Fortitude Brewing / Noisy Minor

The clear air up in the Gold Coast hinterland makes for pleasant sunny days that cry out for beer, but once upon a time, the beer offerings on Tamborine Mountain were slim. It wasn’t until 2012 that a couple of locals decided it was up to them to bring good beer to the mountain. They took over a small, defunct brewery and started Fortitude Brewing.

Right from the start, Fortitude’s beers were designed to be solid and sessionable brews that’d stand the test of time. Made with 100 percent fresh mountain rainwater, they include a summer ale that hits the sweet spot between smashable and flavoursome, a piney pale ale with a smack of bitterness, a golden ale that balances maltiness with fruity hops, and an easy drinking lager. Fortitude’s also known for Pacer, the light beer that manages to deliver good flavour and body while sitting at 2.8 percent ABV, and their mid-strength hopped ginger beer called Roots and Leaves (which is arguably one of the best beer names ever).

Meanwhile, the brewery’s Noisy Minor range of limited releases are all about giving the brewers room to experiment with bolder-flavoured beers - they’re described as “noisy, aggressive and sometimes downright crazy.”

And so for good reason, demand for Fortitude’s beers grew rapidly in the early years. It wasn’t long before the brewery moved to the destination you’ll find it in today. There in Eagle Heights there’s room for a brew kit big enough to handle demand, but also a gorgeous space where punters can drink Fortitude’s beers from the source. It’s a venue that invites groups of daytrippers, romantic weekenders, long-time locals with their four-footed friends - and everyone in between - to be part of the community.

Have you heard the phrase ‘mountaintop experience’? Well, it’s hard not to have that moment of transcendence as you approach the front of the brewery and ascend the expansive steps to the arched entranceway. As you walk through the great corridor, dwarfed by the vaulted ceiling, timber rafters looming over you, you can’t help but wonder what this grand structure is. Is it a Norse long hall? Is it an ancient barn? Is it a cathedral, where devotees can worship at the altar of good beer?

No, it’s a brewery. Come on. You knew that already.

There’s an array of tables spread through the indoor-outdoor area, spoiling you for choice. Will you sit at a picnic table in the open courtyard, surrounded by greenery and near to the stage where live music plays every weekend? Or beneath the slanted roof, among the hanging plants, at a bar table built from an old Mt Tamborine Brewery keg? Or will you keep warm inside, at a long table or on the leather couch, admiring the brewing tanks while you drink of their precious contents?

Wherever you end up, you have access to a spread of beer. Grab a tasting paddle of Fortitude’s core range and a pizza from the kitchen if you want to make memories without making decisions; it’s an easy way to have a truly delightful afternoon on the mountain. Otherwise you can take your pick of the beers. Alongside the Fortitude regulars, at any given moment there are also a few taps dedicated to whichever Noisy Minor beers have been brewed recently and some beers from Catchment Brewing, Fortitude’s sister brewery in Brisbane. (Since Fortitude joined the Catchment family in 2022, the two have been thick as thieves.) These taps are forever rotating but can include various IPAs, stouts, sours, and other more adventurous options.

If you’re just taking a day trip up and down the mountain to visit Fortitude for a session, check out Translink’s (cheap!) flat fare taxis from Helensvale Station. But if you can manage it, find an excuse to spend at least a couple of days in Tambo; time moves slower up there. Book yourself some accommodation and spend the weekend exploring the township and sampling all the fudge and wine and cheese you can handle. Go for a bushwalk to work up a thirst, then hit the brewery to quench it.

When you finish your session at the brewery (which, let’s be honest, is probably at closing time), grab some tinnies or a growler to take the Fortitude vibes with you.

Because we could all use a little more fortitude in our life. ‘Fortitude’ means strength, endurance, and the ability to confront fear. Fortitude is reliable and unwavering. Fortitude is solid as a rock… or in the case of Fortitude Brewing, solid as a mountain.

No wonder the brewery’s motto is In Cerevisia Fortitudo - “In Beer is Strength.”

Mick Wust

Name
Fortitude Brewing / Noisy Minor
Address

165-185 Long Road
North Tamborine
QLD 4272

Phone
(07) 5545 4273
Open Hours

Mon to Thurs: 11am to 4pm

Fri & Sat: 11am to 9pm

Sunday: 11am to 5pm


This is a directory listing. To find out more, head here

Fortitude Brewing / Noisy Minor Regulars

Noisy Minor ANZUS IPA (2023)

Published January 17, 2023
The year is 2014. Noisy Minor ANZUS IPA catches your attention as it’s just placed in the top ten of the GABS Hottest 100. It’s not that easy to get hold of (unless you head up Tamborine Mountain), but it’s worth keeping an eye out for. It’s a bangin’ IPA. The year is 2023. Noisy Minor ANZUS IPA catches your attention as it’s clear and piney and bitter amid a sea of soft hazy IPAs. It’s fairly easy to access for non-Tamborinians now that it’s also available through Catchment in West… Read more
Style
IPA
ABV
6.5%

Fortitude Brewing Summer Ale

Published May 24, 2018
Fortitude has made a point of producing beers that deliver flavour and aroma without smacking you around the head. And, following its rebrand in the first half of 2018, it's a policy they continue to follow. The Summer Ale sits right in the sweet spot that's winning over many new drinkers to craft beer. Within its pale yellow liquid you'll pick up a veritable fruit salad of hop characters: lime, melon, white grapes and peaches. Those hop characters come across broad and rounded rather than feisty,… Read more
Style
Summer Ale
ABV
4.4%

Fortitude Brewing Pale Ale

Published May 24, 2018
One of the very first beers to leave Fortitude's Mt Tamborine home was the Golden Ale, a beer with enough character that it could easily be slotted into the American pale ale category. More recently, a beer actually tagged Pale Ale was introduced – and is now part of the new look core range introduced in 2018 – giving them a beer that's even more of an American pale ale. While many brewers are moving further into tropical and candied fruit territory with their pales, here's something that's more… Read more
Style
American Pale Ale
ABV
5.0%

Fortitude Brewing Roots and Leaves Hopped Ginger Ale

Published May 24, 2018
You can find hops cropping up in all sorts of places these days: ciders, ice creams and, in the case of this canned mid-strength from Fortitude Brewing, a ginger beer. Gluten free and virtually free of sugar, the brewery's beer alternative comes with a recommendation on the website they've created for it to enjoy it over ice with a slice of lime. Should you not follow the recommendation, it delivers a refreshing enough hit regardless. Pouring a very cloudy pale yellow, it packs a punchy aroma –… Read more
Style
Hopped Ginger Beer
ABV
3.5%

Fortitude Brewing Golden Ale

Fortitude’s Golden, their flagship beer in the early days, was always something more than most of the golden ales that were enjoying their time in the sun back then. Rather than strip everything back to create a beer that wasn't too far from the simple lagers consumed by the drinkers craft brewers hoped to entice, it offered up plenty of stone fruit, pine and grapefruit alongside balancing malts to create a beer as much in pale ale as golden territory.… Read more
Style
Golden Ale
ABV
4.3%

Fortitude Brewing Lager

Brewer's notes: A modern take on a classic beer. Features German Pilsner and Australian Pale malts balanced by citrus and floral aromas. Delivering the palate with bitterness and a fresh, dry finish.… Read more
Style
Lager
ABV
4.4%

Fortitude Brewing Pacer

The Australian craft beer sector might be a place where you can find many a good mid-strength these days, especially with the rise of sessionable sours that give brewers additional flavour, aroma and texture characters to play with. But decent light beers? Not so much. One of the very few out there delivering a quality experience with half the booze is Fortitude's Pacer 2.8. From the opening wafts of passionfruit and mandarin, through the lightly sweet pale malts to the gently drying bitterness –… Read more
Style
Light Ale
ABV
2.8%

Fortitude Brewing Stout

Brewer's notes: This extremely approachable stout has won many non-stout drinkers over. A simple yet delectable dry Irish stout boasting British pale malt, flaked barley, roast barley and Goldings hops. With a slight smokiness, lots of rich coffee notes and a long, dry finish this stout is what Guinness always wanted to be. … Read more
Style
Dry Irish Stout
ABV
4.0%

Fortitude Brewing / Noisy Minor Specials

Noisy Minor Admiral Ackbar 2023

Published May 4, 2023
If you thought Ackbar was gone for good, never fear: it’s making a comeback. Since Admiral Ackbar was first on the scene, we’ve had fires, floods, pandemic, food supply shortages, war… and still this anti-imperial red ale is standing against the powers that be. You can’t stamp out the Rebel Alliance that easily. Released on Star Wars Day (May the 4th be with you), Admiral Akbar is a blast from the past. There’s no haze, no lactose, no Lupomax or Phantasm. Just good ol’ fashioned hoppy… Read more
Style
Imperial Red Ale
ABV
8.2%
Stockists

Fortitude Brewing

Catchment Brewing Co

Netherworld Arcade

Whichcraft

Sneaky Baron

Cannon Hill Taproom

Ballistic Beer, Salisbury

Ballistic Beer, Springfield

More stockists...

Noisy Minor Rosie The RIIPA

Published March 15, 2023
For International Women’s Day 2023, Noisy Minor concocted a ripper of a red IPA. The brew was organised by Tiph (sales manager), made by Lottie (legend brewer), celebrates women everywhere, and can be enjoyed by anyone who gets their mitts on it. Red IPA is the style that inspired Lottie to start brewing, so this brew is infused with her excitement – as well as with native hibiscus flowers, sourced from The Farm in Byron Bay and harvested fresh the day she put them in the beer. The hibiscus adds… Read more
Style
Red IIPA
ABV
7.2%

Noisy Minor Admiral Ackbar

Published June 14, 2019
While Brisbanites have been dusting off their flannel shirts and beanies, preparing to endure the brief and fleeting Queensland winter, Mount Tamborine’s Noisy Minor have quietly released the 2019 run of Admiral Ackbar. The most notable of the Fortitude Brewing offshoot, Ackbar is a big, hoppy red ale that’s a stalwart in the South East Queensland beer scene and, again, does not disappoint. With a big Citra hop-loaded front and a sweet, dry finish, Admiral Ackbar is an 8.2 percent ABV beer that… Read more
Style
Imperial Red Ale
ABV
8.2%
Stockists

A "ridiculously small batch” was released to venues in Brisbane, the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast.

Noisy Minor Doppelganger

Published May 9, 2019
A massive lager. Who knew?!? Well, plenty of people, of course, but as the lupulin shift carries palates further into bitterness and fruit juice territory, clean, deep malt styles are shown less favour. It’s a flavour game that’s ours to lose, which is a shame, but for now we have Doppelganger, which may or may not have a likeness out there trying to hunt it down and kill it. Six weeks of lagering by the Noisy Minor crew presents initially as malt sweetness from the dark, ruby-coloured beer.… Read more
Style
India Doppelbock
ABV
8.1%

Noisy Minor Swooping Saison

Published January 5, 2019
What will become of the saison in Australia? There are many, many brewers for whom it is a favourite style, able to be both subtle and complex, to offer up an array of aromas, flavours and textures, suitable for pairing with almost any food type you can imagine. Yet, at the same time, it's a style that's been added to a few core ranges only to quietly shuffle off stage a year or two later. Maybe it's a style destined to be a seasonal for all but the most dedicated of farmhouse-influenced operators,… Read more
Style
Saison
ABV
6.7%

Noisy Minor Red Ryeding Hood

Published January 4, 2019
This American red ale loaded up with a fair whack of rye malt has been around since the earliest days of Fortitude / Noisy Minor and returns in big can format summer 2018/19 as part of the "Box Of Noisies" put together by the brewery team, alongside ANZUS IPA and Swooping Saison. It's a beer in which plenty has been squeezed into a pretty small package – Nelson Sauvin, Simcoe and Amarillo hops, specialty malts and the house blend Belgian yeast complete the picture. And, for all that… Read more
Style
Rye Red Ale
ABV
4.9%

Noisy Minor Admiral Ackbar

Published August 8, 2015
Sibling breweries Fortitude and Noisy Minor have been one of the standout successes of the beer revolution in South East Queensland. Perhaps most notably, they've seen multiple beers score highly in the past couple of Local Taphouse Hottest 100 polls; this year, they had three beers in the top 14, a remarkable achievement for a young brewery whose beers were, last year, only regularly available in Queensland and New South Wales. But anyone who's tried their full range would readily accept it's one… Read more
Style
Imperial Red Ale
ABV
8.5%
Stockists

Fortitude Brewery

Good beer stockists on the East Coast

Noisy Minor Patersbier

Published March 9, 2015
It's hard to come across a Belgian style beer bearing the name "Pater" – especially one with a stained glass window for its label – without thinking of possibly the most inappropriate label to appear on a beer: that for Beer Here's delicious Malus Pater. This one is far more tastefully decorated with the brewer's notes telling us: "Patersbier means 'Father’s Beer' - the beer the monks drink at their table after a long day brewing dubbels and tripels. It is lighter in alcohol… Read more
Style
Belgian Session Ale
Stockists

Fortitude Brewery

Noisy Minor ANZUS IPA (SUPERCEDED)

When it came to putting Fortitude Brewing's noisier sibling brand on the map, it was this beer, the ANZUS IPA, that led the way. Sure, there were (and still are) plenty of fans for the likes of Admiral Ackbar, but this beer built upon a blend of Aussie, Kiwi and American hops back when IPAs were still clawing at the backdoor, seeking wider acceptance, was the noisiest of the Minors, even cracking the top ten of the Hottest 100 Aussie Craft Beers poll in 2014. A US-inspired IPA Initially crafted to… Read more
Style
6.0%

Noisy Minor Admiral Ackbar

Another Noisy Minor beer to find favour with drinkers wherever it lands, this "anti-imperial red ale" was one of three beers from the brewery to make the top 15 in the 2014 Hottest 100 Aussie Craft Beers poll. Brewer's notes: We loved the lithe coquettishness of last year’s Red Ryeding Hood, but this year we wanted to make our Red Ale release a little more forthright. Enter the cult champion of Anti-Imperial Forces, Admiral Ackbar. This is a big warming malty ale with a ton of Nelson… Read more
Style
Imperial Red Ale
ABV
8.5%