone enjoying a pint at the Westshore Beach Inn can now watch their favourite craft ale brewed before their very eyes. Crazy Bar Beer's Dr Mark Krasnow tells Mark Story his brewpud team "pulls back the curtain" on the arcane art of making beer.

1. What was the spark behind the idea to open at the Westshore Beach Inn?

We all love our craft beers, but starting the brewery at the pub was actually the vision of my business partner Damian Birchman and Jeremy Baylis, the owner of the inn. The idea for it started over a year ago, and it's very exciting to have it come to fruition. They wanted to have the only brewpub in Napier, and to have it be an interactive thing - where folks could watch the process of making beer while enjoying a pint in the pub. I think this was quite visionary, as brewing is a rather mysterious process to the average person. Most folks have no idea how grain, water, and hops are transformed into something delicious to drink. Having us brewing out in the open pulls back the curtain on the whole production process. People can watch us grind and steep the grain, boil the wort, and add the hops. Sure we have secrets to our recipes, such as amounts and types of ingredients, but there are no secrets to how we brew - everything we do is out in the open for all to see. Plus, the smell is amazing, and something most people never get to experience unless they brew at home.

2. What are the advantages/disadvantages to having a brewery attached to a pub - as opposed to a standalone brewery?

We do have a standalone brewery in Onekawa, but also brew at the Westshore. In our Onekawa brewery there is tons of room, while at the Westshore we are much more limited. There is room to brew, but it can get a bit crowded at times. However, the major advantage is visibility - people can actually watch us making beer, ask questions and try our beers on tap at the same time. They get to the whole experience, which we think allows enjoyment of beer on a completely different level.

3. What styles of beer will you focus on primarily?

We love our ales, and have so far focused on them. We have vastly different styles of ales on offer, however, from the big, hoppy red called Boobalicious, to our more malt driven Cherokee, to the lighter Miss Tiffany. All our beers use all New Zealand ingredients. The hops and malts are grown on the South Island, and of course we use fantastic Hawke's Bay water. Everything we do is from scratch, no malt or hops extracts will ever make it into one of our beers. We feel that, just like wine, beer needs to give the drinker a sense of place. And for us, that place is Hawke's Bay.

4. Is your brewery a passion or a business?

The company is definitely a passion for all of us. We all have full time jobs, Damian as a viticulturist, Davron as a surveyor, and I'm a viticultural consultant and researcher. We brew beer whenever we get a spare moment, and have spent two years perfecting our recipes. Someday we may be able to make this our profession as well, but we'll never lose our passion for crafting delicious brew.

5. Describe your favourite beer, its style, how it's brewed and what it does to the palate.

The first beer we developed, and still our favourite, is Boobalicious - a red ale. It's brewed using three different types of malt and a ton of hops, both added at the beginning of the boil for bitterness and also at the end for aroma. It is a beer we spare no expense making, and it definitely comes through in the product. The Boobalicious a multi-dimensional beer, with lots of bitterness (around 120 IBUs), but also a voluptuous body and a great malty backbone to enhance the drinking experience. The balance of the beer is fantastic, and we feel it is as complex and multifaceted as a fine wine.