Breweries founded over the past decade are starting to mature while the young distilling industry continues to expand.
THE state’s craft brewers and distillers are shaking off their pandemic woes and focusing on product development and business growth.
There has been a steady uptick in the number of operators joining the nascent distillery sector in recent years, with several now selling their products and opening their first hospitality venues.
Meanwhile, more established craft brewers with growth and brand recognition under their belts are beginning to upgrade their equipment to produce new beer, upsize their venues, and reduce the environmental and social impacts of their operations.
Most recently, ASX-listed Good Drinks Australia opened a flagship venue for its original beer brand, Gage Roads Brewing Company.
It oversaw the $10 million redevelopment of Fremantle’s heritage-listed A Shed building into a 1,500-capacity hospitality venue with its own microbrewery.
The 96-year-old building is a fitting location for the brewery, which was named after Fremantle’s outer harbour.
Good Drinks Australia managing director John Hoedemaker said the brewer could not have found a better location.
“It suits Gage Roads so perfectly; we really wanted to invest in it for the long haul,” Mr Hoedemaker told Business News.
He said the brewery had been well received by the public, reaching its 1,500-person capacity for the first five days it was open.
The A Shed venture is part of Good Drinks Australia’s five-venue strategy, which includes the Atomic Beer Project in NSW and a new site being developed into a Matso’s brewery in Queensland.
Mr Hoedemaker said the company was also looking for a location on the east coast for a second Gage Roads brewery.
“We would love to find another opportunity like the A Shed and we are continuing to try and find that space for us, but there is nothing immediate on the horizon there,” he said.
The other focus for Good Drinks Australia is growing its sales and marketing teams, which operate in Western Australia, South Australia, NSW, Victoria and Queensland.
Mr Hoedemaker said this would give the business scope to acquire new brands.
“As we build scale, our sales and distribution teams, then that provides us the opportunity to look for brands which complement our portfolio,” he said.
“Maybe target segments of the beer market we are not currently.”
A short walk away from Gage Roads Fremantle, one of WA’s original craft brewers, Little Creatures, is undertaking a $30 million redevelopment of the block next door to its popular venue.
The project proposal includes a brewery, a large dining area dubbed the ‘Great Hall’, and a rooftop terrace.
Little Creatures, which was acquired by the global beverage company Lion Nathan in 2012, is WA’s second largest brewer, according to Business News’s Data & Insights.
WA’s third largest brewer, Feral Brewing Company, is also undergoing change.
After being purchased by Coca-Cola Amatil, now called Coca-Cola Europacific, in 2017, the WA-founded brewer is currently up for sale.
The sale no longer includes a hospitality component, after Feral announced it would not renew the lease at its Baskerville venue when it expired in October.
Production
Several breweries are installing new equipment to increase their capacity.
Busselton-based Rocky Ridge Brewing Co expects to brew 2 million litres of beer this year.
The brewer has invested $1.8 million, doubling its capacity and continuing to improve its equipment to ensure it saves on water and electricity costs.
It has upgraded its solar power capacity, is putting in a centrifuge, improving its wastewater treatment plant, and undergoing a small-scale trial of a biodigester to see if it will work for the site.
Newcomer Blasta Brewing Company, established in 2018, received a $1 million grant from the federal government’s Manufacturing Modernisation Fund to support its $3.6 million expansion.
The expansion includes moving the brewery to a 4,100 square metre site in Belmont.
The new brewery will initially produce 5ML and have capacity to brew 10ML once it is completed, making it one of the biggest brewers in WA.
Meanwhile, in Metricup, Beerfarm is upgrading its equipment and has plans to develop a custom-made kitchen.
The upgrade will increase its brewing capacity from 1ML a year to 2ML sometime this calendar year.
Beerfarm, currently the seventh largest brewery on Data & Insights, is in the process of establishing a second brewery, on the east coast.
However, having bought land on the NSW central coast in July 2020, delays in securing development approval have slowed the process.
“It’s difficult because every time we think we are getting some traction … there’s no movement on the development application”
Beerfarm general manager George Scott told Business News.
“We are still sat here now in Jan 2022, and we have got nothing.”
Mr Scott said Beerfarm was now actively looking for sites elsewhere.
Further south, Albany-based Wilson Brewing Company is undertaking a $3.3 million expansion to increase capacity and revamp its hospitality venue.
Its production expansion includes installing a canning line, boosting production to 28 cans per minute rather than 5.2, and larger tanks to increase its capacity to 2ML per year.
A beer garden, new car park and better road signage are part of the hospitality venue refresh, work on which is due to begin soon.
Wilson Brewing Company head brewer Matt Wilson said the business had also bolstered its team and recruited former Feral Brewing Company head of sales Chris Woodrow.
Once borders open, Mr Wilson said, the plan was to expand on the east coast and overseas.
“We are hoping over the next six to 18 months, as stuff starts to smooth back out a bit in all those aspects, we will be able to start getting some product overseas as well,” Mr Wilson told Business News.
The directors of West Leederville-based Nowhereman Brewing Co have made a second foray into hospitality.
Reece Wheadon and Pia Poynton have become involved in the running of a second venue after being approached by local residents to buy in to The Floreat Hotel.
The pub, now called The Park Floreat, is a standalone hospitality venue but features four Nowhereman brews on tap.
Mr Wheadon said Nowhereman was working on one or two other new venues but could not reveal the details.
The original Nowhereman brewery is also growing. Nowhereman implemented a new canning line at the start of 2021, as well as new tanks.
Mr Wheadon said the brewer would soon outgrow its brewing facility in West Leederville and he was looking for potential expansion options.
Changing scene
The social and environmental responsibilities associated with their business was top of mind for all brewers spoken to by Business News.
Mr Wheadon said in recent times the industry had started to become more accountable for its actions.
A group of women on the east coast started Beer Agents for Change, an initiative to increase the gender and ethnic diversity in the beer industry.
Meanwhile, beers brewed in partnership with charities for fundraising were becoming more popular, Mr Wheadon said.
The Nowhereman team has been active in this space for the past two years, with the Independent Brewers Association acknowledging its efforts in the community realm.
The negative health impacts of alcohol have also been highlighted, with a trend towards low-alcohol and non-alcoholic beers.
Several brewers Business News spoke to had added, or were in the process of adding, a zero-alcohol beer to their range and commented on the recent popularity of mid-strength varieties.
Rocky Ridge Brewing Co has been working on programs to support the local community and minimise its impact on the environment.
It has committed to donating 10 per cent of its net profits to local community groups, which in 2021 was around $40,000.
On the environmental side, Rocky Ridge was certified as a carbon neutral business by Carbon Neutral Australia in 2019 and 2020 and is aiming for net zero emissions on site by 2025.
Rocky Ridge Brewing Co co-founder and managing director Hamish Coates said the business’s carbon input – from the barley farmers in the Wheatbelt to the daily activities of its staff – had been calculated.
The brewery is run completely off-grid using solar power and batteries, generating enough power to run about 40 houses each day.
Rocky Ridge has dramatically reduced the water it uses in the beer making process..
While average water usage sits around seven litres of water per litre of beer produced, Rocky Ridge has reduced this to 4.5 litres and is planning to hit 2.5 litres per litre by 2023 by developing a wastewater treatment plant.
Rocky Ridge is also considering generating hydrogen from its wastewater to use as energy.
It is installing a CO2 capture plant to collect the gas created during the fermentation of beer to re-use in its processes.
Mr Coates also said plastic packaging in the brewery’s supply chain had been reduced by 40 per cent.
Rocky Ridge uses cardboard, products made from sugar cane pulp, aluminium cans and biodegradable pallet wrap in its packaging, although Mr Coates is searching for better options.
He hopes to offer support and tips to other breweries to become more environmentally friendly.
“Ultimately our aim is to become a case study so we can show exactly how you do it and turn it into a fairly easy-to-follow pathway, rather than it being a daunting overall process,” Mr Coates told Business News.
“There are things we have learned and uncovered along the way that make it a little bit easier, almost like putting a cheat sheet together.”
The progress Rocky Ridge has made in the environmental space is not used in the brewery’s marketing, however.
“We haven’t really communicated much about this, it’s not a huge part of our marketing strategy mainly because we feel like there is a lot of greenwashing out there at the moment,” Mr Coates said.
“We are not trying to preach to anyone; we are just trying to demonstrate that you can do this and do this in an economical way that is going to benefit you, your business, going forward.”
Distilleries
The number of distilleries in WA continued to grow in 2021.
According to Data & Insights, more than half of the nearly 40 distilleries in the state were founded in the past five years.
Perth-based AmberChes Spirits Distillery began selling its products, while Cannabis Botanical Distillery launched spirits and seltzers to be sold at The Dam in Denmark.
Several distillers also opened new hospitality venues.
Founded in 2019, Republic of Fremantle opened a distillery at the beginning of 2021.
Spirit of Little Things, established in 2019, found a home in Subiaco and opened in October 2021.
One of the state’s first distillers, Tailor Made Spirits, known for its West Winds Gin brand, is building a venue in Cowaramup, which is due to open from late April.
It was slated to be finished at the beginning of 2021, but material shortages led to a delay.
Tailor Made Spirits received a $400,000 grant from the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development to build the facility.
Named The Cowaramup Distillery & Tavern, the venue will be home to the company’s West Winds Gin brand as well as showcasing other local drinks based in the South West.
Tailor Made Spirits marketing director Ryan Bowden said the gin industry had grown enormously in WA in recent years as the drink became more popular.
He said the biggest challenge faced by gin distillers was ensuring the industry was sustainable. “We want gin to be a thing long beyond a trend,” Mr Bowden told Business News.
“Gin is having its heyday at the moment, and I think all gin producers think we need to make hay while the sun shines, but we firmly believe … that we are in it for the long game.
“This is not something that we are going to pack up shop if the industry around gin doesn’t develop.”
Mr Bowden said one of the contributing factors to the growth of the industry was the federal government’s decision to increase tax relief for brewers and distillers.
As of July 2021, brewers and distillers receive remission of any excise they pay, up to an annual cap of $350,000, bringing the industries in line with their winemaking counterparts.
Mr Bowden said without this change to excise tax, many small distillers would not survive.
“While the excise break is fantastic for all gin companies, it’s probably not sustainable in the long run,” he said.
“We are getting a glut of so much gin and without the excise break many gin producers wouldn’t survive.”
