SA craft brewers Big Shed set to move into bigger site and quadruple production
WHAT started as brewing beer in a rented shed has turned into big business for Jason Harris and Craig Basford. Now their Big Shed Brewing Concern is set to get even bigger.
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LOCAL craft beer producer, Big Shed Brewing Concern, is getting bigger. Much bigger.
The four-year-old company has unveiled a plan to move into a 3500sq m premises that will also seat up to 300 people for drinks, food and live music.
The new 50-hectolitre, four-vessel brewery will allow production to increase from around 225,000 litres per year to one million, eventually increasing to three million.
And in a nice little employment boost, staff numbers will multiply from around seven to more than 30. The new site is yet to be confirmed but likely to still be in Royal Park.
“We’re surprised,” co-founder and director Jason Harris said of Big Shed’s fast growth.
“We never really expected to be four years in — this is our fifth year — still doing it. It proves a point that we had to go and do something.”
Mr Harris and his business partner Craig Basford had been making beer in a rented shed for around a decade before they decided to open a micro brewery at the end of 2013.
Big Shed soon became a name on every craft beer lover’s lips, with early creations such as FrankenBROWN American brown ale, and F-Yeah American Pale Ale. The boys now boast seven regular beers in the range and have just released — and already sold out of — their first batch of Golden Stout Time vodka. They’ve just bottled another round.
Food options have also evolved over the years into a full line-up of burgers and bar snacks.
At the new site, a 200-300 seat venue will sit adjacent the brewery, where food, beer and entertainment will “share the limelight”.
“There will be a live music stage, beer garden, wood-fired pizza oven and a ‘low and slow’ style smoker to make it a proper destination,” Mr Harris said, adding that they’d also be able to host large functions.
The crafty duo are doing all this with help from the State Government, which is providing a $50,000 grant and $1 million loan to get the project off the ground. The total cost of the project is estimated at $2.5 million.
Mr Harris and Mr Basford also plan to keep the current Brandwood St, Royal Park site, to assist up-and-coming brewers.
“It will be a contract brewing incubator, to help little people who have a dream ... using our equipment and (with) our staff supervising,” Mr Harris said.
“There was no one to help us like this with small batches when we started. The aim is to give someone else the opportunity to crank out some small batches in a proven environment.”
Big Shed’s announcement further demonstrates the growing success of SA’s craft beer scene. It follows the recent take over of fellow craft brewers, Pirate Life, by the world’s biggest beer company AB In Bev, and the opening of Coopers’ new $65 malting plant at Regency Park.
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