Beers
14 Mar 2024
Brewery Radar • Brewery Radar - August 2023
Brewery Radar serves the brewing industry by keeping it up to date with the progress of planned breweries, expansions, and tap rooms in Australia. We aim to track where they are in their development process from concept to opening.
New South Wales and Victoria have dominated the activity over the last month. We have updates from 14 breweries or brands with:
- 1 brewery opening;
- 1 completed expansion; and
- another 12 in various stages of planning and development.
Keep us updated on your brewery in planning or brewery upgrade plans so we can include you in Brewery Radar at radar@brewsnews.com.au
QLD
Buddy Brewing’s Material Change of Use development permit application, submitted in July, has now reached the public notification stage. Buddy Brewing is seeking to establish a bar and brewery with capacity to cater to up to 60 patrons. According to the planning report, the “microbrewing component onsite is a maximum of 500L before it is bottled or provided on tap” and “a maximum of 6,000L will be brewed on-site per annum.”
Sobah Beverages will hold an official opening event for its Burleigh Heads brewery on September 30. This follows the brewery launching its full cafe menu in early August.
NSW
After starting its expansion journey in late 2021 and getting the new equipment on site in April this year, Mountain Culture Beer Co shared in August that “all systems are go” with its fully automated brewhouse. The announcement comes after the brewery successfully brewed its first beer batch using the new kit in late July.
Grafton Brewing Co is set to open its heritage brewery “soon.” The venue will offer food and drinks, and the site features 12 brewing tanks with the capacity to produce 3,500 litres of beer weekly.
Breakwall Brewing is set to open later in 2023 with a 10HL system. According to a job advertisement for a Production Manager, the brewery will offer a range of “core, seasonal and one-off products to Narooma and the local communities which surround this south coast town.”
The owners of the Hills Marketplace retail complex in the Northern Sydney suburb of Terry Hills have submitted a development application to Northern Beaches Council. According to the documents, they are seeking to construct two buildings, with one to house a garden centre and rural supplies outlet and the other to be made into a restaurant. The eatery would double as a microbrewery, with the inclusion of “a small area for ancillary brewing equipment” allowing the owners to brew beverages at the venue for on-site purchase and consumption and providing “ambience in the restaurant.” Planning documents specify that the business “will not produce products greater than 30 tonnes per day, or 10,000 tonnes per year.”
VIC
Smiley Brewing announced via Facebook that the official opening weekend for its Melbourne-based brewery venue will be the 25th to the 27th of August. Its online booking system is due to go live on August 20th.
Dollar Bill Brewing celebrated firing up its brewhouse in July after a lengthy journey seeking government approvals. The City of Ballarat Council initially rejected the brewery’s cellar door plans in 2021, and the brewery announced in April 2023 – more than two years later – that the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal had ruled in its favour.
Melbourne’s Moon Dog Brewing received approval from Maribyrnong City Council to convert Footscray’s Franco Cozzo furniture showroom into a brewery, after its initial proposal was rejected in June. The brewery had to make changes to address the council’s concerns, including a reduction in capacity from 900 to 800 patrons, a gradual reduction of capacity from 10 pm until close and modified opening hours.
As reported by Food Magazine, 3 Ravens expects to be able to increase its production by “up to four times current levels without increasing its energy consumption” thanks to an energy upgrade. Financed through a grant from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, the upgrade includes the installation of solar panels and a “CO2 chiller heat pump which can capture and use waste heat and cooling from the brewing process.”
WA
Brew Garage had a surprise opening in July, with the brewery sharing in a Facebook post that it “couldn’t wait to share” the brewery with everyone after the paperwork came in.
Spinifex Brewing Co provided an update on its Cable Beach brewery, sharing that it’s expecting the builders to hand over the building keys in October as they’re “fast approaching the final stages of the build.” Fit-out will then commence, which “will include the installation of a… woodfired pizza oven, outdoor stage… LED screen and 6HL microbrewery.” The brewery expects to have a soft opening “this wet season,” with its first function already booked for December.
Wedgetail Brewing is seeking new employees as, according to a job advertisement, its new tap house is “soon to open.” Located in Falcon, Mandurah, the family-owned venue will seat 150+ people, include its brewing production facilities and offer a short order menu from an open kitchen. The brewery announced in June via Facebook that “the steel ha[d] arrived and the internal structure is up.”
SA
Little Blessings Brewing’s brewkit arrived from Tonsen and was unloaded in August, with the brewery’s focus now turning to installation. In an email, they said that this next stage will involve “lifting and renovating floorboards in the taproom” and “painting the almost 150 year-old 7 metre church walls.” The owners also shared via Facebook that their extension has been clad and that the necessary plumbing and electrical work has been completed.
