Melbourne’s Moon Dog Craft Brewery has launched a dispensing system for post mix seltzers following the growth of its Fizzer seltzers range.

The Melbourne brewery has already been trialling its patent-pending dispensing technology at Moon Dog World in Preston, but now has a number of bars and venues on board to rollout the dispensers, after securing a major $350,000 Manufacturing Modernisation Fund grant to facilitate the development of the technology.

“We have launched Fizzer and it’s gone really well from a pack perspective and it goes really well in venues,”explained Moon Dog brand manager Brook Hornung.

“We have a load of taps at Moon Dog World so 8 out of 72 taps [for Fizzer] isn’t a huge issue, but no venues are looking to take off a cider or a beer tap.

“So what we’ve done is patented a world-first postmix dispensing unit for alcohol.

“Essentially what we’re going to be doing, and we’re close to rolling this out now, is brewing a super Fizzer, a 17 per cent seltzer in a 15-litre box, which can then be mixed with the soda water at the point of dispense and it will be served like a soft drink would.”

Moon Dog first trademarked its Fizzer Hard Seltzer brand in July last year. Since then, they have been listed in Dan Murphy’s First Choice and BWS from June, launching four new flavours and bigger pack sizes this year as demand only grows.

Mainstream media has heralded the category as a game changer, predicting another huge summer for seltzers which are outstripping the majority of the alcohol market. According to Neilsen data reported by Insider, seltzers brought in $4.5 billion in sales over the 52 week period ending 22nd May.

But it isn’t just the AB InBevs and Lions of the world that have invested in the brand, and a host of seltzer brands have sprung up in the craft sector.

This, of course, has been predominantly in packaged form, and filling a hole in the market by providing seltzers on tap has been a challenge for Moon Dog to overcome.

“It will be unique, as it doesn’t require them to take off beer taps, which is important for us as a brewery as well,” said Hornung.

The dispensers will feature four to eight taps, and venues must provide CO2, water, a power point and a drainage spot.

“We will be rolling these out to a heap of venues in the next few months. We started the conversations with venues and the response has been positive.

“We’re pretty much good to go, we’re just making sure we nail the liquid before we started telling anyone about it, but we’re so close.”

The mechanics of the machine will allow it to also dispense other Moon Dog created alcoholic beverages, not just seltzer.

“For example, we are doing a ginger beer as well as pre-batch spritz cocktails. We’ll be looking to offer a whole range of drinks that have different ABVs, natural colouring and punchy flavours, to give venues options beyond our Moon Dog Fizzer range,” Hornung explained.

Moon Dog Brewing is aiming to install 1,000 systems in the next 12 months.