GodsOwn Brewery
What makes your venue the Best Gastropub in New Zealand?
We are one of a kind, dining destination and experience. We make the most of our rural position close to the local winery trails. Diners get to enjoy our hand-crafted beers and wood fired pizza's using our fresh garden produce whilst relaxing amongst the hops in our Hop Garden or dining in our Safari Tent. We have repurposed vintage caravans which serve as our kitchen and bar and have a large rustic kids play area for the kids to enjoy. Furry animals are also welcome as our dog, Pepper will most likely be the first to greet you. A true Kiwiana experience.
Describe the experience your customers have at your establishment – what is your food and beverage offering and why do people come back for more?
GodsOwn Brewery's name comes from "Godfrey's Own Brewery" in God’s Own Country. With the ideology of creating a destination venue and not just a production brewery, we opened the doors to the cellar, the Happy Yellow Caravan, in 2015. With no distribution intentions, we wanted families and beer lovers to experience beer in the environment in which it is produced, sitting under the hops and soaking up the countryside.
We always set out to create and produce seasonal beers that showcase our unique water profile and compliment our seasonal food menu. This can only be purchased from the Happy Yellow Caravan at GodsOwn Brewery, with no intention to bottle, can or distribute our beers locally or nationwide, thereby creating a boutique beer and food destination venue. We do occasionally sell our beer kegs to some wineries and pubs upon request.
The different beers re-appear each year at a specific time to compliment the season and will be poured until finished and then replaced by a new seasonal beer. With the exception of our Prophesy Pils, which is our most popular seller, it remains on tap year-round. Every year, we release one or two new styles of beer.
We have taken creative licensing, with the name GodsOwn to have a play on words and some tongue-in-cheek fun with the naming of our beers, e.g. Drunk Monk Marzen, Bent Bishop Belgian Pale Ale, Crusaders of the Kolsch, Holy Grail Golden Ale, Black out of Hell IPA, Sacrificial Springbock, etc. This also extends into our table numbering system, whereby customers get to choose a brightly painted river rock to use as their table marker. All these rocks have names on them from the bible, e.g. Moses, Jezebel, Adam, Eve, Jesus, Lucifer, etc. Customer reactions are quite fun to watch.
We offer a small but quality menu, with six different gourmet wood-fired pizzas (the toppings change with the seasons, and they are hand-made to order) and snacks such as our famous "Brew grain crackers" (made in-house daily) with dips or baked camembert, a healthy Kid's platter (which showcases a lot of our own grown produce), South African cured meats (born in SA), e.g. Biltong, Chilli Sticks, Droewors, etc. which pair very well with beer and ice blocks in the Summer. We usually have eight of our own craft beers on tap, with a wide selection of local wine, cider, low and non-alcoholic drink options.
Our customers love the relaxed and laid-back environment that we have created, along with the large open spaces and kids' playground that we custom-built. Kids and dogs are well catered for with space, the playground and the casual outdoor vibes. Customers also love sitting amongst the hops whilst enjoying our seasonal range of wood-fired pizzas, beers, music playlists or events that we put on, e.g. our Annual Hop Harvest and the Hop Burning Man.
Tell us how you showcase NZ produce / offerings? Does your menu change with the season and how is it locally influenced. How do you accommodate allergy and dietary requirements?
Hawke's Bay and NZ produce is top quality. We also love growing our own ingredients as much as possible to complement the seasonal pizzas and k’ platters. Although our menu is simple, we keep it interesting by utilising what is in season in our own garden as well as in the region. Our kids' plate will feature things like pea pods, oranges and colourful carrots in the Spring, then strawberries, cucumbers, plums and raspberries in the Summer. Our pizzas use beetroot, onions, lots of herbs, lemons, courgettes, capsicums, tomatoes, and the list goes on as the toppings reflect the season. Some of the fruits are also incorporated into the beer making.
We also like to make our own brew grain crackers by utilising the spent grain from the brewery, which is also used to feed our livestock. They love the spent grain, and we reap the rewards when it comes time to fill the freezer again.
In addition, we also like to smoke and make some of our own flavoured meat and pickled toppings such as pastrami, beef brisket, pulled pork, buffalo BBQ (grilled) chicken, pickled red onion, gherkins, etc. Besides brewing, we also enjoy a BBQ and use our beers to spritz the meat. We also have a winter beef calzone that uses our beer as the main stock (gravy). We prefer to use small local suppliers where possible, e.g. Holy Bacon, Rare Honey (also based in Maraekakaho), the Classic Butcher, etc., for our other ingredients such as ham, honey, beef, etc.
We have a set core of pizza: our Garlic and Rosemary, Margherita, and Ham & Pineapple. The rest get quite creative. Some examples are, Fresh pear with blue cheese, honey and rocket; Jamaican Jerk chicken with red onions; Chicken chimichurri with grilled lemon; Beetroot with spring onion, feta and balsamic; Beef Adobo with pickled red onion and coriander. We love creating new flavours and experimenting with new ideas. Customers will keep an eye out for the return of a favourite or the sound of something new.
Our beers have tasting notes that declare all the ingredients used, and these are available at the bar and included with our tasting arks (flights). All our beers are un-filtered and un-fined, resulting in flavoursome vegan-friendly beer, and we love to use NZ Malt and Hops. All pizza ingredients are displayed on the black board menus (we don't have printed menus because the menu always changes), and we also offer gluten-free bases (at no extra charge), as well as a choice of black pepper and at least three different hot sauce condiments with each pizza (at no extra charge).
Everything is made to order so we can make adjustments to accommodate most special dietary requirements or allergies.
What are your key points of difference and how have you managed to deliver them?
Our vision from the "get-go" was to be as sustainable as possible. This means using the land to produce the ingredients which we show case in our seasonal beer and food menu. We also wanted our buildings to be low impact so that the land could be returned back to the way it was when we bought it, with minimal disruption or impact to the environment, hence why we used repurposed vintage caravans, safari tents, upcycled and recycled furniture, etc.
It was important for us to be very family-friendly. We felt that this was a market that was being overlooked by hospitality at the time. We also had young children, and they needed to be included in the vision. We have the space for families and large groups to relax and enjoy themselves without impacting other customer's experience. In fact, it all adds to the experience here.
We have four productive fruit, herb and vegetable gardens that contribute largely to our menus, and customers appreciate the freshness and sustainability of our produce.
The hop (beer) garden is a major feature of our venue. The seasonal nature of the hops mirrors the rhythm of our season. We start the beginning of our season in September with just small mounds of dirt. These soon start to shoot, and the strings go up. Then the bines start really taking off, and this incredible green sanctuary forms over a couple of months to be ready for the heat of the Summer. By mid-December, the hop garden will be an oasis that provides this magic for the hot, busy summer months. We then have our hop harvest event at the beginning of March, bringing people from all over to help us hand-pick the crop, which goes into our Holy Hop Green IPA the next day. The stripped bines are wrapped around a large frame of a man and left to dry until the end of our season in June, when we will host our very own Burning Man and set it on fire. The hops create a really unique experience. Whether you are seeing them for the first time, sitting under them and enjoying the taste, picking them or watching them burn.
We also included a large communal bonfire pit in our beer garden area. During the cooler months, customers enjoy each other's company while around the fire. We will sometimes include some open-fire cooking.
Best Known for:
Woodfire pizza and local brews
Near the wine trail
Hop Garden and Safari Tent
Please describe your commitment to sustainability.
Our philosophy and approach is to brew beer that delivers flavour and has been made with love and a vision that considers the environmental impact of production. Equally, how we grow, source, and manage our food ingredients and waste is important. Sustainability has always been a big part of our business ethos from the early conceptual days and is still ongoing through our organic growth to this day.
Living rurally has its challenges when it comes to certain infrastructure, particularly constant and safe water supply and waste management challenges such as recycling, brewery and restaurant waste disposal and wastewater treatment. But there are also advantages to being based rurally in terms of what we can produce.
Waste water from the restaurant, bar (via grease traps), and toilets goes through our septic system and is treated with a natural enzyme (biozyme), which helps keep the whole system nice and healthy. The final wastewater chamber of grey/black water is then pumped out via an irrigation field which waters our native plantings. We have removed over 180 mature pine trees off the property and have been planting and expanding natives since 2015 and keep planting more each year.
The brewery wastewater is captured in a retention pond for paddock fertigation purposes. We separate the yeast trub before it goes into the retention pond and add it to our compost instead. This helps to maintain good wastewater quality, and the minerals and organic cells from the yeast are great in the compost, which is then used in our vegetable and fruit gardens.
We use chemicals in the brewery that allow for natural acid/caustic neutralisation in a holding tank prior to being pumped out into the retention pond, allowing for a good alkaline base for our wastewater in the retention pond and small wetland with plenty of noisy frogs, ducks and pukeko.
The spent malt that is not used for making our famous brew grain crackers for the restaurant is then fed out to our cattle. We have always been conscious of maintaining a low carbon footprint by managing the majority of the waste products onsite through our buildings and processes (organic & inorganic waste separation, recycling, etc.). All restaurant organic waste is composted. Recyclables are taken to the local depot.
We use locally sourced wood for our pizza ovens. The caravans and tent on the property are second-hand and the children’s playground is recycled, with a lot of other things being donated by members of the community, even our outdoor tables are recycled cable drums with a lot of secondhand furniture. Re-use, upcycle and re-cycle philosophy.
We have used glass riggers and flagons from day one. Customers can refill bottles. Those who wish to refrain from refilling can return the bottles with a cash-back guarantee. We believe we are the only brewery in NZ doing this.
Have you won any awards in the recent past?
We won the People's Chioce Award at the Beer Appreciation Day 'Beer Festival' held annually in Hawke's Bay in 2023 for our Silent Night Espresso Stout.
We won the LuxLife Brewery & Distillery Award 2023 for the "Best Sustainable Rural Brewery".
We were shorlisted for the best regional hospitality establishment in Hawke's Bay in 2022.
Published in the Goldpine Post March 2022 magazine regarding Hop farming in NZ.
Published in the Lonely Planet Food " Gourmet Trails Australia & New Zealand - Perfect 40 Weekends" in 2020.
Published in 100% Kiwi Business by Ryan L. Jennings in 2018.
Please describe how you create ambience.
We operate every year from the first weekend of September through to King's birthday weekend and then close for winter. Each season, we like to release a new GodsOwn Brewery playlist publicly to Spotify. It's an eclectic mix of music genres (not even sure what all the genres would be), but it does feature folk, reggae, rock, punk, blues, classic throwbacks, country, etc., all intended to keep everyone happy and upbeat (including us). Music is so important for ambience it can't be underestimated. During winter, we spend a lot of time building our playlist and always get good feedback and even some followers on Spotify.
The rural setting has its own ambience, with the livestock over the fence, the birdlife, the gardens, and the big open vista that all add their part. During the cooler months, the bonfire is burning, and our solar lighting is minimal so that the night sky takes the stage. We have large, cozy blankets for customers to wrap up in and provide marshmallows for everyone to toast on the fire.
Over long weekends and holidays, we like to have local artists perform live and local food trucks to support our kitchen and also offer more food options. These days, they always have a great ambience as customers really appreciate live performances.
