CRAFTY IDEAS POUR $62 MIN TO ECONOMY

DOZENS of Queensland entrepreneurs are brewing liquid gold to create a boo ming industry injecting $62 min to the state’ s economy and employing hundreds of workers.

From Cur rum bin to Cairns, Queensland’ s craft beer sector has exploded in the past decade, to now boa st more than 100 breweries and about 1700 workers.

Most are mates or business partners who had a dream to brew their own froth. In Toowoomba ,4 Brothers Brewing owner Adrian Cub it left his job as a train driver to launch a new venture.

“Train driving is all about shift work and back in 2014 I was working away from home at the time and I remember sitting in my mining camp room thinking I don’ t want to be doing this when I’ m 65 years old,” he said.

“I had been reading about what was then known as microbreweries.

“I had a little bit of home brewing experience with my father and always held onto the dream of one day opening my own brewery.”

A visit to Ipswich’ s 4 Hearts Brewery in 2015 prompted Mr Cub it to launch his own business.

“Ipswich had a brewery servicing their city and I was left wondering why people in the city of Toowoomba, with its large region and high visitor numbers, didn’ t yet have a brewery to call their own,” hesaid.

Mr Cub it opened the doors to 4 Brothers Brewing in April 2017 and since the first beer was poured the company has grown to turn a profit.

“We’ ve managed to win a few medals along the way, but our main focus is to brew a good variety of beers that we and our customers want to drink ,” he said. After operating for almost four years Mr Cub it has finalised a lease to move the brewery into a new venue within the Toowoomba CB D and expects to open by March 2021.

The state government’ s Craft Beer Strategy, released in November 2018, found an increasing number of craft breweries were opening in regional Queensland–with more than 20 now operating.