Ballarat to become the beer capital of Australia

Brewing is booming in Ballarat. Not only is the city home to three micro-breweries, 3500 home brewers, an annual beer festival and the largest university course for home brewing in Australia, it's about to have its own mega-brewery, museum and craft beer centre.

Broo revealed last month that it was building a $100million brewery and beer museum in Ballarat, yesterday it was announced a $1.2million Australian Craft Beer Centre of Excellence is also coming to the Victorian city.  

Broo told The Australian Financial Review it would establish the world's "greenest" brewery on 15-hectares of government land it has acquired adjacent to Ballarat Western Link Road, allowing easy access for transport throughout Australia and Asia.

The brewery will employ 100 people and will include a beer museum, restaurant, visitor centre, wetlands and amphitheatre.

Chief executive Kent Grogan said it was poised to be the Australia’s third biggest brewery in terms of annual production, surpassing Coopers Brewery.

Meanwhile, The Australian Craft Beer Centre of Excellence has just received $500,000 in state government funding to begin construction. It will work in partnership with craft beer venue Hop Temple and will include a brewery, a tasting bar, teaching space and function area. 

The centre will also partner with Federation University to deliver a range of small courses and programs designed to help educate beer lovers.

Centre director Brian Taylor told The Grenfell Record the centre would provide a great asset for the city’s professional micro-brewers as well as promote Ballarat as a destination for beer enthusiasts.

“Ballarat's got a long history of beer and we want to really drive that, especially given the university has the number one beer course in the southern hemisphere,” Taylor said.  “Like the wine industry in the past, people want to experience flavour, know where the product has come from and they want a story.”