KAIJU! Beer

It's well documented that the rise of craft beer and the popularity of hop forward beer styles have led to frequent hop shortages. Globally, the growers of certain New World varieties are unable to keep up with demand. And it's fair to say the situation could be far worse too.

How? Well, if every brewer in the world favoured the sort of hops to volume ratios beloved of KAIJU! brewer Nat Reeves, there wouldn't be a hop shortage. No, we'd be suffering the sort of hop famine that would make the seven-year stretch Joseph and his people suffered in Biblical times look like that day your local cafe ran out of egg and bacon muffins before you made it through the door.

Of all the new wave of brewers that love brewing hop-centric beers, KAIJU! went harder from the start than any other on the local scene: there isn't a beer on their lineup that isn't hopped to the Mikey Burton-drawn eyeballs (or, at least, there wasn't until they had plenty of runs on the board). Sure, they love lots of other things: Japanese movies, monsters, heroes, high alcohol beers, silliness – but they love hops more than anything.

It's an obsession that has stood them in good stead, and not just because many of the more hardcore of Australia's beer-drinking public are hop obsessed too. It helps that they know how to do it rather well. Their Hopped Out Red won an Australian International Beer Awards trophy before the brewing company was a year old, while they've picked up more golds there and at the Craft Beer Awards / Indies since.

As to the "they" that makes up KAIJU!, it's a core trio of Nat, brother Callum and his wife Clara, who started the Golden Axe cider brand together. Initially, they were called Monster Mash and operated as a gypsy brewer out of Cavalier. Then a certain energy drink company came calling and demanded they stop using the name Monster Mash, claiming it was similar to their name (something KAIJU! are now rather happy with), while, by 2015, they were established enough to start building their own premises. As a result, they now brew in Dandenong South, with Exit Brewing as permanent house guests, on a system that keeps on getting expanded and upgraded as the business grows, led by the runaway success of their Krush tropical pale ale.

As eye-catching as their beers is the packaging in which they come. It's the work of the aforementioned Mikey Burton, a New York based artist with whom Clara had always wanted to work in her other life as a game developer. He takes the trio's concepts – all inspired by their love of Japanese monster (kaiju) films and comics – and turns them into some of the best labels you'll find anywhere in the world. There's a developing story too: most labels feature kaiju but some are heroes (who battle kaiju), such as the one that adorned their Robohop golden IPA.

Look closely and you'll find other neat touches: the face and eyes of the monster on the Betelgeuse labels are formed by the constellation Orion where the star of the same name resides; where a beer is an imperial version of another in their range, look for the character from the smaller beer's label being monstered in some way. If it all sounds a bit daft, it is. But isn't fun an essential part of what makes craft beer so appealing?

If you notice one thing missing above, you'd be right: for the best part of a decade they operated without a venue of their own. As the 2010s drew to a close they set about fixing this, finding a warehouse unit in Huntingdale that suited their purposes, only for COVID to push things back somewhat. As of February 2022, however, their venue opened to the public.

It's called the KAIJU! Cantina (as much due to alliteration as any aspirations to be wantonly cantina-like) and while there are bold touches familiar to fans of the brewery – not least the stylised Melbourne cityscape adorning one corner, the hop-heavy mural in another, the 1960s Coaster bus, and the bright orange seating – it's also designed to be the sort of place you're as likely to visit with your family as your beer-chasing mates.

Light floods the joint (in the day, at least, of course) through the new wooden ceiling, shining upon their pilot brewery, tables and benches, booth seating, the odd succulent, and a long bar lined with 16 taps dedicated to their beers and cider. At the rear is the kitchen, where they specialise is really rather yummy pizzas – a mix of Italian classics and less common sights such as the Cheeseburger Pizza – created by a chef with two decades in the game.

It might have taken them close to ten years to welcome guests into a home of their own, but we're pretty sure you'll find it worth the wait.

Team photos and jousting photo above copyright Amy Whitfield

Name
KAIJU! Beer
Address

27 Hume Street
Huntingdale
VIC 3166

Phone
(03) 9706 5924

This is a directory listing. To find out more, head here

KAIJU! Beer Regulars

KAIJU! Pleazure Kruze

Published November 23, 2022
When KAIJU! threw open the doors to their Huntingdale Cantina, part of the plan was the use the brewpub as a place to showcase small-batch, venue-only beers. The very such first beer to make an appearance there was Pleazure Kruze, which was also their first stab at a hazy pale. The beer, which was based around a combo of Amarillo, Nelson Sauvin, Citra, El Dorado, Mosaic and Galaxy hops, clearly proved a hit as it's already outgrown the Cantina – and then some, with the beer set for a nationwide… Read more
Style
Hazy Pale Ale
ABV
4.8%

Coaster Beer

Published December 7, 2021
As many of the country's craft brewers look to entice more drinkers away from mainstream brands, we're seeing a growing number of easy-drinkers with sharp price points hitting retailers. And, as of summer 2021/22, you can add South East Brewing Co to that band of brewers. If the name doesn't sound familiar, their other brands will, as they're the folks behind KAIJU! beers and Golden Axe Cider. It shouldn't take too much detective work to figure out what they have in mind with Coaster Beer either.… Read more
Style
Bright Ale
ABV
4.2%

KAIJU! Cthulhu On The Moon Black IPA

Published April 7, 2021
Given they launched themselves into the Aussie beer scene with beers that – at the time, at least – would have been one-off or seasonal releases for most of their peers, it's quite striking how infrequently KAIJU! release one-off beers themselves. Sure, there's a few that appear only in kegs each year, and fewer still that appear in cans, such as their Mutation Program beers, but for the most part they keep themselves happy (and growing in volume) with a pretty tight lineup, which makes revisiting… Read more
Style
Black IPA
ABV
6.5%
Stockists

Available nationwide

KAIJU! Paradise Pils

Published December 6, 2018
A lager from KAIJU!?! Look, we know the beer world is twisting itself into every weirder contortions, but, seriously? Well, yes. And, as with many things lager-related, you can blame the Czechs. It was on a trip to Europe that notorious US hop fiend Nat Reeves, one of the founders and head brewer at the Dandenong brewery, had an epiphany drinking unfiltered kellerbiers at the likes of Pilsner Urquell and returned to Australia set upon developing such a beer, albeit with a KAIJU! twist. Various trials… Read more
Style
New World Pilsner
ABV
4.7%

KAIJU! Beer Aftermath Double IPA (Can)

Published June 10, 2017
Aftermath is the beer that announced, in no uncertain terms, that there was a new hop fiend on the scene. However you look at it, opening your account with a 9.1 percent ABV "ludicrously hopped" double IPA is a bold statement. It was one that was noticed by Aussie beer lovers, particularly as – then under the Monster Mash banner – the KAIJU! crew managed to deliver their ludicrous hop barrage with a meaty enough backbone of malt and booze to keep it together. As is usually head brewer… Read more
Style
Double IPA
ABV
9.1%

KAIJU! Krush Tropical Pale Ale

Published December 5, 2016
Well, the 'Sup's sunrise carpet is going to be more colourful at this year's Meredith than ever before... Yes, another day, another Aussie craft brewer with a beer in can, as Mr East Coast Canning continues to wear ruts into the roads between Brisbane and Melbourne. Yet, when the results are as colourful as this first KAIJU! can, bring 'em on! Provided they don't attract the ire of the makers of Candy Crush like they did the lawyers employed by Monster energy drink in their first guise, one assumes… Read more
Style
Pale Ale
ABV
4.7%

KAIJU! Beer Hopped Out Red

If their debut beer, the double IPA, caught the attention of the country's beer geeks from their very earliest days, the arrival of the Hopped Our Red helped bring the Reeves' clans talents to a wider audience. Less than a year after launching their brewing company, they were called to the stage to collect a trophy for this beer at the Australian International Beer Awards. As the name suggests, it's another beer in which hops are very much to the fore, albeit with the malt characters – toffee,… Read more
Style
Red Ale
ABV
6.4%

KAIJU! Beer Cthulu On The Moon

When we invited KAIJU! to be one of the guest breweries at the 2015 Good Beer Week World of Beer Masterclass, alongside Hawkers, Edge, Evil Twin and Baird Beer, it was this beer that we chose for their Q&A session with attendees. There was a bit of personal preference involved as it's our favourite from the brewery's lineup, while it was also coming off the back of a gold medal at the Craft Beer Awards. What we didn't realise until the Q&A is that it's also the least hoppy beer they brew. That… Read more
Style
Black IPA
ABV
6.5%
Awards

Gold Medal – CBA Craft Beer Awards 2014
Gold Medal – AIBA 2016

KAIJU! Beer Where Strides The Behemoth

It's well known that KAIJU! like to throw lots of hops at beers. Equally, to ensure they're drinkable rather than the liquid equivalent of licking the inside of a hop flower, they have to ensure there's plenty of malt and alcohol there too. And Where Strides The Behemoth is a beer in which it's fair to say there's lots of everything – then a bit more on top – at play. It's tagged as a Double India Black Ale, so kind of a bigger, beastlier brother to Cthulu's black IPA, which means it's very black,… Read more
Style
Double India Black Ale
ABV
10.8%

KAIJU! Beer Metamorphosis IPA

When Fixation Brewing Co appeared on the scene late in 2015 and announced that it was going to brew and release nothing but IPAs, there was at least one voice from the beer world that piped up to say KAIJU! was already doing just that. And while the brothers Reeves might not have slapped the IPA tag on all of their beers, there's certainly an argument to be made for that case. That said, it's the Metamorphosis that is the beer they regard as the most IPA of their beers, the junior in the ranks to… Read more
Style
IPA
ABV
6.7%

KAIJU! Beer Robohop Golden IPA

After establishing their name as one synonymous with hops, Japanese monsters and, frequently, steepling levels of booze, KAIJU! decided they should probably have a beer in their lineup that was a little more approachable. One that could be consumed in rather greater numbers. It's something you see from pretty much every brewery at some point, no matter how out there their schtick. Yet, with KAIJU!, approachable still means only a notch or three under the 6 percent ABV mark. Robohop is that beer –… Read more
Style
IPA
ABV
5.7%

KAIJU! Beer Specials

KAIJU! Beer Hypermeta Hazy IPA

Published May 15, 2023
While there are exceptions that prove the rule, there's a fair bet in 2023 that if you come across a hazy IPA / NEIPA, you'll find something on the fruity and sweet side, while crystal clear West Coast IPAs are often deeper and danker. KAIJU!'s Hypermeta IPA – a Dan Murphy's exclusive complete with new kaiju on the cans: the feminine Floramotharadon – pours hazy and certainly suggests it's going to fall into the fruity, sweet camp: "tropical flavours of guava, pineapple, mango, and melon"… Read more
Style
Hazy IPA
ABV
5.8%

KAIJU! Mutation Program: Dank Lord Vol.1 & The Situation

Published March 3, 2023
KAIJU!’s Mutation Program of limited releases has itself mutated, with the series getting a fresh new look. The new style comes courtesy of the design agency TRiC and taps into a healthy dose of sci-fi nostalgia with Tron, Isaac Asimov book covers, Stranger Things and Choose Your Own Adventure all where my mind went. So while they might not feature monsters or actual mutants, as these first two cans show, it's a look that remains unmistakably KAIJU-esque. In particular, #0012 couldn't be more of… Read more
Style
West Coast IPA & Hazy Double IPA
ABV
6.2% & 7.5%

KAIJU! & Dr Colossus The Dank Shelbyville IPA

Published October 17, 2022
A week or two before receiving this collab with Dr Colossus – brewed to mark the fifth anniversary of The Simpsons stoner rockers' album, The Dank – I'd sampled another IPA from KAIJU! Immortal Jellyfish was a hazy which felt "like something of a counterpoint to the sort of IPAs upon which they built their reputation; sweeter rather than dry and bitter". Who'd have thought the return to type would come so soon? With The Dank – tagged a Shelbyville IPA and wrapped in the album's moody… Read more
Style
West Coast IPA
ABV
7.0%

KAIJU! Mutation Program #0009: Immortal Jellyfish

Published October 12, 2022
A nigh-on 8 percent ABV IPA crammed with hops? Sounds pretty much exactly like the beer you'd expect to pick up from KAIJU!, no? You might think so, yet the ninth release in their Mutation Program feels like something of a counterpoint to the sort of IPAs upon which they built their reputation: for one, it's sweeter rather than dry and bitter. Sure, this is a hazy IPA that, appearance-wise, is at the gentler end of the spectrum but it's also one that presents rather fuller in terms of body and experience.… Read more
Style
Hazy IPA
ABV
7.7%

KAIJU! Mutation Program: Space Lord NEIPA & Dopesmoker WCIPA

Published July 24, 2022
There's much that's familiar and plenty that's new in this twin release from KAIJU! – a twin release that really is a twin release. First, the familiar: the beers are both IPAs, a KAIJU! specialty, and are among the most hop-laden they've brewed. As for the new, it's the way they're coming at you: one of their Brisbane team members, George Levi (who you may well have read on these pages before) is also a multifaceted artist and here has been commissioned to create a subtly beer-themed dystopian… Read more
Style
NEIPA & West Coast IPA
ABV
6.0% & 6.2%

KAIJU! Beer Hopped Out Red 2022

Published June 10, 2022
As welcomes go, my reacquaintance with Hopped Out Red after a three year absence was a good one. No sooner had I swirled the dark ruddy red liquid in my goblet and shoved my nose in than I was emitting an involuntary: "Oh god!" Don't worry – there's nowt wrong with it. I'd just forgotten what a punch the second beer ever released by KAIJU! (before they were KAIJU!) packs. And this time around – its first in three years – it's a slightly altered beast too, with Galaxy hops added to… Read more
Style
Hoppy Red Ale
ABV
6.5%

KAIJU! Pleazure Kruze

Published February 9, 2022
When they finally opened the doors to their home in Melbourne's southeast in which to entertain guests – the KAIJU! Cantina – the brewers have set about creating a selection of venue-only beers too. The first of those to hit taps is Pleazure Kruze, which represents their entry into the increasingly-popular hazy pale space. Take a look at the hops in the mix – Amarillo, Nelson Sauvin, Citra, El Dorado, Mosaic and Galaxy – and you might suspect it's been given the sort of potency of the IPAs… Read more
Style
Hazy Pale Ale
ABV
5.3%
Stockists

Available on tap at the KAIJU! Cantina

KAIJU! Mutation Program #006: Beyond The Black River

Published September 14, 2021
It’s been a long time between drinks for KAIJU’s experimental Mutation Program but, as far as excuses for tardiness go, the brewery have an awfully good one. They’ve been busy. Very busy in fact, with the brewery not just expanding their own capacity but working hard to get their Huntingdale home finished so they can be pouring pints when they are allowed. You can read all about those plans here but, with that expansion now ticking along smoothly, the brewery’s Mutation Program can now be… Read more
Style
Barrel-Aged Stout
ABV
11.0%

KAIJU! Betelgeuse & Where Strides The Behemoth 2020

Published September 7, 2020
If a Melbourne-based brewery wanted to pick a time to launch two of their biggest beers side by side, the weekend on which the city was told to brace itself for another 50 days of curfew and stringent lockdown is about as timely as you could wish for. So thanks, KAIJU!, for providing your fellow city-dwellers with this one-two punch. Neither is a new release, but neither is seen in the wild much either; indeed, in the case of Betelgeuse – the imperial version of their Hopped Out Red – this is… Read more
Style
Imperial Red Ale & Imperial Black IPA
ABV
10.0% & 10.5%
Bitterness
90 IBU & 125 IBU

KAIJU! & Thin Man Brewery Mortal Wombat IPA

Published July 24, 2020
With borders closed and COVID-19 running rife through much of the planet, it's not really an ideal time to be creating an international collaboration. But if the pandemic has proven one thing it's that brewers are a bloody resourceful bunch. Thus it was that, following an introduction by a member of the Collective Arts team in Brooklyn, a couple of nights out and ongoing conversations, KAIJU! and New York State's Thin Man brewery came to brew Mortal Wombat, a hazy IPA featuring Aussie Galaxy and… Read more
Style
Hazy IPA
ABV
7.0%
Bitterness
45 IBU

KAIJU! Mutation Program #005: Demon Cleaner

Published May 14, 2020
Oh, how times change... It's pretty much wired into the modern beer lover's system to pick up an IPA and know they'll be met by some combination of tropical fruit salad, sweet, freshly squeezed brekkie juice, candied lollies, and maybe a dash of beach bar cocktail. The one-two punch of jab at the olfactory system followed by swift left hook to the palate of yore has seemingly been lost in a rush to the juice bar. There are still occasional exceptions, however. And KAIJU! are the sort of brewery to… Read more
Style
West Coast IPA
ABV
7.6%
Bitterness
76 IBU
Stockists

Leaving the brewery from mid-May...

KAIJU! & Blackhearts & Sparrows Signal Sun IPA

Published December 3, 2019
Blackhearts & Sparrows are having quite the time when it comes to creating collabs with local brewers. For the most part, they've had something a little funky or sour about them, but the team behind the ever-growing indie retail empire have been known to play with hops too, and that's where they head here in the company of KAIJU!, a brewery that knows a thing or two about the little green treasures. Signal Sun is tagged a session or "sessionable" IPA yet sits a little above many beers… Read more
Style
Session IPA
ABV
5.5%

KAIJU! Mutation Program #0004: Hyperborea Hazy

Published October 5, 2019
For all the very many IPA variants and other highly hopped releases KAIJU! have released since launching with a double IPA (as Monster Mash), they've proven rather resistant to the lure of the hazier side of things. Until now, at least, with the fourth release in their Mutation Program series: Hyporea Hazy, which uses the Conan yeast strain found in The Alchemist's genre-defining Heady Topper plus flaked oats and wheat in its mission to cloudy up the liquid in your glass. That said, it's not actually… Read more
Style
IPA
ABV
6.1%

KAIJU! Mutation Series: Main Squeeze

Published December 6, 2018
Now their pilot brewery is up and running, KAIJU! has launched the Mutation Program, a series of 300 and 600 litre batches of beers that may or may come back in greater volume down the line. Initially, however, they'll only see the light in tiny runs of 30 or less cases plus a few kegs dotted around the country. Or, in the case of the first one, Main Squeeze, inside the Carwyn Cellars advent calendar too. Recipients of the calendars will have cracked theirs at the weekend. For anyone else who can… Read more
Style
Tropical Session Ale
ABV
3.2%
Stockists

Netherworld

And select good beer venues in VIC, NSW & QLD

KAIJU! & The Empress Movember-Jito Sour

Published November 7, 2018
Each year Movember sees tens of thousands of men across the planet attempt to grow moustaches for a month while raising money and awareness around important men’s health issues, including prostate cancer and mental health. Many in the hospitality world have embraced the fundraiser with fervour, so fear not when you see your local barista or bartender with a strip of fur across their upper lip for the rest of the month. Playing their part in the cause, North Fitzroy’s Empress Hotel and KAIJU!… Read more
Style
Lime & Molasses Sour
ABV
4.2%

KAIJU! & Breakside & The Catfish Peregrination IPA

Published July 7, 2017
Portland's Breakside Brewery was among the cohort from the US city that travelled to Melbourne for the most recent Good Beer Week. While in Australia, brewer Ben Edmunds joined forces with KAIJU! and the team from The Catfish in putting down a collaboration brew. It was a reimagining of his brewery's Wanderlust IPA, a serial medal winner that in its original form is a showcase for hops from Breakside's home region, Northwest USA. For this version, those hops were swapped out for Aussies. The result… Read more
Style
Australian IPA
Stockists

Other stockists to follow post launch

KAIJU! & Exit Schopsh II

Published June 24, 2016
The chaps at KAIJU! Beer and Exit Brewing have always got on well, so well in fact that they moved in together, with the latter becoming house guests at the former's new brewery in Dandenong South. Last year, they consummated their relationship with Schopsh, a beer that took a beer style Exit love, a smoky Scotch Ale, and added lots of the hops with which KAIJU! are synonymous. It's not the most common of combinations; indeed, we recall a conversation with former Temple Brewing man Ron Feruglio… Read more
Style
Hoppy Scotch Ale
ABV
6.5%
Stockists

Other stockists TBC

KAIJU! Beer Compendium

Published June 1, 2016
A compendium is a collection of things. And, in the case of KAIJU!'s 2016 GABS beer, it's a collection of many of the things they love: hops, malt (seven varieties) and booze. But this time there's a new (at least for them in the commercial sense) thing too: the addition of a Belgian Abbey yeast for added fruitiness. As a result, they're calling it a Monastic Red IPA and have slapped a robot monk on the label (becoming the second hero, as opposed to kaiju, to appear on a KAIJU! label). As with their… Read more
Style
Belgian Red IPA
ABV
7.2%