Black Hops opens second distillery in Australia

Australian independent brewer Black Hops has opened its second brewery and taproom called Black Hops II.

Located in the northern end of the Gold Coast, Black Hops II will complement the original Black Hops brewery and taproom, which opened in June 2016 in Burleigh Heads.

Black Hops was founded by Dan Norris, Eddie Oldfield and Michael McGovern in 2014.

Norris said: “The new brewery is going to be our full-scale production brewery, which will expand our volume from 600,000l per year to potentially multiple millions per year. While we won’t hit that target immediately, we wanted to factor in some heavy duty upscaling opportunities to meet our longer-term goals.”

In order to fund the new brewery, the Queensland brewery raised A$400,000 ($283,446) through an equity-crowd-funding campaign on the Birchal platform.

With the opening of the new brewery, Black Hops intends to expand its presence, as well as brewing capacity to meet the growing demand for its beer throughout Australia.

The custom-designed 150m² taproom offers 14 beers on tap, including Pale Ale, Hornet IPA and Eggnog Stout, Black Hops’ original beer.

The independent brewer is also offering some limited release beers including Danger Zone (an Imperial Red Ale), Thunder Cloud (a hazy Triple IPA) and Kiwi Lager (an Imperial Lager) to celebrate the opening of the brewery and taproom.

Oldfield said: “Our original Burleigh brewery and taproom has evolved into a hub for like-minded people to hang out, drink fresh beer and feel connected to their local scene. With Black Hops II we hope to create a similar vibe for Northern Gold Coast residents.”

In 2015, the brewery firm launched a crowdfunding campaign back before equity crowdfunding was made legal in the country, reported Smartcompany.com.au.

It had then launched a rewards-based campaign. Under this, it offered its contributors cases of beer once the brewery had become operational.