BrewDog to open Australia’s first beer hotel in Brisbane

They’ve been a trailblazer in the craft beer world, now a Brisbane brewery is set to launch a hotel dedicated to the liquid gold – even boasting beer soap and shower fridges.

Australia is set to welcome its first beer hotel right here in Brisbane.

Trailblazing Scottish-founded brewery BrewDog plans to launch a unique four-storey, 730sq m hotel on vacant land next to its brewing facilities and taproom in Murarrie, in Brisbane’s east.

The river-fronting venture known as The DogHouse Brisbane will boast 30 rooms, each themed on a different BrewDog beer, and contain a beer fridge in the shower so guests can enjoy a frothie while they clean up.

Ed Bott and Calvin McDonald from BrewDog at the site next to their brewery where their first beer hotel will be built in Murarrie. Picture: Liam Kidston

The hotel’s soaps and body washes will all contain beer, the mini bars will be loaded with craft from across the world, while the high-end BrewMaster suites will be akin to a small apartment, featuring a beer tap so visitors can drink draught brews in their room.

Each room will come with a fully stocked mini bar full of craft beer from around the world.

“Our main goal here is to make this pretty much the best beer campus in the southern hemisphere,” said Calvin McDonald, BrewDog’s Head of Australian Operations.

“We started out on a good trajectory with the success of the brewery and the tap room and then you add a hotel into that and hopefully we can use some of the space to make a small beer museum.

A room at The DogHouse in Ohio, which the Brisbane hotel will be based on.

The tourism aspect we can offer is probably one of the more unique selling points in terms of being a global brand that people will travel to go and see.”

A room at The DogHouse in Ohio, which the Brisbane hotel will be based on.

This will be only the second beer hotel for the brand, with its first in Ohio in America.

“For people who want to come here and maybe stay somewhere a little bit different that you can’t do anywhere else in the world pretty much, we think it would be an amazing thing for Brisbane to have,” Mr McDonald said.

To finance the project, the Australian-owned arm of BrewDog is currently running a crowd-funding initiative, Equity for Punks, giving Aussie beer drinkers the opportunity to own a slice of their own brewery.

An example of the beer fridge in the shower at The DogHouse Brisbane.

More than 845 investors have currently raised in excess of $570,000 with the funds to also go towards sustainability projects, and expansion of the brand across Australia.

The Murarrie facility will be extended with a new mezzanine level and function spaces, bringing the outlet’s total capacity to about 800; while a new 400-seat taproom is planned for Brisbane’s city centre, with an exact location still to be locked down. Both hope to be operational by the end of the year, before further expansion into Melbourne, Perth and Auckland.

The Murarrie brewery will also ramp up its alcohol-free beer production using the investor capital, buying a pasteurising machine to make three styles of booze-less beer to suit surging demands across the country.

The alcohol-free range hopes to be on shelves by Christmas, while the hotel is set to open next year.