Stoic Brewing’s owners, Andrew and Steve Prosser, are relieved that what they considered to be an “unrealistic” restraint on their business was recently removed by Kiama Council.

The Development Consent granted late last year for an extension of the micro-brewing business, on Rowlins Road Gerringong, had been given on a five year trial.

On staff recommendation, the February Council Meeting voted to remove this limit and deemed it “not justified” as it is “not a requirement under the Kiama LEP for an artisan food and drink industry”.

The five year time limit was considered unreasonable given the uncertainty it would cause for ongoing business operations.

“Trial periods are not recommended as good town planning practice,” noted the staff report.

This comes as a great relief to the owners who are set to invest a further $1 million into the brewery.

Stoic's current bar is in the brewing room

“The five year restriction was a real threat to our business,” says Andrew.

“This is a very capital intensive business on which we have very long loans because no-one has the cash upfront to pay for stainless steel vats and the other equipment.

“We found it super un-realisitic to have a five year restraint as it impacted on our ability to borrow.

“We approached Council to discuss this and Ed Patterson helped us. He spoke to our town planner very promptly,” Andrew says.

“The new Council saw our view.”

His father Steve also speaks highly of the new administration.

“We were disappointed that the old Council wasn’t supportive of our expansion. But this result is good.

“The new CEO Jane is great, she came to view our operation. It feels like she is with us and we have support.

“I’m so excited about expanding next door – excited that this venue will be one of the best in NSW.

“We have a fabulous community behind us. People are keen to buy from people they know.

“They want a good natural product, and they want to spend their money with local people who own the business.”

That money is going to job creation in the community and putting Gerringong on the micro-brewing map – Little Creatures Brewing did it for Fremantle, Green Beacon has done it for Brisbane’s riverside suburb of Teneriffe.

“We didn’t start out with the idea that we would create jobs for locals because we didn’t realise how big we would get,” says Andrew.

“But I do now get satisfaction off the back of creating local jobs. We might be hiring 30 people once the new half of the business is ready.

“We’ve brought manufacturing to an area that doesn’t have much. A big section of our business plan is to export out of the area.”

The new unit and five new vats – which are paid for but sitting in Griffith – will double Stoic’s production.

Then another new machine will increase it a further 35 per cent. Stoic will go from brewing 100,000 litres a year to around 400,000 litres.

“Maybe work our way up to 1 million litres a year,” says Steve. Quite an achievement considering this is only the brewery’s fourth year in business.

The special cans for this year's Kiama Jazz & Blues Festival

The two units on Rowlins Road will be linked with a much larger mezzanine level upstairs for patrons.

“Building work will begin in two weeks and the new space may be finished in six months,” says Andrew.

“The mezzanine upstairs will have big bifold doors to open up the view up to the hills – so we are moving people from the front of the brewery to the back.

“There will be no brewing equipment upstairs, but downstairs people will be able to sit around and watch the brewing and canning.”

A coffee servery will open from 6am to link to the neighbouring gym and laundromat hours.

The entrance to the brewery will be through the new unit, food trucks will continue to visit for at least one day a week and the new brewery kitchen will do burgers.

Stoic is part of this year’s Kiama Jazz and Blues Festival and music will continue every weekend, upstairs on the mezzanine level.

“We love the commemorative can they have done for the Festival,” says Festival maestro, Becky Guggisberg.