Duty Manager in Hawkes Bay

[Matt Smith]

Hey Folks

I am in the process of starting a part time brewing operation out of my garage down here in Hawkes Bay. A significant aspect of my plan is to run a stall at the incredibly awesome Hawkes Bay Farmers Market selling bottles and filling growlers on Sunday mornings. I have been fortunate enough to be accepted as a stallholder, however I have a small hurdle to cross regarding licensing. The market has a general liquor license, however I need to have a duty manager present, and unfortunately the council is unwilling to grant me one given that I have no previous experience selling alcohol.

Just thought I'd put my feelers out here first before I advertise elsewhere, and see if there happens to be any brewers or beer geeks out there in HB with a managers certificate who might be interested in helping me out for a few hours on Sunday mornings for 6 months until I'm able to apply for my own. The market runs weekly from 8.30am till 12.30pm, I'm looking at late Feb/early March all things going to plan.

Hit me up at [e-mail]

Thanks!
Matt

[Pete Harrow]

Hi Matt,

Just saw this post & was wondering if you had any queries about brewing in your garage compared to a commercial kitchen?

My wife has made some chutneys & got told that she couldn't sell it at a market, as it wasn't made in a commercial kitchen. How have you got around this? Or was it not a problem?

[Matt Smith]

Hey Pete

My garage is being registered as a food manufacturing premises. Its a bit of a drawn out process, and a costly one at that, but the upshot is that at the end of it I don't have an ongoing lease expense.

[Pete Harrow]

Hi Matt,

Right.... I was wondering about getting a stall at my local evening market, but I brew out of my basement, so I'm sure that I would need to do a lot of renovations to bring it up to standard... dropping the floor for starters so you can stand up might be the 1st one :)

What was the cost of just the registration if you don't mind me asking? & any pics of your setup?

[Matt Smith]

Hey Pete,

Food premises license is around $800 in Hastings, but the main cost is the work needed to get the license approved, i.e plumbing and drainage, floor surfacing, wall lining (my shed wasn't lined), ventilation, the associated building consents and a fire report etc. Your basement may already have some of those things, but if your ceilings are that low you may have issues as there is a minimum ceiling height requirement. You also need to be licensed as a customs controlled area for excise taxes, and this is another $800 or so from memory, per year.

I'm still in early stages, but I'll post pics once I've made more progress

[Peter Smith]

(d)No ceiling shall be less than 2.4 metres above the floor, measured at the lowest point of the ceiling.

Its why my garage is not suitable under the NZ regulations, the rest are not that bad.

[Pete Harrow]

Thanks Peter,

My ceiling is 1.7m at the lowest points (Beams) so a definite no go. I'll start looking into rental properties for the moment & try to convince my wife that our garage is best suited to being a brewery :)

[Cain Harland]

I don't have a managers cert so no help to you now. But if your operation gets big enough that you need another brewer sometimes I'd be interested. I imagine 1 brewer can actually make a lot of beer before he needs help.

[Matt Smith]

Hey Cain,

Thanks for the offer. This will just be part time for myself while I ease my way into it, but who knows, if I happen to become swamped then I'll give you a bell. Your welcome to come by and have a look once I'm up and running.

[Cain Harland]

Yeah it would be cool to check out your operation, mine is still pretty basic.