Mayne Street Brewing launches $80k fundraiser to open Chinchilla brewery

Four science teachers are transforming Chinchilla's historic newspaper building into a brewery and have launched a novel fundraising campaign to complete construction.

The team behind Chinchilla's Mayne Street Brewing as they prepare to open to beer lovers of the Western Downs. Photo: Facebook.

Four teachers with a passion for science and beer have been hard at work getting Chinchilla’s second brewery open to the public and are now calling on donations to get them over the line.

Under construction in the former Chinchilla News building, Mayne Street Brewing will seek to maintain the building’s historical heritage while producing delicious beers and boosting the town’s tourism potential.

Teachers Brad Hubbard, Brian Hobson, Glen Ivers and Steve Johnson initially formed as a beer brewing social club based in a vacant convent next door to St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School before deciding to open up a place of their own.

Mayne Street Brewing are running a buy a brick fundraiser.

Inspired by the exposed brick wall within Mayne Street Brewing, the team decided to run a Buy a Brick fundraiser to help fund costs of construction.

“We are running a bit short of funds so we will be running a Buy a Brick campaign to raise some capital to get us through the final stage and get it open to the public,” chemistry teacher Brian Hobson said.

“We have this lovely brick wall and we are going for that intimate warm community feel, the idea came up that we would invite people to buy a brick for $50 and build the foundations of our community brewery.

“You will get your name recognised on a plaque and entry into a raffle.

“We would like to raise between $50,000 and $80,000, we ourselves are prepared to invest a bit of our money in it because we are quite excited about how things are going and we are getting a lot of positive feedback from the community.”

Mr Hobson said they were now in the final stage of construction.

“A lot of people keep asking when we are going to open which is a positive thing but it does keep the pressure on,” he said.

“We are actually ahead of schedule, we had three stages planned, stage one was to get the Convent Brew Club area up and running, stage two was to open up the front bar and stage three is to wrap it around the back.

“In order to meet council and liquor licensing requirements we need disabled access, the building is off the ground and the toilets are at ground level so we need to build a deck out the front and then lift the toilets up at the back.

“Once that’s done we are pretty much ready to go.”

Mayne Street Brewing are in the third stage of construction.

Mr Hobson said he hoped Mayne Street Brewing would be a place the community could come together and share a pint.

“We have invested a lot of our own money and time, but it is a passion project so we don't begrudge a moment of it,” he said.

“There is a sense of achievement that comes from making something and admiring it and beer is one of those things. I can’t cut and build things like one of our other members but Steve and I sure can brew beer.

“We live in an environment where increasingly our kids are isolated, they live on social media and communicate via text, we need to celebrate opportunities to come together over a beverage, chew the fat and swap stories and what better way to do that than in a community grown brewery.”

Mayne Street Brewing run regular brew club meetings.

Mr Hobson encouraged Chinchilla residents to get involved in their growing Convent Brew Club while they waited for Mayne Street Brewing’s official opening.

“We have two structures of membership, one is a social membership, you can come along to the meets, taste the product and enjoy some live music,” he said.

“The other structure is a brewing membership and they are a little bit more limited to make sure we aren't over producing beer, with that membership you get access to the brewery we will instruct you on how to make your own beer and have the opportunity to get it on tap.”

Originally published as Mayne Street Brewing launches $80k fundraiser to open Chinchilla brewery