Craft-beer start-up has eyes on expansion from Adelaide to Asia

Small Beer launched last month with a handful of independent Australian craft breweries on its books, including Mismatch Brewing, Pirate Life, Smiling Samoyed, Hawkers and West City Brewing. 

Based in Adelaide, Small Beer is starting with South Australian and Victorian beers, though it hopes to ramp up quickly to include craft beers from around Australia. 

It is in talks with La Sirene and Big Shed Brewing, which it hopes to have in stock by the end of the month. 

“Really there’s no limit, as long as it’s a good, consistent product, we’re happy to stock it​,” founder Evan Hayes said. 

“It’s trying to just take away that barrier to getting good beer from an independent producer that maybe doesn’t have much reach with their distribution channels and being able to get that to someone who’s interested in beer​. 

“We’re shipping all around Australia straight to people’s door​.” 

Customers can buy specific beers or sign up to a monthly subscription service where mixed six-packs or cases of Australian craft beer are delivered to give them a chance to try a variety of brews. 

“It’s focusing on Australian breweries that are a little bit quirky, crafty and niche to get their name out there and build distribution through a previously unavailable channel​,” Hayes said. 

“We’re trying to build up that level of trust to where people can say ‘if it’s on the Small Beer website’ then it must be good​.”

He said the ability to deliver beer while it was still fresh was a key feature of the model. 

“We’re not selling anything that we don’t have in stock, so it’ll be shipped within two days​,” Hayes added. 

The founder came up with the idea while living in America, where he was impressed by the highly developed craft beer industry. 

“In America, the independent craft scene is quite established and it’s about to blow up here​. 

“We’ll be focusing on Australia to start with but possibly down the track we’ll look at going to Southeast Asia and maybe China​. 

“We’re thinking about possibly including cider as well​.”