So here we are. Ballistic Beer Co Blog number 1. Exciting times ahead for us and lots of info to spew out of my brain and onto the screen, I guess for this post though I should introduce us and then tell you a little about Ballistic Beer.
My name is Lachy Crothers. I am Head Brewer and sole full time employee at the brewery, at the moment. Besides brewing up a storm on our 200L Pilot Kit, I am currently pretending to be our Gardener, Project Manager, Cleaner, Engineer, Office Manager, Copywriter and Receptionist. Basically I’m in charge of taking our place from a 1000spm warehouse space to a fully functioning, 25HL production brewery with bar and tasting room attached.
As a bit of background on myself, I cut my teeth at Gage Roads Brewing Co in Perth. I started there in early 2010 and spent the next 5 years working predominately in Brewing but also in Packaging and Engineering. At the end of 2014 I threw in the towel to travel Europe and drink beer for the next 12 months with my soon to become fiancé. I did a short stint at Camden Town Brewery in London before accepting the job as Head Brewer with David (at the then unnamed) Ballistic Beer Co here in Brisbane, QLD.
David Kitchen (affectionately known to me as Bossman) is the Founder/Managing Director/Commander In Chief/Big Dog. He is the business brains of the operation. He currently owns and runs the Brewers Choice chain of homebrew stores in addition to Ballistic Beer Co. He spends most of his time working at the Brewers Choice Head Office doing his “real job”. I am lucky enough to have him in the office every Friday where I get to annoy him about making decisions and allowing me to spend money on nice shiny things, while we try to hold off as long as we can before drinking a beer.
So Ballistic Beer Co - we are based in Salisbury, according to Google Maps, 16mins from the CBD via the M3. Hmm… good to know. Salisbury has a history of manufacturing ammunition back in the WW2 days and we have set up in a big old shed which, although unconfirmed, we like to think was used for such purposes. As a business, our main focusses are on making high quality beer and helping to grow and educate about good beer.
As it stands, on site, we have a freshly installed cool room (that takes up nearly 80sqm), a 5000L ambient water tank, aforementioned pilot kit with one fermenter and an air compressor. Our brewhouse and fermentation vessels have been ordered and are currently being manufactured by Chinese crew Tiantai. I’ll be over to China to inspect all of our equipment in about a month but more on that later. The next big task to be completed is having the floors cut up, drains installed and all of the additional plumbing works completed. If all goes to plan, we should have this started in the next couple of weeks. Also power upgrade starts next week.
With no official opening date set, the plan is to open doors sometime in early November. In saying that, this will become a reality if we don’t have any other hold ups, Council DA issues, the manufacture and shipping of our brewing equipment runs to schedule and also relies on my ability to get it all commissioned and running ASAP. But never fear, we will have beer for you in time for summer!
The beers… We will have 4 beers that will be on all day, every day and then a rotating list of some different and experimental beers I have brewed on the pilot kit and some exiting and slightly different collaborations that we have lined up. More details later regarding the beers as we will play those cards close to our chests for the moment.
Stay tuned for updates and advancements.
Peace out,
Lachy
