Small breweries opened at an average of about one a week across Australia during 2017 for the third year running.
Last year saw around 49 new breweries, compared to 46 breweries in 2014 and 57 in both 2015 and 2016, bringing Australia to a new record high of close to 400 breweries.
Queensland was out in front with 17 new breweries, eight of which opened in Brisbane and four on the Sunshine Coast, according to brewing historian Dr Brett J. Stubbs who conducted the research on behalf of online beer publication, Australian Brews News.
Victoria became home to eleven new breweries, and NSW now has nine, many of which opened in regional areas, although Sydney’s inner south west saw four new breweries - two in the suburb of Marrickville.
There were five brewing start-ups in Western Australia, four in South Australia and two in the ACT. Tasmania saw significant growth in brewery numbers in 2015 and 2016, but had just one new brewer in 2017, while the Northern Territory had none.
Stubbs tallied only actual installations of beer-making hardware that began production for commercial sale during 2017, not new contract or ‘gypsy’ brewed brands, which add no actual brewing capacity to the market.
