Last beers for Bluetongue brewery

Local beer brand Bluetongue will be phased out and the brewery that makes it on the Central Coast of NSW is scheduled to close by the end of the year, resulting in 64 job losses.

The $120 million brewery at Warnervale was only opened in 2010. The equipment will reportedly be moved to CUB’s Yatala brewery in Queensland.

Carlton and United Breweries said overcapacity in a challenging beer market was behind the decision to cut the beer brand, once co-owned by adman John Singleton, that shot to prominence last decade.

The company was founded by four Hunter Valley businessmen in 2001, who sold half of the business to Singleton in 2005. In 2006 they sold Bluetongue to Pacific Beverages, a joint venture between Carlton & United Breweries' owner, SABMiller and Coca-Cola Amatil.