Beer boom: Newstead brewer to ramp up production 500 per cent

Two blokes who started a Brisbane craft brewery as a “bit of a joke’’ now hope to brew one million litres a year — enough to part-fill an Olympic pool.

Forget about lockdowns, despite a horror 12 months the founders of Newstead’s Range Brewing have applied to ramp up production a whopping 500 per cent.

Range masterminds, Matt McIver and Gerard Martin, have applied to Council for a Development Approval for Change to increase their 200,000 litre a year output to one million litres a year.

Mr McIver said the extra beer would be sold overseas, interstate to their second outlet in Melbourne and locally.

They sold their first shipment to China recently and more shipments are in transit (at timeof writing) to China and Japan.

The pair also are close to starting a “face lift’’ of their Byres St brewery and shopfront.

Mr McIver said they could have packed it out every week were it not for strict Covid crowd limits.

The sour ale raspberry kiwi at Range Brewing in Newstead. Picture: Tara Croser

“We’re only allowed 60 people inside even though we can accommodate 150,’’ he said.

“On Friday nights we have people waiting in line outside to get in.’’

Victoria’s seemingly never-ending lockdowns have hit their Melbourne shopfront much harder.

“It’s never been able to reach its full potential, but hopefully that will change,’’ he said.

“We’re also hoping to open another venue at the end of the year or next year.’’

Mr McIver, who said it was too early to announce the location of that venue, said despite the big uptick in production they had no plans for new beer lines.

In fact, Range was one of Australia’s first microbreweries to specialise in not specialising.

“We pretty continually release three to four different beers a week,’’ Mr McIver said.

“We’ve always made new beers week to week and were one of the first in Brisbane, and Australia, to do that.’’

Range Brewing's facility in Newstead.

In a bid to keep costs under control, Martin and his father did a lot of the construction work and even made the furniture which filled the centre of the venue. Tradie mates also helped out.

Patrons sit at long share tables, which are next to a row of stainless steel brewing tanks and a bar with 10 taps pouring a mix of ales, IPAs, pilseners and other brews.

Mr McIver said the inspiration came from their travels in Copenhagen and elsewhere in Scandinavia, where simple yet functional design abounds.

The development application said the “proposed use of the site is considered entirely suitable for the area given the low impacts from the brewing process with respect to air emissions and noise’’.

“While a High Impact Industry Use due to the volume of beer to be brewed, the emissions from the process have been assessed and found to be far lower than the requisite thresholds at nearby sensitive receiving sites.

“The air quality report has been undertaken on site assessment of actual emissions, allowing it to model the impacts of the brewing process in detail for the local area.

“The noise from the industrial processes is far below the applicable thresholds and is suitable for the area.

“Brewing occurs after 7am, ensuring all noise emissions from the process are contained within daytime hours.

“Range have undertaken investigations that demonstrate they can increase capacity in the Newstead brewery to up to 800,000l/yr with existing equipment.

“Increases will largely be undertaken through increasing the number of days that brewing occurs, and increasing the number of brews per day.’’

More details can be found on Council’s development application portal, developmenti. search for 2-4 Byres St or application number A005799772