Malting barley, Tim Cookson

To the final product

A yarn over a beer and a joke about making the tipple themselves turned into a reality for two mates from Yorkshire, and they are now selling it within metres of where it is made.

Mark Limber and Dave Dixon – lovers of beer and music – purchased Two Thumb Brewing Co. in 2017 but their partnership goes back many years. The pair grew up in Doncaster in the UK and at a young age were in a band together “thinking we were going to be rock and roll stars,” Mr Limber said.

However, Mr Dixon left the UK in 1992 and the pair did not stay in touch.

Eight years ago, Mr Limber made the move to New Zealand. After speaking to a mutual friend, he informed Mr Limber that Mr Dixon had in fact also made the move to New Zealand. On contact they discovered they were both in Christchurch and decided to catch up for a beer, a Two Thumb beer of course. A few beers deep they said if the brewery ever came up for sale, they would purchase it – and a week later it did.

They stuck to their word and took over the brewery in September 2017, “it’s fair to say we were terrified when we first started. We knew nothing about brewing, and were terrified contemplating what had we gotten ourselves into,” Mr Limber said.

The previous owner stayed on with them for three months to teach them the ropes and then following that it was over to them, who both had, and still do have, other full time jobs. Mr Limber a consultant in healthcare and Mr Dixon a manager at Ara Polytechnic “we both spend more time than we should here!”

“The first beer we brewed was of course Yorkshire Bitter, which you generally can’t get in New Zealand,” Mr Limber said.

“Our birthdays are both in October and we made two 20 litre kegs of it and took one with us on our birthday holiday and sent another one to a beer festival where it very quickly sold out.”

Since then we have brewed it constantly as well as plenty of other varieties, we have added over time – they have gone from having a 20-litre home brew kit to an 800-litre commercial kit.

The brewery was originally just that. However, two years ago they built a brew bar Dave Dixon (left) and Mark Limber – working during the brewing process.

Mark Limber of Two Thumb Brewery – with malt and one of his signature beers he creates from it.