The Story

In The Beginning.

Back in the mid 1940’s Jack Hartstone would hand dig shingle out of the river at Mako mako into the back of his Model T Ford and hand-fill pot holes on Te Mata Road before heading back to crash out in the tent his family called home. Back then, before rail had been developed, supplies would arrive at the Raglan Wharf by boat. With no carriers at the time good ol' Jack stepped in to provide his transport service, distributing all sorts of goods throughout the Waikato.

It wasn’t long before Jack built his trucking depot using locally harvested and milled timber. As the years passed it became known as the Raglan ‘Workshop’ and established itself as a hub for transport and mechanical services, repairing trucks, local fishing boats and more recently, general engineering to the wider public. The 'Workshop' still stands today, strong against the horizon, with her thickly oiled, heavily worn floors, dusty wooden rafters and historical tapestry of manual labour and know how.

 

A Spanner In The Works.

In 2016 a small corner of the 'Workshop' became available with, would you believe it, just enough space to squeeze in a custom brewery. Learning as we went, we built our brewery with subpar welding skills and foolproof determination. Dismayed by the absence of a locally produced brew and spurred on by a long held dream shared by friends with a passion for beer and the love of our seaside town, 'Workshop Brewing' - Raglan’s first craft brewery - was founded. In honour the of THE 'Workshop' our trademark became the obstruction spanner, a tool made to work around any problem that gets in the way.

 

Workshop Today.

Quality, sustainability and creativity are our core philosophical principals. Our key objective is to provide a range of fresh and diverse beers for the local community... yeah yeah yeah…blah blah blah…insert every other brewery’s objective here…. just come in and try the beer.

We are also leading the charge on truely making a difference in the game, minimising our footprint and creating a sustainable, quality beverage that doesn’t cost our precious earth.

Win-win, get in.