| 5 REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Mussel Inn Rachel Graham Local beer and cider using local products Mussel Inn owners Jane and Andrew Dixon. With hops from Riwaka, apples from Golden Bay, and feijoas from its backyard the Mussel Inn does its best to make products which reflect its region. To find The Mussel Inn in Onekaka, you need to head over the Takaka Hill, and on about 15 kilometres past Takaka. The Mussel Inn started out as a café in 1992, but by 1995 owners Jane and Andrew Dixon had added brewing to their repertoire. Jane says Andrew had always been a home brewer. “He had brewing at heart, and we just thought, because we had a cafe and we were selling beer, we should be making the beer. That’s what got us underway.” Jane says it has always been important to them to make use of local products and support local businesses, and thereby do their bit to keep rural communities alive and thriving. She says that has become increasingly important to the wider public too. “The hops that we use are from just over the hill in Riwaka, which is as local as we can get,” says Jane. “We do grow a few of our own as well, but nowhere near as much as what we need.” She says while some brewers are still keen to import hops in from the US or Germany to create a certain style beer, they want to create a New Zealand style beer, and to do that they need to use local products. In keeping with that ethos, they use malt from a small business, Gladfield Malt, in Dunsandel, Canterbury. Jane says while many other brewers are importing their malt from England or Germany, they love supporting a local business who have been growing barley for generations. The Mussel Inn’s cider started out being produced with apples just from their own orchard, but its popularity is such that they now also buy some in from local Tasman growers. “And again, a lot of people use apple juice concentrates for cider, but we just get the apples directly from a local orchard and press them ourselves, and make the cider from scratch,” says Jane. An abundance of feijoas in their orchard led to the creation of the freckled frog feijoa fizz. The fizz is a cider style drink, made 100 percent from feijoas. They also have plenty of options for people wanting non-alcoholics drinks too, with the Ginger Bear, Lemming Aid, and the ever-popular Pink Panther – a raspberry lemonade. Jane says they love having options for everyone, which means they don’t need to cart in drinks from elsewhere. The expanded brewery also means they can now offer employment for three full timers in the brewery, helping local people find work in their own community. The brewery was classed as an essential service during the Covid lockdowns, which Janes says was very helpful to keep them ticking over while tourism and hospitality were largely shut down. Their drinks are now available in a number of supermarkets in Golden Bay, Nelson, and Christchurch, and Jane says with everyone stuck at home supermarket sales did get a boost. After the lockdowns Jane says they had excellent support from local tourists, with lots of visitors from Christchurch and Wellington. She says the toughest time has been the winter just past, with many people choosing to holiday overseas with the borders reopening. The Mussel Inn is also well known as a live music venue, and Jane says it’s great to see bands and musicians out of tour again. After a challenging couple of years, Jane says they are grateful for their diverse business interests, which have helped get them by. She says they are also very grateful for their excellent local customer base, which she says is ultimately their core business. “The hops that we use are from just over the hill in Riwaka, which is as local as we can get....We do grow a few of our own as well, but nowhere near as much as what we need.”
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