Chris Hayton has set up Brews on Drews. Photo/ Bevan Conley
Chris Hayton has taken a trip down the beer brewing rabbit hole and now he wants to bring others along.
"Once you start you do get into it," he said.
"Especially nowadays, with everything online, the information is so accessible so you learn pretty quick.
"It's a real rabbit hole. The science behind it - you just end up loopy."
Now he's opened up a new brew shop - Brews on Drews - on Drews Ave in Whanganui housed in the shop he shares with his wife Tanya.
The pair were already tenants in the store with Chris running Techtonic Computers (which he still does) and Tanya's gift package business, The Paper Package, and Juxtaposition Gallery.
"At first it was a real juxtaposition," Chris said.
"But then I decided to get into the brew stuff and thought the old fashioned look would suit it really well.
"So now with the brewing shop it's a lot more cohesive than it originally was."
Brews on Drews stocks everything needed to brew beer at home.
"Kits, bottles, grain hops, fermenters and all the bits and pieces you need," Chris said.
He said there had been a revival in home brewing recently.
"Because craft beer's so expensive to buy and if you're good enough you can brew something just as good as what you buy off the shop.
"It used to be back in the day you'd buy a tin and get a kilo of sugar and it didn't make very good beer. But now there's a lot of really good product.
"And now people are also doing all-grain brewing where you're doing it all yourself and you can make it exactly how you want it.
"It takes a lot longer but when you make a good one it's satisfying."
Hayton brews himself so is on hand to offer advice.
"That's what I missed at the very start," he said. "You can pretty much brew whatever you think of - doesn't mean it's always going to be good."
Brews on Drews and Juxtaposition Gallery is open Monday to Saturday.
Comment: Planting a range of trees will give fruit at different times of the year.