Ten years at Ironworks Yard.
A twelve-hectolitre brewhouse in an old chain-makers’ shed — small enough to brew what we like, big enough to keep the taps from ever running dry.
It started with a fifty-litre kettle and a garage door open to the street.
Neighbours kept wandering in to ask what the smell was. Eventually we put out a bench, then a second one, then a licence. The kit is two hundred times bigger now, but the door is still open.
Rae, Felix and Sofia run the tools between them. Nothing here is brewed somewhere else and trucked in — if it’s on the board, it came out of the tank forty feet away.
How an Ironbark beer happens.
Mash small, mash often
Twelve hectolitres at a time — small enough that a batch is gone in weeks, so nothing sits around going stale.
Ferment without shortcuts
Every beer gets the time it needs, not the time the calendar allows. The lager takes six weeks; the lager waits six weeks.
Pour it forty feet away
From tank to tap in the next room, or into cans filled on site, dated on the bottom, sold cold.
Four things we won't budge on.
Not brewery poetry — the working rules behind everything on the board.
Fresh
Small batches, sold close to home, brewed again. Check the date on the can.
Local
Malt from the Darling Downs, and the yard’s spent grain goes to a farm ten minutes away.
Honest
The ABV is on the board, the allergens are on the sheet, and if a batch missed, it never left the tank.
Open doors
The brewhouse is behind glass, the tours are weekly, and questions at the bar are part of the job.
A brew day in pictures.
What the shed actually looks like when the kettle’s on.
The brewhouse
Twelve hectolitres, behind glass
The canning line
Small runs, dated cans
The taproom
Long benches, twelve taps
Saturday tours
2pm, ends in a flight
The barrel corner
Where the porter sleeps
The yard
Sun trap from four o’clock
The people behind the taps.
Three of us on the tools, plus a taproom full of unpaid quality control.
Rae Donnelly
Founder & Head Brewer
Felix Okonkwo
Brewer & Cellar
Sofia Marsh
Taproom & Tours
Come see where it's made.
The Saturday tour is an hour in the brewhouse and a flight at the bar — or just come drink the results, Thursday to Sunday.