Shaun Lockwood has swapped childcare for beer in his latest business venture

SOME say children can drive you to drink ... but for businessman Shaun Lockwood the move from childcare to the brewing industry is all about seeing – and seizing — an opportunity.

Shaun Lockwood is hoping he will be toasting his success in this new craft-brewing venture.

HE’S pivoted from childcare to beer and, given the stress of looking after the little ones, we can hardly blame him.

Brisbane bizoid Shaun Lockwood has ambitious plans to surf in on the craft beer craze but with a big point of difference.

He’s aiming to build a $15 million complex at an industrial estate in Morningside and trade under the banner of Brisbane Brew Partners.

It’s not a pub but, rather, an incubator that will allow aspiring backyard brewers or existing brewers needing more capacity a place where they can make their ales, lagers and pilseners.

Hospitality chains looking for their own beer brands or festival organisers seeking an event-specific tipple will also be able to get a piece of the action.

Illustration of Shaun Lockwood by Brett Lethbridge

There are, of course, other smaller outlets around town that offer the same service, including Brews Brothers at Woolloongabba. But Brisbane Brews Partners, which hopes to open in December, is a significantly bigger proposition.

If approved, it will feature a brewhouse, fermenters and tanks for single and double batches, a full lab for quality control and extra-large cool room for storage. Packaging options will include kegs, bottle and cans. “The unique thing about Brisbane Brew Partners is that our brewers will be partners with us. We want to incubate them,’’ said Lockwood, a 49-year-old Pom who founded the Beyond Childcare group in 2012.

“A lot of contract brewers choose to brew at other people’s breweries because they can’t afford to build their own brewery. Once they grow they usually outgrow the brewery they started brewing with. We can guarantee them the capacity and give them the confidence to focus on selling beer.”

“The other service we will offer will be to existing interstate brewers to brew their recipes in Queensland for the Queensland market. Freight costs a lot to move beer cold and keep it fresh. If interstate breweries want to supply Queensland customers without shipping their beer around the country they can brew 40 kegs with us and get the freshest beer possible into the Queensland market.”

WAITING TO GO

LOCKWOOD is now awaiting approval of his development application to build the project on a now-vacant property at the corner of Lytton and Colmslie roads.

It’s part of the Colmslie Business Park, a 27.5ha former Mobile refinery site acquired by wealthy developer Balfour Irvine and his BMI Group three years ago for about $20 million. The riverfront acreage site, one of the last parcels of undeveloped land in the heart of the Australia TradeCoast precinct, has been the subject of several ill-fated development projects in the past.

Don O’Rorke’s Consolidated Properties had it under contract for $45.1 million back in 2006 but the deal fell over. So too with property tycoon Kevin Seymour, who walked away from a $20 million contract on the site in 2012 after he did a spot of due diligence.

FAKE NEWS

WITH coking coal prices spiking above the $US200 mark, it’s no wonder there were plenty of smiles among attendees at the Energy Mines and Money conference which kicked off in Brisbane yesterday.

American miner Ernie Thrasher, the boss of XCoal, even told the gathering that the supposed death of coal was nothing more than “fake news’’.

Earlier, Queensland’s Resources Investment Commissioner Todd Harrington confessed he had asked his “good friend’’ Siri on his iPhone “what best describes Queensland resources?’’. The answer? “Steel ingredient, renewable ingredient plus abundant energy’’.

City Beat asked Siri the same question and she came back with a link for the Queensland Resources Council.