If you find yourself reading this you will be aware that there is a new independently owned brewery being set up in Geebung: Hodfellow’s Brewing Co. This post is to share a bit of the journey so far, and to give a little update on where the project is up to at the moment…
In early 2021 we purchased a 4-vessel German built 500L brewhouse and other equipment from a German brewmaster who had moved to a small town (population ~100) in Australia over a decade earlier but was no longer in production. We transported the equipment from Eulilah to my uncle’s farm in the Darling Downs for storage until we could find a suitable building to set up.
In July of this year, after close on 18 months of searching, we secured a lease on 10/229 Robinson Road, Geebung. We have now relocated the brewing equipment from my uncle’s farm to this location, this was no small feat – large amounts of rain in the area meant that forklifting heavy equipment from a machinery shed through the paddock was not straightforward, but we managed to get everything loaded and transported. Greg, the business owner next door to us was extremely generous and offered to have the equipment unloaded once it arrived in Geebung, which we are very grateful for.
We are currently finalising positioning for the equipment, as well as services and utilities. We are in the process of building the cold room – which will act as our cellar for lagering our beers, as well as procuring additional equipment so that we can get our bottling line operational. We intend to package our product into glass as opposed to cans as we believe that it will suit our products better, particularly the bottle conditioned Belgian style ales such as Tripels, Strong Ales and Quadrupels, which will be packaged and conditioned in Champagne style bottles.
We are in the process of getting our approvals to operate from council, which has involved a fair amount of back and forth between us and them – we are getting close to having the approvals in place, however ultimately it is a slow process that we have limited control over! We are however concentrating on setting up the things which we can, in anticipation of soon obtaining their blessing.
There is much to do – setting this up is a monumental task for a small family owned and run business, but we are slowly making headway, we will keep posting updates as we progress. As always, feel free to get in touch with us via the Contact Us link or shoot us an email, we’re excited to be setting this up and are more than happy to answer questions.
Cheers, Jabin,
Head Brewer,
Hodfellow’s Brewing Co.