Brisbane-based Slipstream Brewing will soon have a second home in South East Queensland, with the independent brewery set to open Social House on the Sunshine Coast in September.
The new venue is located in Birtinya and previously operated as a Malt Shovel Taphouse. Slipstream co-founder Elisa Stanley-Hunt says they had been searching for a second site for some time and, upon discovering this opportunity, knew it was right.
“We’ve been looking around and then we became aware of this one a little while back," she told The Crafty Pint. “We were never going to take on another brewery venue because we’ve got plenty of capacity at the brewery.
"We were looking for somewhere that was fitted out, and this already has a lot of beer taps and beer systems.”
The team feel Birtinya is an ideal spot too: the is area growing fast yet currently offers little in the way of watering holes. Indeed, in the short time since they announced the plans for the venue, Elisa and husband Deale have been blown away by local support, with many excited to hear the venue would once again be pouring beers after it closed suddenly early last year.
“It is a bit of a dead zone, so already there’s been a lot of people saying they’re really excited for the venue to be back open," Elisa says.
“There’s a lot of development plans going on in the area, a lot of apartments are being built with more to come in the future.”
The venue is located beside the area's Stockland Shopping Centre and will have space for around 300 people, with a full kitchen set to serve up Californian-inspired dishes. Alongside their beers, they’ll offer a selection of Australian wines and spirits. And, while they’re moving into a region of the country already stacked with craft breweries – which has dubbed itself the Craft Beer Capital – a big part of the appeal was the way the Sunshine Coast has so wholeheartedly embraced craft beer.
“It’s one of the reasons we really like the Sunshine Coast; it already has a vibrant craft beer community, and the area’s done really well at promoting itself as a craft beer region,” Elisa says.
The second venue is the latest in a string of good news for Slipstream Brewing. In February, Elisa and Deale announced they'd bought their shares back from Mighty Craft to regain full ownership of the brewery they started; weeks later, they were named Champion Medium Brewery at the Royal Queensland Beer Awards.
“It’s been a good feeling this year; it feels like everything’s going in the right direction,” Elisa says of the year to date.
“We’ve had a few hard years where we haven’t really been able to do that much with the Mighty Craft partnership, so now it does feel like we’re catching up.”
In part, that success has been driven by their vibrant brewery and venue in Yeerongpilly. Elisa says they give their home plenty of time and attention, and approach it holistically when it comes to events, new beers and good times to ensure people always have a reason to return.
“We’re just constantly working on the customer experience,” she adds. “We’ve always seen our venue as a great marketing tool; we don’t have a big marketing budget for advertising or anything like that.
“The team at the venue works really closely with Deale and me to create exceptional customer experiences and reasons for people to come back."
Slipstream Brewing Social House is set to be open in September. We'll have further details of the launch once the date is locked in.
Will Ziebell is a history graduate who knows more about The Wire than he does about beer. He was awarded the AIBA Best Media trophy for 2018; HBO have told him to please send his fan mail elsewhere. He can be found on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok.
The beer(s) or moment(s) that turned you on to good beer:
Spending time living in the UK (and backpacking across Europe) when I was 21 certainly gave me a better understanding of the beer and different styles of the world. But I'd say it was a holiday to the High Country a little while later when lunch and a tasting paddle at Bridge Road Brewers created an obsession with Australian breweries and locally made beer.
You've got three beers to turn someone else on to good beer; what are they and why?
-
Boatrocker's Miss Pinky: It's a raspberry-packed Berliner Weisse that neither looks or tastes the way many people conceive of beer.
-
Bad Shepherd Hazelnut Brown: A luscious mix of chocolate and hazelnut that can appeal to the sweet tooth within us all.
-
Stone & Wood Pacific Ale: As the father of my oldest friend once said to me: "It's the perfect refreshing pint that smells like they've loaded it with the God's herb."
The last beer you enjoyed:
Garage Project's DFA while sitting at the bar at Miss Moses as the sounds of The Rolling Stone drifting in the background.
Three things that represent you:
- Bruce Springsteen
- Ken Burns
- The State Library of Victoria
