Major expansion plans herald several new venues and Australia’s first craft beer hotel as BrewDog taps the ongoing successes of its A-NZ antipodean endeavours.
An ambitious two-year blueprint foretells of several new sites across Australia and New Zealand by 2023, and a Down Under edition of the Dog House – BrewDog’s hotel for human and canine guests.
BrewDog Brisbane launched in 2019 and has become one of the Scottish craft brewer’s most successful sites globally.
“It comes down to a number of factors, but the primary reason is due to the local community being so open and supportive of BrewDog and our taproom from the first day we opened,” replied BrewDog’s ANZ CEO Ed Bott of the Brisbane boon.
“We’re incredibly grateful for the local community support from Murarrie, Brisbane and South-East QLD, especially with international and interstate travel challenges in the past year, restricting tourism.”
The success has giving rise to a staged plan to make BrewDog Brisbane Australia’s ultimate beer destination, open a second site in Brisbane and the first for Sydney.
The new blueprint cites further plans to open in Melbourne, Perth and Auckland – complete with micro-brewing facilities for freshly-brewed beer onsite, and for the country’s first-ever eco-friendly craft beer hotel – the DogHouse Brisbane.
The DogHouse will be equipped with beer fridges in the shower, and draft beer taps in hotel rooms, piping fresh Aussie-brewed Punk IPA. It follows from the success of The DogHouse in Columbus, Ohio, which Time magazine dubbed ‘One of the Greatest Places on Earth’ in 2019.
Changes have already begun at Brisbane, adding greater outdoor seating area and shaded areas on the riverside terrace, before expansion of the brewery to include a pasteuriser and an upgrade of the taproom, adding 100sqm of private event space, a larger kitchen and expanded walk-in takeaway offering.
The growth is expecting to add eight full-time BrewDog sales reps across Australia and New Zealand, and will bring launch of a number of special limited-edition collaborations.
The Dog is also working on the pending release of its alcohol-free beer range, starting with Nanny State, to be followed soon by Punk AF, Hazy AF and its raspberry AF Sour, Faux Fox.
BrewDog was founded by James Watt and Martin Dickie with the aim to revolutionise the beer industry and redefine beer-drinking culture. The pair rocked the business world in 2010 with launch of their pioneering crowdfunding initiative ‘Equity for Punks’, to date raising ￡85m, and in 2019 it became the first carbon-negative beer business in the world, with hope of becoming the world’s most sustainable beer business.
BrewDog is owned by over 180,000 investor craft beer lovers across the world, who it says are the “heart and soul” of the movement.
In the wake of news of its expansion Down Under, BrewDog has extended Equity for Punks in Australia and New Zealand until 31 March. The initiative has already exceeded the initial $300,000AUD target and currently at over $600,000AUD, with more than 900 investors. It pledges to open a BrewDog bar within three years wherever there are more than 500 Equity Punks in the same city.
Every dollar raised will be used to sustainably fuel BrewDog’s growth across both countries and fund investment in ground-breaking, high-impact green projects.
“We are extremely grateful for the outstanding support we have received in Australia since we landed Down Under,” says Bott.
“It’s been a pretty wild ride so far, but we have ambitious plans for Australia and New Zealand, building a fast-paced sustainable business that can be a force for good.
“We can’t wait to bring our relentless obsession with incredible craft beer to the rest of the country and for our Punks to be able to head to their local BrewDog bar and get their paws on our freshly brewed Aussie beers.”
