BrewDog Brisbane Opens

November 21, 2019, by Will Ziebell

BrewDog Brisbane Opens

DogTap Brisbane officially launched earlier today, with the Scottish brewery donating earnings from their first day of trading to bushfire relief. The Queensland State Government also used the occasion to announce applications were now open for BrewLab: a facility local brewers can use for production and quality assurance.  

“This is a place where Queensland craft brewers can come and trial new beers, trial new recipes and use our equipment,” Cameron Dick, Minister for State Development, Manufacturing, Infrastructure and Planning, said as the long-mooted DogTap opened to the public for the first time.

BrewLab, which was originally slated to open by the end of this year, but is now scheduled for a 2020 launch, will be based at the Health and Food Sciences Precinct at Coopers Plains on Brisbane's fringe. The government also announced applications would soon be taken for a new TAFE course on brewing that will be run out of BrewLab. The Certificate III in Food Processing (Brewing) follows on from the popular course introduced in New South Wales in 2017 and another in South Australia.

As for BrewDog's DogTap venue, which will be followed by the opening of a brewery on the same site early next year, it's the biggest milestone yet since the Queensland government lured the Scottish brewery to Brisbane via its $150 million Advance Queensland Industry Attraction Fund, designed to attract investment and jobs to the state. BrewDog are reportedly investing $30 million on the Australian base and aim to have 100 people working at the Murarrie brewery within a year.

 

The DogTap in Brisbane, BrewDog's 94th venue.

 

Anyone who has ever been to a BrewDog bar overseas will find it instantly recognisable, with leather booths, games, arcade machines and gas fire pits. DogTap Brisbane is the brewery’s 94th venue, featuring 28 beer taps, including some from Queensland breweries.

Martin Dickie, who co-founded the brewery with James Watt in 2007, was in Brisbane for the launch and told us their immediate focus was on getting the brewery firing at the start of next year. Martin also signalled they were in the process of establishing an Australian Equity For Punks crowdfunding platform and would be looking to opening venues in other parts of the country in the near future.

“2020 in Australia for us is making sure we can get this facility running to a very high standard and get the beer tasting awesome,” he said. “And start getting the distribution stage right to get the beer out of here and into market, as well as starting to look where the next couple of bars can be.”

Reflecting on the arrival of the Scottish craft giants in Brisbane, the minister said: “BrewDog was coming to Australia, they made a decision to invest in Australia and the decision came down to two places: New South Wales or Queensland.

“And I’m so delighted that, once again, the Maroons beat the New South Wales Blues and secured BrewDog for Queensland.”


Will Ziebell was a guest of BrewDog in Brisbane.

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