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21 Nov 2023
Brewery Radar • Brewery Radar: October 2022
TheBintani Brewery Radar keeps the brewing industry up to date with the progress of planned breweries and brewpubs in Australia, where they are in their development process, the installation of brewhouses and proposed opening dates. This edition has seen a ramping up of brewery openings with more expected to come before the end of the year as hospitality ramps back up. Additional reporting by Clare Burnett.
Find out where new breweries are opening in your state:
If you haven’t seen your brewery on recent editions of theBrewery Radar, get in touch with us – radar@dev.brewsnews.com.au.
Island State Brewing, which also owns Penguin Beer Co. in northern Tasmania, is set to open a third venue in the state.
Fox Friday, which is brewing out of Moonah, is working on its new Richmond site in Melbourne.
Du Cane Brewing has opened its brewery and dining hall in Launceston.
Psycho Suzie’s Brewing opened in the Queensland town of Warwick.
Iron Works Brewery is set to build its own taphouse and microbrewery in Brandon, as reported in the Townsville Bulletin.
The business launched in 2016 by Delta Iron Works operators, Doug and Robert Green and has sold kegs to various outlets across Townsville, Brisbane and the Whitsundays.
The new taphouse will have a capacity of 25 people and will offer 10 beers on tap.
Maggie Island Brewing Co. opened its doors at the end of August in Picnic Bay.
Non-alcoholic beer brand Sobah Beverages is aiming to install its equipment, which is currently on its way from China, Canada and Melbourne, in March 2023.
Sobah plans to open its doors to the public around Easter, depending on building work being complete before Christmas.
The Sunshine Coast’s Blackflag Brewing is launching a crowdfunding campaign this month, as it nears closer to opening its new site.Tanks for the site landed last week and the team are working towards an opening date.
Straddie Brewing Co. is set to launch this month in the North Stradbroke town of Dunwich, with the date set for 20th October.
Meanwhile, Future Magic Brewing, which completed its CSF campaign earlier this year in which it raised just over $298,000, has ordered its equipment and expects to have it commissioned before the end of the year.
Future Magic has invested in a 3-vessel 10hL brewhouse from Brewtique, as well as a 20hL Brite tank and three 10hL serving tanks to connect straight to taps.
“We are aiming to be open before the end of the year and there is a complex jigsaw puzzle with many pieces to fall into place in order for it to happen,” explained founder Sean Astill.
“We are currently on track to be open before Christmas and have this as our aim if everything does fall into place!”
The build has been impacted by a rule concerning the medium impact industry zoning requirements from Brisbane City Council, he explained, which says that multiple burners required for a direct fire brewhouse push the usage into ‘high impact’
“Luckily this is only a small hiccup and means a bit of a quick rethink and some paperwork for us and the town planner! Other than that things are going smoothly. We should be finishing our plumbing work this week with electrical work starting and a slab for the brewing equipment being laid next week.”
Archer Brewing, planned for the Brisbane suburb of Newmarket, has painted its new site in some striking colours, and is on track with its plans.
Contract brand Valhalla Brewing has announced it has signed a lease to build a brewery at the Federal Woollen Mills site in North Geelong.
“While we have been disappointed that a number of previous opportunities have fallen through, in hindsight we now see that we just needed to be patient for this site to become available,” founding director Scott Hunt said in a media release.
“We are now in a position to build a state-of-the-art brewing facility in Geelong and offer locals and visitors to the region a craft beer experience as good as any in the Geelong and Surf Coast regions.”
Valhalla will build a 1500-litre, automated brewhouse with capacity to brew up to 500,000 litres per year. The plans also include a 200-seat taproom, with an estimated opening date of March 2023.
A new brewery is set to launch in an old milk factory in Maffra, per Mirage News.
Dubbed as Maffco Brewery and Taphouse, the new project received a $400,000 investment from the Regional Tourism Investment Fund and is set to open in 2023.
Bendigo Brewing is making good headway, with a building permit due soon and plans to start construction at the end of this month.
Brewmanity’s new site is coming along in leaps and bounds with groundworks in place and structural steel going in over the next month.
The tanks arrive in November and the team is planning installation in the beginning of 2023. All going well, a March opening date is in the works.
On Phillip Island, the Rhyll Brewery & Distillery is making headway and last month released renders of the new site by Wolveridge Architects.
Smiley Brewing has encountered some of the issues many breweries-in-planning face, including power issues at the site which means they have had to change to a gas-fired hot liquor tank at the last minute, from an original proposed electric setup.
“That’s impacted the shipment date for the brewery as the new HLT has to be built now, we are still awaiting a new shipment date but we expect it will likely be closer to Christmas now,”explained director Trent Butcher.
This will push opening dates a little further, to around mid-2023.
In late September, Freshwater Brewing opened the doors to its taproom and restaurant in Brookvale.
After having its DA “approved in principle” by local council in August, Hoppers Brewing Co. faced council again this month for formal approval.
“We were asked to look at reducing the size of our drinking/dining space despite the fact that our intended liquor licence limited us to a maximum of 120 people at any one time,” a blog post read detailing the recent process.
“Although never preferable, in an effort to be flexible we brought the bar forward, rejigged the still and reduced the size of downstairs drinking/dining area as well as agreeing to limiting the upstairs mezzanine to the balcony area being the only space for food/drink.”
Despite those changes, the application was recommended to be refused as the design “looked too restaurant focused”.
After a lengthy council meeting, the DA was approved after Tweed Shire Mayor Chris Cherry stated that there was “no doubt” the restaurant was ancillary to the brewery.
Drink West, a beer brand launched by UFC and NRL players, is planning a new brewery and bar on the back of a $2 million crowdfund on the Birchal platform back in May.
According to its offer documents, the $1.5 million Drink West Brewery will include a $500,000 brewhouse, allowing it to produce 1 million litres per year.
WA brewery Beerfarm is due to make its debut on the east coast with a new venue, but delays mean it may be 2024 before its plans come to fruition.
Down in South Albury, The Thirsty Devil Brewery looks set to open very soon – on Thursday 20th October.
The team polished off the beer garden at the beginning of this month and are currently recruiting for front and back of house staff.
The Suburban Brew, a new Adelaide brewery, is going strong and looking to open in the next few months.
Head brewer and operations director Peter Bradley said that building the fit out is continuing and plumbing works are almost complete,
“There is still a crap ton of work to do and days until the boat arrives are running out!” he said.
Union Bridge Brewery and Distillery has opened in Cudlee Creek, per Glam Adelaide.
With a seating capacity of 50, the venue includes a brewery, cellar door and kitchen with the distillery still in development.
The project was partly funded with a $278,019 grant from the South Australian Tourism Industry Development Fund.
A new microbrewery is set to open in an 1980s church in the southern Flinders Ranges, according to In Daily.
Dubbed as Little Blessings Brewery, the project is led by Craig and Catherine Blesing who bought the Laura Baptist Community Church last month.
The brewery is set to open in 2023 and have a total production capacity of 45,000 litres per annum.
Wilson Brewing Co., which launched a crowdfunding campaign last week, has entered into a joint venture with a key hospitality development in Dunsborough in South West WA.
The venue and microbrewery is set to open in early 2023, and will enable Wilson to add 350,000 litres to its production capacity.
Phat Brew Club is a new brewery set to open in Success, a southern suburb of Perth. The 1000L brewkit has arrived from Spark Breweries and Distilleries and includes seven brite tanks.
Phat Brew Club director secretary Terri Moore explained that while there have been a few delays, the brewery has a tentative opening date of January 2023.
“We are working through shortlisting for main roles: Venue Manager, Head Brewer and Head Chef. We are looking forward to an awesome summer of events leading up to opening, after we had the number one most sold beer at Froth Town in August – Phubba Bubba – Strawberry Bubblegum Sour.”
Eclipse Brewing Co. is still in the early stages of its approval process and equipment research, and will be contract brewing in the meantime.
Northbound Brewing is still in the works but the team is focused primarily on the farm side of things before it begins on a brewery build.
Expansions
On the Sunny Coast, Your Mates Brewing Co. has announced its expansion – next door.
While initial plans suggested the brewery might be looking at a totally new site, when the building next door opened for lease, it was an opportunity that was too good to pass up, according to Christen McGarry.
Larger fermenters are being manufactured currently, and the team has purchased Hawkers’ canning line.
“This first stage with extra fermenters and the packaging upgrade will take us to 2 million litres per annum, and then once we get there we will need to upgrade the brewhouse. 5 million litres is what we believe the site can do comfortably,” said Your mates cofounder Christen McGarry.
“If we wanted to squeeze more out of it, we could. But that 5 million plus is where we’re sitting. It’s the perfect size to be able to do what we want to do and if we want to go bigger we can, but we can make that decision later in the business, we’re not committed to if we don’t hit 5 million litres we’re not profitable – we can get to that comfortable stage before then and if there’s more demand we can take that opportunity and we have the room to do it.”
Two Mates Brewing has announced it will open a new taproom in the Gold Coast suburb of Varsity Lakes. The business is currently looking for a new head brewer and venue manager.
Sydney’s Akasha Brewing Co. has announced it is launching a dedicated bar for its small batch barrel-aged beers following a successful crowdfund earlier this year.
In Victoria, Bar La Sirène has opened as the Alphington cellar door of the farmhouse-style ale specialist.
