Page 54 - Tropic Magazine Issue 12

Lifestyle
Hospitality

Craig Parsell
realise there’s nothing like drinking from a tough period. How confident
beer at the same venue it’s made. Fresh are you about the future of the city and
is best and you can’t get fresher than how that might impact on your
what we’ll be brewing on site at the operations?
Cruise Liner Terminal. We have a great deal of confidence. Our
top line revenue expectations at Port
What’s on o fer once people get inside Douglas were exceeded very quickly and
the brewery? we feel bullish about what we’re going
We’ve got seven core beers brewed on to achieve in Cairns. e market
Tony Fyfe site, and when we open we intend to internationally is trending this way and
For whom the beer tolls have 10 of our own core beers. In total we know there’s growth ahead for cra t
there’ll be 48 taps in the venue, which beer in Australia, and Cairns in
e opening of Hemingways will include the beers we make on site particular. Our challenge is to convert
Brewery in Cairns heralds a along with a good selection of other the XXXX and Great Northern beer
new era of beer drinking cra t beers from around the world. drinkers. It costs more to produce a
goodness in the Tropical North. Hemingways Brewery is all about litre of cra t beer than a litre of
rediscovering how beer is supposed to commercial beer because they are more
Words Gavin King taste. We’ll also have a takeaway bottle automated and have scale. But you can’t
shop so you can take Hemingways beer beat the fresh taste that we’ll produce
ere’s never been a more exciting time e micro-revolution started with How did you first discover the Cairns home with you. on site.
to be a beer drinker in Cairns. As our Hemingways Brewery Port Douglas, Cruise Liner Terminal as a potential
tastes evolve and the provenance of beer opened by Tony and his business venue for Hemingways Brewery You announced the expansion into
takes precedence, we’re realising partner Craig Parsell at the Port Cairns? Cairns at a time when the local
mass-produced commercial brews Douglas marina in 2016. Macalister We were already working on the idea to economy was (and still is) emerging
made in distant factories thousands of Brewing Company followed at open in Cairns prior to the opening in
kilometres away no longer cut it. When Smithfield a year later, while Barrier Port Douglas. It was always our intention
it comes to beer, fresh is best. Or, as Reef Brewing Co. and Coral Reef to have multiple venues. As soon as we
Hemingways Brewery co-owner Tony Brewing Company add to the mix of saw the Cruise Liner Terminal we knew it
Fyfe puts it: “Beer doesn’t like to travel.” local amber liquid on o fer. was the right fit for us. Ports North
Up until recently, Cairns had been in is June, the local cra t beer scene would agree it was the right fit for them
the grip of a local amber liquid drought. enters a bold new era with the opening as well because it had been empty for
In the 1920s, our burgeoning town was of Hemingways Brewery at the Cairns some time and they wanted the right
kept hydrated by the Cairns Brewery Cruise Liner Terminal. e magnificent tenant in there. It has all the attributes
Company, opened in 1924. But it went heritage-listed atmosphere of the venue we were looking for and has similarities
bust within a few years and was taken is the perfect setting for what will be to our Port Douglas venue with being on
over by a new entity called Northern the region’s largest selection of national the water and having that maritime feel.
Australian Breweries. at operation and international cra t beers in the ere’s nothing like it in Cairns. It’s a
was bought out by brewing giant region, alongside 10 Hemingways’ unique venue.
Carlton United in 1931 and operated brews made on site.
here until 1992. Apart from the e project – estimated to cost more Tell us about some of the work you’ve
short-lived Blue Sky Brewery, our city than $6 million – is a massive done to transform the space.
had been without locally brewed ales undertaking. We had a lot of constraints due to the
since then. Tropic caught up with Tony Fyfe as his heritage of the building. For example,
Now, we’re blessed with a cra t beer team prepares to open the doors in we weren’t allowed to penetrate the roof
scene that was virtually unthinkable late-June. so there were challenges around
just a couple of years ago. extractions from the kitchen, and there
were restrictions on where we could
place the brewing tanks. ere were
definitely some challenges, but if it was
easy everybody would be doing it.

What type of customer are you hoping
to attract?
We’re very keen to convey that this will
be a brewery for locals. We know
there’s a cra t beer journey that the city
is on. e United States and the capital
cities in Australia are a lot further
down the path of that journey so
there’s an education process involved.
We’re confident it will go well once
people get to taste the di ference and

54 • tropicnow.com.au