As The International Hotel closes this weekend, Archer Brewery thinks of its future

On the eve of the launch of an all-Queensland beer, a popular Brisbane brewery faces homelessness as their homebase pub closes down. Will a home be found for the beer (makers) with no pub?

The International Hotel, Spring Hill, is for sale, but will close up this weekend.

ARCHER Brewing’s newest beer may be “the first-ever commercially sold beer made with 100 per cent Queensland ingredients”, but it’s going to be a beer with no pub.

The company is headquartered at The International Hotel, Spring Hill, where the brewing team have been creating their Queensland Pale Ale — or QPA — which they will launch tomorrow night at the Mill on Constance, Fortitude Valley. The event, at 6pm, is at the Mill because The International will close down this weekend.

Several attempts to contact hotel management were unsuccessful, although inquiries to the hotel did confirm that Saturday would be the last trading day.

The hotel, at 525 Boundary St, Spring Hill, was put on the market by owners The International in October last year. Expressions of interest closed on November 22. Marketing for the property, by CBRE, states that it has a development approval to build up to 10-15 storeys on the 1745 sqm corner site’s DC1 Zoning under the new Spring Hill Neighbourhood Plan.

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Archer Brewing is creating the first-ever commercially sold beer made with 100% Queensland ingredients, the QPA, or Queensland Pale Ale. It is launching at the Mill on Constance on the February 21 at 6pm.

The brewery was headquartered at “Archer’s Bunker”, an underground bar accessed via a secret doors from the hotel interior and bottle shop fridge. The bunker will also close.

Archer Brewing co-owner Lucy Martin said the company did most of the brewing at the International using equipment loaned to them by the hotel, an arrangement which would continue for the immediate future.

“Nothing is written in stone as yet,” she said of plans to find a permanent new home. “We have our own cold stores, and we do brew at other sites, so nothing will change in relation to that (side of the business).

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“We had been thinking about building our own facility, so this just pushes us a little bit faster, which is good for the business. There are a lot of good things on the horizon, we are not impacted by the International closing at all.”

She said the popular trivia nights had moved permanently to Mill on Constance, although a planned event involving patrons’ pet dogs had to be cancelled.

Tomorrow night’s QPA launch will see beer lovers try an all-Queensland brew.

Collecting ingredients for Archer Brewing’s first-ever commercially sold beer made with 100% Queensland ingredients, the QPA, or Queensland Pale Ale. It is launching at the Mill on Constance on the February 21 at 6pm.

“When brewing beer, there are four main ingredients used, and these are hops, malt, water and yeast,” Ms Martin said. “So we have gathered four ingredients as locally as possible, in this case, all within 130km of the brewery. The water came from SEQ-Water’s desalination plant in the Gold Coast, the malt was harvested from Queensland farms and malted Barrett Burston Malting in Pinkenba, the hops were from Hilltop Hops Farm in Hemmant and the yeast was from Mauri Yeast in Toowoomba.

Archer brewery beer PICTURE: ARCHER BREWERY

“We travelled to each of their factories/farms to meet the makers and even helped pick the hops. These ingredients were all brought back to the brewery in Spring Hill, with the hops added to the beer on arrival, keeping it as fresh as possible.

“The hardest thing to source was the yeast, but Mauri has only just started to produce commercial beer yeast, as well as it’s baker’s yeast, so it was a match made in heaven for us.

“Archer Brewing which is independently owned, already uses 100% Australian ingredients, our ambition has always been to source and use ingredients made as locally as possible, both to reduce our carbon footprint and to celebrate this beautiful state and its produce.”

City North News has contacted and left messages with The International Hotel management. They have, as yet, not responded.