Brewers gage the bigger boys

The directors of Western Australia’s newest microbrewery, Gage Roads Brewing Co, will spend the next few weeks assembling their brew house and vats in anticipation of an end-of-year brewing test run.

Gage Roads Brewing Company was established by the former award-winning Sail and Anchor Brewing team of Peter Nolin and Bill Hoedemaker, and Mr Hoedemaker’s brother, John.

Not short on ambition, the trio plans to find a place among Australia’s best craft brewers.

They’ve raised $2.5 million in private investment and have been scouring Perth for a suitable site, in the process travelling across the globe to secure the best brewing equipment.

Gage Roads Brewing Co will be housed at the former Meadow Lea factory in Palmyra, where its near-new brewing equipment is currently being installed.

“It’s the perfect site for us to grow into,” Mr Nolin said.

“We’re a craft brewery, so compared to Matilda Bay Brewery that brews 40 million litres a year, we are tiny. We will produce about five million litres at capacity.

“It’s much larger than a pub brewery, it’s on the scale of places like Little Creatures and James Squires.”

Gage Roads Brewing Co’s brewing equipment arrived in Perth this week.

“We bought a system from New York,” Mr Nolin said.

“Bill [Hoedemaker] penetrated the dealers of the second-hand equipment and he came across this one, which is top of the line and has only been in operation for 18 months.

“For us, it is like getting a brand new system at a fraction of the cost. Having brewers driving the project means that we have the expertise that can deliver those types of results.” 

Mr Nolin said Gage Roads Brewing Co’s brand and logo were currently under development.

Boutique design outfit Egg Design has been commissioned to produce the work.

Egg Design has worked for Swan Valley’s Inchant Brewery to develop beer labels. 

For now, the directors at Gage Roads are keen to unload the new equipment and get the facility right for the perfect brew.

“We will be doing site works for about a month and we will commission the brewery in late September,” Mr Nolin told WA Business News.

“We will do a test brew by the end of October and we hope to have a product in production in early 2005.”

Mr Nolin said he and his fellow directors were looking forward to getting back behind the vats.

“Taking it from a concept through to a business plan to a capital raising to a start-up business, to having it actually happen, is quite exciting,” he said.

“To see the idea refined and thrashed out and turned into what will be in this building is very exciting.”