Matilda Bay to move to Cascade, close Port Melbourne

Hot on the heels of Lion’s announcement yesterday that it would be relocating the White Rabbit brewery to Geelong, CUB has today announced it will close the Matilda Bay Garage in Port Melbourne, moving production to Cascade in Tasmania.

The move will see CUB invest in small batch capability at Cascade, closing the Port Melbourne facility and brew bar in March 2015.

While Port Melbourne has been positioned as the ‘home’ of the Matilda Bay brand, production of many of the award-winning beers rapidly outgrew the facility. This saw production then moving to Cascade and, in the case of Fat Yak, eventually to CUB’s Yatala brewery in Queensland.

CUB Chief Brewer Jaideep Chandrasekharan said that with Cascade producing an increasing number of the Matilda Bay beers, it made sense for the brewery to have a small batch capacity.

The current 25 hectolitre Port Melbourne brewery won’t be replicated, with CUB looking to increase the small batch brewery size to keep up with growth in the craft market.

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