At Hallertau Brewbar and Restaurant, located just north of Auckland in the quaint township of Riverhead, doing things differently is completely normal.

The brainchild of self confessed beer guru Stephen Plowman, the Hallertau concept is a New Zealand first, being the only restaurant with its own locally brewed beer running exclusively on tap. Steve is so confident that his beer is the best in the country, he sees no need to sell anything else. 

As well as that, Steve and his wife Hayley are committed to using wine, food and products sourced locally, with their location meaning that many world class ingredients are available right on the doorstep.  

Hallertau’s commitment to the creation of a genuinely unique and warm epicurean experience extends to the keeping of its own chickens so that eggs are as fresh as they could possibly be, and also its own herb and vegetable garden.

Steve has now taken this approach one step further. Hallertau changes its cooking oil about every three days and produces a considerable volume that was simply being used as pig food. Steve realised that this was a waste of a potentially valuable resource, which could instead be used to produce biodiesel. 

After considerable research Steve came across the Spiderweb BioBuddy, an all in one biodiesel processing unit which will produce up to 125L of biodiesel in about 5-6 hours. Having now purchased the Spiderweb BioBuddy, Hallertau intends to buy a diesel van that will be used both as a customer courtesy vehicle and also for delivering Hallertau’s beers to other Auckland bars and restaurants. 

At a cost of about 45 cents per litre to produce, the biodiesel will give Hallertau a significant cost saving as well as provide an environmentally friendly way of recycling a waste product.  Biodiesel produces lower emissions than petrodiesel so is very much a “green” alternative.