Big Rocks Brewery to open Fitzroy River overlook location in 2023

A Central Queensland couple has shared their plans to open a new craft brewery in a former warehouse building on Quay Street. Full details here.

CHEERS: Ben and Jess Kirby cheers to their new brewery building.

A schooner of beer and a slice of gourmet pizza while overlooking the Fitzroy River - that is Ben and Jess Kirby’s vision for their new business venture, Big Rocks Brewery.

The couple purchased the former PJ Evans building at 304 Quay Street earlier this year.

A huge warehouse building, there is 1500 sqm of space over two levels and it overlooks the river.

The former PJ Evans warehouse building will be transformed into a brewery.

The Kirbys plan to transform the main downstairs floor into the “pub” area with an in-house brewery, bar, keg tables and lounges.

There will also be a kids playroom and the former office space will be renovated into the kitchen where Jess will cook her famous gourmet pizzas.

With an Italian heritage, Jess has been practising and finessing what pizzas they will be offering and they hope to expand the menu down the track.

The second floor of the building will be transformed into a function space in years down the track.

Down the track, in a few years, they hope to make the second level upstairs a function area for weddings and events.

As for the brewery side, it has been more than a decade in the making.

Ben started to experiment with home brew after their first child was born, as a way to save money.

“I was doing kit beers and I could never get them to where I wanted them to be. Then I started to do all grain brewing,” Ben said.

Feeling inspired, he looked to get a formal education and ended up flying to Melbourne and did a master brewers’ course with the head brewer of Fat Yak, a prominent Australian specialty craft beer company.

Then Ben started formulating recipes and putting his beer-creations in competitions and got some strong results.

He came first, second and third in the 2018 state titles which qualified him for the Australian titles of which he missed the podium and got a fourth.

He also won some other smaller competitions and this put a pep in his step to get serious about opening a business.

Ben and Jess Kirby are looking forward to opening their brewery, Big Rocks Brewing.

To help out with the business side, Ben undertook a certificate four in small business management.

Each time he had to do a new assignment he had a different name for the brewery.

Eventually the couple settled on Big Rocks Brewing, a nod to the location and connection of the rocks and river.

The couple had been looking for a venue for about a year, so many were just too small or didn’t fit the bill.

The railway line used to go into the old riverfront building.

That was until the PJ Evans building came up for sale - it was perfect straight away.

“The character, the position, right in the CBD, across the road from the river, it has a warmth to it,” Ben said.

From here they will move through some council approvals and then get stuck into serious renovations.

“Cutting out the section of the floor, putting the suspended concrete slab, ordering and installing equipment, putting in drainage, fitting out the kitchen, sand back all the posts, just clean up the building, the floor, renovate the bathrooms, build the bar, put in big fans,” Ben said.

They hope to be up and running in mid-2023 but this is all subject to change.

“It’s going to be great for the community, I think Rockhampton will love it,” Ben said.

“We think it will be a tourist attraction, bring tourists to the region.”

The vibe will be “easy, casual, fun and live music”.

“It’s going to be a family venue, we are going to have a huge kids play area, bring back vintage arcade machines and that sort of stuff,” Ben said.

And of course, the main attraction will be the beer menu.

“All of our beers are about drinkability and balance, and made for the Central Queensland climate,” Ben said.

Jess and Ben Kirby out the front of their new business venture, Big Rocks Brewing.

Ben has a range of at least 15 beers he is working on from a pale ale, IPA, hazy IPA, double IPA, a lot of lagers, an ale with lager characteristics, German lager beers, Australian ale from Australian ingredients, a British golden ale.

“I’m continually learning about beer and the beer landscape is continually changing … there are new styles coming up all the time,” he said.

“A lot of breweries do a core range, we don’t necessarily want to do that, we want to see what Rockhampton wants to drink and go with that.”

They will have a main system for the beers that are selling well and a smaller system for experimenting.

“We will bring out special release beers, we could get a cider, ginger beer or a seltzer,” Ben said.

And there will be a beer for everyone.

“A lot of ladies say they don’t drink beer, give them a passionfruit sour, they say it doesn’t even taste like beer … it’s really easy to drink,” Ben said.

“We love beer, beer is fun and we just want to guide peoples palettes through the wide range of wonderful beer that are available, not just the mass produced stuff.”