The legendary brewer was also a former All Black.

Former All Black and craft beer giant Terry McCashin will be remembered as a humble gentleman who took on the big brewers from a small Nelson factory.

The founder of the Mac's beer brand and former All Black hooker died suddenly on Tuesday morning.

He was 73.

MARTIN DE RUYTER/STUFF Dean McCashin, left, and Terry McCashin with glasses of two of the new Stoke beers produced McCashins' Brewery.

McCashin is credited with starting the craft beer revolution in New Zealand, while competing with the brewing duopoly of Lion Nathan and Dominion Breweries.

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Family spokesman Paul Le Gros had known McCashin for more than 30 years and said the death had come as "an utter shock" to family and friends.

NELSON MAIL Terry McCashin, left, Prime Minister Rob Muldoon, right, with a handle of Mac's beer at the opening of The Malt and Brewhouse area of Mac's on September 26, 1981.

As well as his "enormous" brewing legacy, Le Gros said his friend would be remembered as an family-orientated, generous person who always saw more reasons to do something as opposed to not doing it.

"He had an amazing spirit – a gentleman and a gentle man," Le Gros said.

"From a man who was an All Black in the hard old days – and it was a pretty good era – he was humble and was never egotistical – he focused on his family and his business trying to make a success of whatever he touched.

NELSON MAIL Terry McCashin at the Stoke Mac's brewery in 1981.

"He was always one to break the mould, and he would be substantially responsible for breaking that duality of control that the large breweries had and he offered something different – the rest is history."

Born Terence Michael McCashin at Palmerston North on January 18, 1944, McCashin first made his name as a seven-match All Black, first selected for the 1968 tour to Australia and Fiji.

A decade later, the Rochdale Cider factory on Main Road Stoke became home to McCashin's Brewery when the family took over the the site in 1980.

The family continued to brew cider before the first batch of Mac's beer was brewed in 1981.

Brewer Jim Pollitt had enjoyed a successful brewing career from England to Africa when he was shoulder-tapped by McCashin to help start his fledgling enterprise in 1981.

It was a decision he is glad to have made, if not for the product they created, but for the time spent with his boss.

"I gave up a good job, but I was very interested in [the opportunity] and I wanted to get back to New Zealand," Pollitt said.

"He was quite a character – It was very amicable right the way through, we had a few rows but they were all solved – I reckon we did pretty well and the beer is still out in the market, even though it's not ours anymore.

"It's a very sad loss."

In 1999 the Mac's brand was sold to giant brewery Lion.

A year later Mac's HQ in Stoke was leased to the heavyweight, with the family temporarily moving out of the picture until 2009, when son Dean and his wife Emma re-opened the brewery under the McCashin's name, making Rochdale cider and beer under the Stoke moniker.

Today McCashin's Brewery is the oldest craft brewery in New Zealand.

Although he moved to farming in Canterbury in his later years, McCashin maintained an active interest in the family business right up until his death, dividing his time between Christchurch and Nelson.

"He left a legacy that was able to be continued by the family," Le Gros said.

He is survived by wife Beverley and five children Maria, Dean, Scott, Anna and Todd.

Others to pay tribute to McCashin, included NZ boxing identity Kevin Barry.