Endeavour wants a brewery for its birthday

Endeavour Vintage Beer Co has been searching for 18 months for an appropriate site to call home, co-founder Ben Kooyman has revealed.

Endeavour has contract brewed its beers at various different facilities since launching five years ago, and Kooyman told Radio Brews News the company would dearly love to mark its next phase with permanent digs.

“We’ve done a fair level of research around four venues which have all fallen over for one reason or another,” he said.

“It’s quite difficult in the current Sydney market to find a spot and have someone who’s patient for us to sign a lease while we go through all the due diligence and approvals that are needed.”

Endeavour's Dan, Andy and Ben

Endeavour’s Dan, Andy and Ben

Kooyman said Endeavour has modelled various different scenarios ranging from a brewpub-type facility to a more substantial setup with a packaging line that would enable the company to bring its entire production in-house.

“We do want to make it a fairly cool place to come that people can come and see us, come and see our story, drink our beer and make a decision whether they want to buy it from a bottleshop or another venue in the future,” he said.

Endeavour has released some very contrasting beers in recent weeks. Its draught only Anniversary Amber Ale has a dark amber hue and weighs in at 5.8 per cent ABV and 50 IBUs.

Its Harvest Blonde meanwhile is a 3.8 per cent ABV brew developed in collaboration with retailer Woolworths to meet the growing demand for more sessionable ‘lifestyle’ beers.

“We do try and meet the market in several different channels,” Kooyman said.

The new livery for Endeavour's bottled range

The new livery for Endeavour’s bottled range

He said that while the company enjoys a strong relationship with the major retailers, 50 per cent of its volume is kegged product that goes into independent venues.

“To be honest, they’re not the craftiest venues in town. We do target mainstream premium venues that have got one or two independent taps and we try and provide them a nice flavoursome beer as an alternative to some of the mainstream lager styles that they’ve predominately got on tap,” he said.

“We have a release every six months, our seasonal series that we specifically go and talk to the craftier venues about because it much more fits their patrons.”

Episode 57 of Radio Brews News is available to download here.

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