Image: Luke Marsden

A new brewery venture specialising in lagers is set to open next year in Eagleby, Queensland.

The $6 million project, dubbed Perentie Brewing Co, is led by Zarraffa’s Coffee and Tonken Property Group co-founder Kenton Campbell with Burleigh Brewing assisting in the planning and execution of the project.

The announcement follows the rising popularity of breweries in precincts, as seen with Bridge Road Brewers in Brunswick and the Sunshine Coast beverage precinct attracting funding last year.

“There’s not really something of this nature that is located in the epicentre of South East Queensland,” Campbell told Brews News.

“Perentie was created around a love affair of traditional lager beer that’s still craft-orientated and kept simple.”

The project will launch in Distillery Road Market’s 17,000 square metre precinct, a development by Tonken Property Group, and will feature a taphouse along with the one-million-litre brewery.

Having known Peta and Brennan Fielding, co-founders of Burleigh Brewing, for over 14 years, Campbell said it was an easy choice to approach the business to assist in the project.

Burleigh and Zarraffa’s Coffee first collaborated back in 2010 on Black Giraffe, a Black Coffee Lager, which went on to win four World Beer Championship gold medals.

“I’ve always wanted to establish a brewery, so naturally when the opportunity came up, I went straight to Peta and Brennan,” Campbell said.

“They’re helping me bring Perentie to life. They have a wealth of knowledge that I’m drawing from to make something new and authentic. They’ve been really incredible to work with.”

Burleigh Brewing’s Peta Fielding explained that the latest venture between the two is a “unique” partnership.

“It’s probably not a partnership or a relationship that really has a name or a clear way to describe it, because I’m sure it’s never been done before,” she told Brews News.

“It’s really very unique and really built from our close relationship and our respect and understanding for each other’s businesses.”

Peta explained that Burleigh has been providing guidance across multiple aspects of the project with Brennan Fielding assisting in designing the brewery itself.

“We’ve been closely engaged with them all the way along with the ‘How do you set up? How do you run it? What do you do? What do you need for all that stuff?’ And we’ll be continuing to be involved as it’s up and running,” she said.

A dense market

Given that Eagleby is situated halfway between the Gold Coast and Brisbane, this new partnership could be seen as Burleigh Brewing backing a potential competitor.

When asked whether this was the case, Peta Fielding explained it’s not a concern, and commended how the collegiate nature of the industry has evolved.

“No, we’re definitely working together, and we did a beer together way back [Black Giraffe] and will probably be brewing that up there with them,” she said.

“They have a very clear sense of what they want to do with an amazing facility that they’re building and the broader events space that they’re building up there, and the brewery is just one part of that.

“We want the craft beer industry as a whole to be putting out great beer and the reputation of the whole industry to be amazing and that’s another little part we can play to help that happen with this particular project.”

Having reached 15 years in business last year, adapting to changing landscapes is not new for the brewery and continues to be a blessing, according to Fielding.

“Maybe for 10 years, there was no other brewery on the Gold Coast when we were brewing and many times since then, we’ve been asked, ‘how has it changed now that there’s competitors?’ and honestly it was harder then when we were having to tell the whole story on our own,” she explained.

“It was tough stuff. So we had that job to do as well as selling beer. And now there’s a lot of us doing that job and helping all of us.”

For Perentie, the goal is to establish itself as a South East Queensland first and foremost, according to Kenton Campbell.

“We will eventually seek partners, but we want them to understand that Perentie is not just another lager, we want to be the lager of choice,” he said.

“Perentie isn’t going to be everywhere, we want it to remain special and keep to our foundation ideals of being traditional lager brewed locally.

“Right now we’re driven just to start brewing, get it open and be accepted by the locals.

“I want to make sure if we do grow it’s grown on merit. But if we just establish ourselves as a localised favourite, then I’m already happy.”

Perentie Brewing Co. is set to open to the public in mid-2023 at Distillery Road Market in Eagleby.