Dave Gillies - Head Brewer, Beerworks

Dave Gillies graduated with a B.S.E.E. and began his working career with Hughes Aircraft Company. Dave spent 8 years with the company mostly as a Field Installation and Service Engineer. On his first assignment out of University, he was assigned to install a radar system in Pakistan for one year. Then Dave spent the next five years working in Denmark, Norway, and Greece installing more systems.

While in Europe, Dave discovered the many unique styles and quality of beers being produced by the European nations. This was the spark that led to a lifetime commitment to learning and understanding the varied aspects of producing a quality beer.

Dave was formally trained as a craft brewer by Alan Knight who is a Brewmaster, certified beer Judge, and is well respected in the New Zealand brewing industry. Alan was hired as a consultant and worked at Beerworks training Dave on every aspect of running his own brewery.

Company History

Wanaka Beerworks is very young for a Brewery. The company was started in 1998, by the current owner/brewer Dave Gillies. The brewhouse that was installed then is still in use, purchased from DME in Canada. The DME System was the only one of its kind in the Pacific at that time. The bottling machine in use now is not the original one we started with. Up-grading was necessary to keep up with demand. The bottling system that is being used now is called a Meheen. It can fill 2000 bottles/hour.

We have increased our initial cold storage space to more than double to keep up with the growth of the company. The labeller is the same piece of equipment we set out with. It is from Italy with all its knobs, buttons and instructions in Italian. A recent addition is the recycling machine used to recycle about half of our bottles. It's a huge piece of equipment, worth its bulk in advantages. Recycling to us is economically viable and environmentally friendly.