Flat Lizard Brewing Pty Ltd has submitted a planning application with Brisbane City Council for a brewery and taproom based in the northern suburb of Stafford.

Dan Kendrick, director of Flat Lizard Brewing along with his two brothers-in-law and two friends, plan to convert the former printing business at 18 Harvton Street into a brewpub.

According to the development application the building, which is in established industrial premises, the brewery will have 835 sqm floor space to work with.

The team plan to operate with a production licence for the brewery as well as a hotel licence for the taproom, employing a total of ten people, including three in brewery operations.

Kendrick, who has been an avid homebrewer for years, said finding the right location to lease for the brewpub has been a long process.

“This has been, what is really, a three-year process just trying to identify a site and secure it,” he said.

“In the north west part of Brisbane it is difficult to find industrial space and an overall adequate sized venue in industrial zoned areas.

“The local directors of Flat Lizard Brewing live in that area [north west Brisbane] and we have known for a long time that there is no brewery or brewpub in the area and just not a very good selection of family venues to go to either.”

Young Henrys and Grifter’s ‘lucky’ brewhouse

The space will feature a 12hL brewhouse that Kendrick has labelled a ‘lucky brewhouse’ due to its history.

“The brewhouse [that will be on site] was originally the Young Henrys brewhouse that they started out with – it built Young Henrys.

“[After Young Henrys] it was owned by The Grifter Brewing Co down in Sydney, so we have purchased it directly from Grifter.”

Kendrick said he will be sourcing malt for the beers from a friend who owns a farm near Gympie.

“He is co-locating with us to put in his pilot maltings, and will be splicing malt directly from his farms,” Kendrick said.

“We are very excited to be involved in the malting process as well and I’m really happy with the opportunity to understand the provenance of as many ingredients as possible.”

Kendrick said Flat Lizard plans to brew an array of different beer styles as well as ferment ciders made from local Queensland fruit juices.

“We love our big Indian Pale Ales but being in Queensland, you have to make plenty of allowance for lighter brews,” he said.

“We really like our classic German beers and we are big fans of craft lager, so we will try to cover most of the bases, plus cider as well.”

The development application states the brewery will be producing one to three batches of beer per week.

Milling, brewing, fermentation, conditioning, racking, transport and cleaning will all take place on site.

The first role Flat Lizard will be hiring for is a brewer, which Kendrick said he will be advertising for shortly, so the team has support with the technical details of the commercial brewing process.

Kendrick said aside from finding a brewer the team is focused on planning the refurbishments of the space.

“[We are] working our way through the mountain of details at the moment.”

The brewery will operate Monday to Friday, while the taproom will operate 12 to 11:30pm Friday and Saturday, and 12 to 9pm Sunday to Thursday.

The team currently plan to open the doors to the brewpub for the public in the third quarter of 2020.

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