The rise of the brew pub: Kaiju! takes a crafty approach

The graphic style they adopted for their Kaiju! Brand, which was initially cider and then a “very hoppy” beer (the first batch of which sold out in days), reflected chief brewer Nat Reeves’ obsession with the Japanese comic style Kaiju, which means “strange creature”.

From one tank in someone else’s brewhouse to a full-scale operation of their own in Dandenong, Kaiju! now produces six to seven different beers in its core range. And the high-key-colour graphics on the cans have evolved into a fantastical family of characters including Diatamatic Hopzilla and Betelgeuse.

The evolution of this outfit that markets itself as light-heartedly idiosyncratic mirrors the growth trajectory of the craft beer sector over the past decade.

Older brother Callum Reeves 43, who runs the admin and marketing, says when the brand began from a fraternal urge to make a more flavoursome alternate to big-name Aussie beers, “there were probably 100 to 150 other [small] breweries – total”.

Today, according to economic data on the sector, there are some 600-plus craft brewers in Australia, and their nationwide sales growth is expected to reap around $959 million in 2021-2022. The caution is, however, that with so many operators now in the space, newer players might find their profit margins harder won.

The sector advisors say that as ever more entrants jostle for space in “the candy store” of craft beer shelves in liquor outlets, the best bet for brand viability is to do what Kaiju! did and open a distinctive “brewpub”.

Continuing with their magnificently eccentric concoction of cultural appropriations – and in the deeply un-hipster south-eastern Melbourne suburb of Huntingdale – Kaiju! this month opened their Cantina, a venue where aficionados can drink and eat pizza in a converted warehouse.

As traditional Australian pubs close down, or see their Victorian facades become the lobbies to new apartment developments, so the brewpubs are rising in their place. The generic building style is the converted warehouse or, at least, some structure that started out as rugged industrial.

Architecture and interior design competitions are showcasing more of these interesting adaptions. Last year’s EAT DRINK Design awards shortlisted two craft brew venues in the bar part of the competition, and though very different, their aim was to inject a degree of sophistication into raw, pre-loved structures.

Name architects, interior and lighting designers are paid big bucks for the hybrid makeover projects.

The Kauji! Cantina took a different tack to hipster chic. Architects We Are Humble took heed of the Reeve brother’s established graphic aesthetic and added to it their love of daggy, mid-century Melbourne suburbia. The architects came up with a hopped-up, highly coloured beer hall that Callum says, “has an incredible architectural resonance for me”.

He hopes that when customers walk in through the roller door and see the revived space with its Mikey Burton wall murals (he did the cans too), the bright orange bar with the wrought-iron detailing, the striped canvass awning, and the vanilla brick planters, they’ll get onto the sense of fun times just waiting to be had.

Did we mention the 1960s Toyota Coaster van converted into a children’s play space? “My original thought,” Callum says, “had been a caravan or converted bus.”

Kim Lai from We Are Humble says one of the challenges in what had been a mechanic’s workshop was “to break up a cavernous space into more intimate zones: the zone for date night or groups of two to four has booths and banquettes. On the other side is a beer hall plan. Adjacent to the food area (with pizza oven) are open tables for big group seating.”

Harking back to the suburban referencing is that the central alley, “the hanging out space, is like a driveway in suburbia”.

The mural-adorned walls and the colours, Lai says, “are a visual representation of the brand that has product that really stands out on the shelf”.