Queensland

The new Green Beacon Brewery at Teneriffe, Brisbane, opened to the public on Friday night 25 January, just in time for the Australia Day weekend. The brewery/bar/eatery was packed during the long weekend, despite the inclement weather visited upon Brisbane by Cyclone Oswald. More has already been said about Green Beacon in a previous update (January 2013).

The re-establishment of the Beard and Brau Brewery in Queensland has almost been completed. The brewery was started in 2008 in the Adelaide suburb of Para Hills West, but early in 2012 the equipment was relocated to Tamborine village where it was reinstalled in a shed at the new residence of its owners, Chris Herring and Tanya Harlow. Brewing is expected to commence at Tamborine later this year. To maintain the supply of beer during the changeover, some Beard and Brau products have been produced at Barossa Valley Brewing at Tanunda in South Australia, and at Southern Bay Brewing at Geelong in Victoria.

Brewing has recommenced at the former Eagle Heights Brewery on Tamborine Mountain. The newly-created Fortitude Brewing Company has leased the brewery from its owner and past operator, Ed Gordon, and has recruited Ian Watson (formerly of Murray’s Craft Brewing Co., MT Brewery and Sunshine Coast Brewery) as brewer. The Fortitude Brewing Company will produce beers under that name, and also under the subsidiary Noisy Minor Brewing Company label. Brewing had started by early January, but no commercial product had been seen by the time of writing. A launch is expected later this month (March).

New South Wales

The Bellingen Brewing Company, at the mid-north coast town of the same name, came to prominence only recently, although it has been in quiet operation for several years. The brewery’s owner, Richard Jennings, started selling beer commercially in mid-2006, but in very small quantities, produced with a 40-litre system from SABCO of Ohio, USA. He designed and built a larger 300-litre system himself a few years ago, which he runs once or twice a week, and now supplies beer to six outlets. Three of Richard’s beers made it into the Local Taphouse’s Hottest 100 Aussie Craft Beers list for 2012, and buoyed by that success he plans to double the number of his outlets over the coming year.

Victoria

The Cavalier Brewing people (Andrew Cronin, Steve Martin and Heath Shirtcliffe) have built a new brewery to replace the tiny backyard operation that they have been using since 2011, and to supersede their more recent use of other facilities to keep up with exploding demand for their products. Their new 1,000-litre brewery has been installed in a factory building at Derrimut, in Melbourne’s western suburbs. Test brewing on the new equipment is due to start soon, if it hasn’t already.

7 Cent Brewery, another Victorian new starter, launched its first official beer, Whapping Wharf ESB, on 16 February at the Penny Blue bar in central Melbourne. Its second offering, Hard Deck IPA, is due out this month. 7 Cent is a collaboration of three young engineers: Brendan Baker, Doug Bremner and Matthew Boustead. Brewing started last year at 7 Cent’s facility at Gisborne South, half-way between Melbourne and Woodend—a donated keg of their Belgian Dark Strong Ale was trialled at Penny Blue last November—but they have only recently obtained the official approvals to start selling their products.