The Mussel Inn

The Mussel Inn

The brewery is located adjacent to the Mussel Inn in a small purpose built building built in the winter of 1995. The brew length is 3 hecto litres (300L) making it the second smallest brewery in NZ. Brewing usually happens on Tuesdays and Thursdays – the total time to create a beer being a minimum of three weeks. The main ingredient for our beers – the water – comes from a small stream in the hills behind the Mussel Inn – bush filtered and low in dissolved minerals. The hops we use are locally grown organic varieties with a couple of special brews being made from our own hops which grow around the front of the Mussel Inn. For bittering we mainly use Pacific Gem followed by either NZ Hallatau or Saaz for aroma. Our pale malt which makes up the bulk of the grist is grown in Canterbury and malted in Marton. Small quantities of imported ‘coloured’ malts are also used. All of our beers are produced in the traditional way, using a gravitational system in the brewing process. We use a straight infusion mash and a gas fired kettle. Except for our bottle conditioned ales which use various top fermenting ale yeasts, a strain of Czech pils yeast is used in both our lagers and dark beers, fermented at 13°. All beers are unfiltered and are naturally carbonated in the conditioning tanks (no added Co²) It is our belief that beers are best consumed as near to the point of origin as possible and for this reason our beers are not available in bottles to take away. However, from time to time we may have a limited range of 2L riggers available to go, depending on supplies - usually available March to December. Pick up at the bar.