Townsville brewery Tiny Mountain is soon to reopen under new ownership, two years after being closed by Lion. The new owners have completed major renovations, giving the new Tiny Mountain an expanded 1000-person capacity, a massive alfresco area, and a Mediterranean-style food menu.
The new owners are Katarzyna, an independent hospitality group whose portfolio of venues includes Brisbane’s Valley Hops Brewing. When the family-owned group heard Lion was shutting Tiny Mountain, they leapt at “the opportunity to be a part of the Townsville landscape” and take on another brewery.
“It piqued our interest almost immediately,” says Chris Cossio, group marketing manager for Katarzyna.
Having established Valley Hops in Fortitude Valley 18 months earlier, the team was keen to take on another brewery, and inject it with a stronger hospitality offering.
“Bring our learnings from the first [brewery] to the second one,” is how Chris puts it. “We wouldn’t be doing it if we didn’t enjoy the journey with Valley Hops.”
Tiny Mountain’s upgrade sees the industrial-style taproom take on the feel of a more upmarket venue suitable for groups and celebrations, but which they say is "equally approachable to drop in for a quick beer after work.” Or, presumably, on a rugby league game day; the venue’s within walking distance of Queensland Country Bank Stadium, after all.
The brewery building itself remains, with the expansion taking the form of a large alfresco-style area built at the front. While all undercover, the goal of the new space is “to bring the outside in,” designed to capture breezes, with high ceilings featuring a number of Big Ass fans there to circulate the air. The covered area is lush with greenery, and home to a combination of seating options: booths, pods, dining tables and bar tables.
“Because we’re hospitality people, there’s a big emphasis on comfort,” Chris says, citing Katarzyna’s 30 years’ experience operating venues in Queensland. "They’ve majored with all the creature comforts. No expense spared.
“It was very industrial before, almost like a shed style, and they had food trucks that rolled through on the weekends… It’s certainly a more sophisticated space now, same as Valley Hops: softened and approachable at the same time.”
Included in the expansion is a full kitchen complete with a wood-fired pizza oven and grill, which will serve Mediterranean-inspired fare with a focus on local produce – all conceived with beer-drinking in mind.
“The menu’s designed to eat with one hand and hold your schooner with the other.”
With the increase in customer capacity – and beer taps, since there are now 36 across the venue – there’s also an increase in brewing capacity. A trio of 3,000-litre serving vessels are set up to send beer directly to the bars, and the addition of a couple of 600-litre fermenters means the brewers will be able to create experimental pilot brews.
They'll pour alongside a core range initially showcasing eight beers including a variety of lagers, a hazy IPA, an Aussie ale, a nitro red ale, and a ginger beer made with Sunshine Coast ginger.
“The look and feel of the range is similar to the old,” Chris says. “Beers that are approachable, and suited to the climate and community.”
The credit for this continuity goes to Dave Mullins, the previous head brewer at Tiny Mountain, who was immediately snapped up and re-appointed. He's spent the last year-and-a-half rubbing shoulders with the brewers at Valley Hops – winners of a trophy at last year's Australian International Beer Awards, using the brewhouse to test and hone Tiny Mountain recipes – as well as taking part in a few Tiny Mountain x Valley Hops collabs – before recently returning to his post in Townsville as opening day draws near.
When Tiny Mountain ceased trading in April 2023 – just two and a half years after opening – one of a string of closures and by Lion, which is owned by Japanese beverage company Kirin that included the trailblazing Two Birds, Bevy Brewing in Perth, and Malt Shovel Brewery with its four-decade legacy. The reason cited for the closure was unmet sales goals beyond the venue and the region. The brewery venue itself, however, had been well-supported by locals from the beginning.
For this reason, the new owners are confident they won’t face the same issues as Lion, since their vision for Tiny Mountain is hospitality-focused rather than distribution-focused. While they do have plans to eventually package their beers and put Tiny Mountain on taps at other local venues, their “focus will be first and foremost on serving in [the] venue.”
Chris adds: “[Tiny Mountain] had quite a bit of following, even when it closed. The sentiment that I’ve seen through our social pages has been really positive… ‘When are you guys opening?’, ‘Miss you guys!’”
Even the brewery's advertisement on a job website attracted positive attention.
“We put out a bit of a teaser job advert for expressions of interest to work there,” he says, “and over 500 people sent their applications in. Never seen it in my life.”
It’s this following that made simple the decision to not only retain the brewery’s existing name, but also the logo, branding, and brand story.
“We’re carrying that on; we’re not in there to ‘disrupt’ anything,” Chris says.
That doesn't mean the intention is to fly under the radar either; not only do they hope to make a noise when the North Queensland Cowboys have a home game, but they've made themselves easy for visitors to Townsville to find their way to Tiny Mountain.
“We’ve got a bloody big sign on the roof up there, about 30 metres long, so people can see it when they’re flying in,” Chris says.
“You can’t miss us.”
Tiny Mountain Brewery is set to open in late February or early March – just in time for the start of footy season.
Mick Wüst is the author of the book Beer Drinker's Toolkit, a fun and approachable guide to beer. He's also a freelance copywriter for the beer industry. You can find him on Instagram as Schoonerversity.
The beer(s) or moment(s) that turned you on to good beer:
I'm sure I'd had good beers before this, but the first barrel-aged imperial stout I ever tried made me feel like Popeye with spinach.
You've got three beers to turn someone else on to good beer; what are they and why?
- Balter XPA
- Wayward Raspberry Berliner Weisse
- Boatrocker Ramjet
The last beer you enjoyed:
A IIPA from Woopi Brewing that tasted like fruit salad and resin.
Three things that represent you:
- Book - World War Z (seriously, give it a go - it's better than it sounds)
- Travel - Greece
- Food - all the bread and hot chips
