Five Barrel Brewing, a new Wollongong, NSW venture from father-and-son duo Mike and Phillip O’Shea, is slated to open soon.

Both keen homebrewers, the O’Sheas have decided to take the next step, leasing a property at 318 Keira Street to accommodate their own nanobrewery and cellar door.

Ex-Navy Mike is semi-retired, while Phillip founded online beer retailer, craftybrew.com.au, which further ignited his brewing passions.

“Tasting so many different beers from around Australia, it really expanded my horizons and introduced me to a whole range of different beer styles that I wasn’t too familiar with, but now thoroughly enjoy,” he told Australian Brews News.

“We’ve got quite a wide selection of beers that we like to brew. We are starting off with a nice crisp Cream Ale, that’s our gateway beer. We’ve also got a Pale Ale, an Amber Ale and my family really likes Stouts.

318 Keira St, Wollongong, where Five Barrel will be based

“We’re also into sours, so we’ll be starting a barrel program shortly after launch. We’ll keep the core range of beers to about four and then we’ll just make sure that we have seasonal and one-offs that we rotate through,” he said.

The O’Sheas will be running a 600L brewing system, with on-site tastings and packaged sales available.

“We’re anticipating to be ready around September,” said Phillip.

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