BrewDog’s $30m Brisbane Brewery Gets Green Light

Brisbane City Council has granted approval to Scottish craft brewer BrewDog for a $30 million brewery development in eastern Brisbane’s Murarrie which will produce 10 million litres of beer each year.

BrewDog submitted the application to council in March after deciding on Brisbane to be the home of its first Australian brewery.

The brewery development will be located at 77 Metroplex Avenue, and will include a production brewery, tap room and restaurant. The development would cover 28 per cent of the 15,340 square metre site.

One of the conditions of approval was for the food and drink shop element to be restricted to trade from 7am to midnight. The rest of the operation will be 24 hours.

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The application was considered code assessable and not requiring a period of public consultation though one objection was received.

BrewDog is preparing for a period of accelerated growth in the UK and internationally as the craft beer movement gathers steam.

The number of breweries in the UK has more than doubled from around 800 in 2010 to more than 2,000 last year, and craft beer now makes up 6.5 per cent of UK beer sales.

The Brisbane facility will be its third brewing facility after Columbus, Ohio and its headquarters in Ellon, Scotland.

BrewDog’s growth has been fuelled by its record-breaking “Equity for Punks” crowdfunding investment initiative, which has seen the brewery raise more than £55 million since 2009.

The brewer’s flagship beer Punk IPA has been the best-selling craft beer in the UK off-trade for the last three years.

“BrewDog’s decision to make Brisbane home is another vote of confidence in our city as a great place to live, work and invest, and will complement our strong local craft beer industry that includes Newstead Brewing and Green Beacon,” Lord Mayor Graham Quirk said.

“Not only will the site provide product Australia-wide, but the company has hinted at potential future export to New Zealand and Asia.”

The brewery is set to generate 150 jobs in the Brisbane area over the next five years, with approximately 60 jobs during construction.

The 3,250sq m facility will provide more than 100 car parking spaces and is expected to be completed later this year, ahead of production commencing in 2019.