RAINBOW Brewery is on track to produce its first lot of beer in February.
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Construction has started on the business’s warehouse in Federal Street, Rainbow, which will produce 40,000 litres of beer a week once fully operational.
Brewery owner Shane Brown said a building permit was also approved last week, allowing construction to start at the weekend. All footings for the building are complete.
Mr Brown said he was overwhelmed with the number of inquiries about the brewery since he announced his plans earlier this year.
“We have a Facebook page and we’ve already got more than 300 likes, which is fantastic for something that isn’t up and running yet,” he said.
“We now have a big banner up at the block, saying ‘The new home of beer for all’, with our Rainbow Beer logo.”
Mr Brown – who also owns the adjoining Eureka Hotel in Rainbow – started developing the idea for a brewery business more than two years ago.
“I bought the pub as an investment about two and a half years ago,” he said.
“I had another pub in NSW.
“Then I started thinking about having a little brewhouse, but with the size of the land and from talking to everyone there, it turned into a much bigger project.
“We talked about having ‘Rainbow Beer’ and that led to what I’m doing now – building a big warehouse that will allow us to produce 40,000 litres of beer a week.
“It turned from a somewhat little project to a reasonable-sized brewery.”
Mr Brown said support from people in the town was amazing.
“The offers I’ve had for people helping me has been fantastic. Anything that needs to be done around the block to prepare it for the build, they’ve been willing to do it,” he said.
"The community there is excellent, and that’s a big reason we’ve taken the development to this level.”
Mr Brown said the brewery warehouse would likely be completed in mid-January.
“We have a smaller brewhouse that arrived in Australia last week that we will be using to do all our sampling,” he said.
“I’ll be in China on January 12 to inspect the final brewhouse.
“Then it will be on the ship and should arrive in the first week of February.
“We’ll be in a position where we’re brewing in mid to late February.
“We’re planning to offer day trips where people can label their own beer, as we’ve got our own mini bottling plant within the brewhouse.”
Mr Brown said people could follow the brewery’s progress on the Rainbow Beer Facebook page.
“That’s been a platform where we can share the journey with people, and as we progress there will be two or three updates a week on there,” he said.
“I want to be able to explain the process to people.”