Scottish craft brewer BrewDog, one of the fastest growing and most successful breweries in the world with production sites in Ellon, Scotland, Berlin, Germany and Columbus, Ohio has now opened its fourth brewery in Brisbane, Australia. The company invested about USD 30 million which was financed mainly through private bonds by its consumers. The company launched its latest Equity for Punks funding round last month and already surpassed its target of GBP 7 million(USD 9.1m). In previous rounds the company raised GBP 67 million (USD 87m) from more than 90,000 people.
BrewDog was founded twelve years ago by James Watt and Martin Dickie (and their dog, hence the name!). Since then the brewery has opened or purchased in total 4 breweries and more than 90 taphouses around the world. It employs over 1,500 people and its beers are exported to more than 60 countries in the world. In 2018, BrewDogs sales grew 55%.
The plan for the new site in Brisbane was revealed in February 2018 (inside.beer, 10.2.2018) and the project was finished in less than two years. BrewDog co-founder James Watt said at that time: "I'm glad our Australian fans at home and in the diaspora were relentless in pushing for a brewery, and I look forward to sharing my first can of Aussie-brewed Punk IPA with them."
Last Thursday the company opened the new 450 square-meter taproom with a “frankly epic” 480 square-meter riverside patio. The 28 taps will feature breweries from across Australia’s craft beer scene as well as own beers and beers from around the world. The 3,000 square-meter brewing and canning facility with the fully automated four-vessel 25-hectoliter brewing system is completely up and running in January.
The walls of the riverfront building are covered with street art and Calvin McDonald, BrewDog's operations manager for Australia, points out another peculiarity of the site. "There aren't many bars in the world that are totally accessible by jet ski," he notes.
Less than 4 months ago BrewDog reopened a brewery in Berlin, which it had purchased in April from Stone Brewing from California (inside.beer, 5.4.2019). Stone’s ambitious executive chairmam Greg Koch invested about USD30 million in its German (ad)venture but failed to make the business successful.
