What it costs to buy a brewery in Australia

Live Australian listings run from $570,000 for a Northern Beaches taproom brewery to $3.45m for a Lismore brewery and distillery venue, and $3m for a Thornbury brewery with its freehold. A turnkey Hobart fit-out asks $399,000. Price follows taproom trade, equipment and freehold, and lenders are cautious after recent closures.

A brewery is priced on what it earns at the taproom and in wholesale, what the brewhouse would fetch second hand, and whether the land comes with it. That is why a Northern Beaches taproom brewery asks $570,000 while a Thornbury brewery with its freehold asks $3,000,000. Excise moves the profit more than most buyers expect, and three years of closures have made lenders careful. This guide covers seven live listings, the excise remission, equipment value, licences and costs on top, and how a purchase is funded.

What breweries sell for

If you are weighing the venue side, read our guide to buying a pub; for a winery, see buying a vineyard. The table surveys live listings on Business For Sale (BFS) and Bsale on 22 October 2026. Figures are the vendor's, indicative market data and not Ventas offers. SAV means stock at valuation, paid on top. A hectolitre (hL) is 100 litres.

Four things stand out. Profit is almost never shown: only Northern Beaches states owner earnings, and it asks about 2.7 times them (our arithmetic). Where turnover is shown, asking prices run from 0.39 times (Brisbane, leasehold, on 2023 revenue) to 1.5 times (Thornbury, freehold included), also our arithmetic. No listing states the rent or lease term, so ask for both first. Price follows premises and trade, not brewhouse size: Newcastle asks $2m for a brewery plus two venues, Hobart $399,000 for a 1,200 L fit-out. And these are vendor numbers: the Thornbury broker does not warrant the accuracy of the financials, and the Hobart listing says its key features text is AI generated. BFS listed no brewery for sale in WA or South Australia that day.

Closures, tap contracts and the market a buyer walks into

Read the table against its market. The Independent Brewers Association (IBA) counts 619 independent breweries in July 2026 and cites at least 80 closures over the past three years. It said in March 2025 that 48 per cent of independent breweries struggle to retain profitability, and in February 2026 that 83 per cent of draught taps in Australia are contracted to two foreign-owned multinationals. These are the IBA's own figures, but the press cases fit them.

• Six String Brewing on the Central Coast appointed administrators (reported 12 June 2026), citing rising costs, increased excise and inflation, while saying its sales were still growing.
• Black Hops on the Gold Coast entered voluntary administration on 21 July 2026, its second in just over two years, after a sale fell through at the last minute. Its assets were listed with Argus Auctions, then existing shareholders and supporters bought the business out of administration.

For a buyer this cuts both ways. Prices are being cut, as Brisbane's has been, and used equipment is coming to market. It is also why wholesale accounts and tap contracts need checking line by line: ask which the vendor can show in writing, and how long each runs. Newcastle's 25 taps sit under a two-year contract.

Excise and the remission scheme

Excise is where a brewery differs most from other food and drink businesses. This is general information, not tax advice.

The cap is a ceiling: excise above it is payable as normal. The ATO is also looking harder at who claims. BDO reports checks on shared premises, equipment or people and on contract manufacturing, with targeted pre-licensing reviews from September 2026 and closer review of new participants in their first two years from October 2026. For a buyer, three questions follow. Do the vendor's claims reconcile to its excise returns? Is the brewery independent of any other business you own? Does it make its own beer rather than rely on contract brewing? Ask your accountant how the remission applies to you before you sign.

Equipment, goodwill and what a lender will value

Used stainless has a market. These are 2023 posts that may no longer be available, so read them as price points for used plant, not offers.

Going-concern listings state their own asset figures. Brisbane says assets of over $1,000,000 against an ask of $900,000 plus SAV. Lismore claims over $3.2m of brewing equipment against $3.45m. Thornbury lists over $600,000 of plant and equipment inside a $3m price that includes the freehold. These are vendor claims, not valuations. Where the price is close to the vendor's own equipment figure, you are paying little for goodwill, and a lender will test that figure against what the equipment would fetch second hand.

That test is what happens when a brewery fails. In July 2024 Hymans ran an online-only auction on behalf of Mackay Goodwin and various financiers, clearing The Grand Ridge Brewing Company and The Patch Brewery, both in liquidation: a 2012 10,000 litre brew line, a 2019 Canpro can filler and stainless fermenters, with a 13.5 per cent buyer's premium plus GST on every lot. That is a lender's downside case, and it is why brewhouse equipment supports a loan but rarely all of one.

Licences, lease and what you pay on top

The asking price is rarely the cheque. A lender will ask you to show these costs.

Transfer duty depends on the state and the contract. New South Wales does not charge duty on goodwill, intellectual property, liquor licences or stock, but land, leases and fixtures are dutiable. Queensland and Western Australia treat goodwill, licences and plant as business assets that can be dutiable; WA excludes stock-in-trade and has a concessional rate at $200,000 or less. Victoria charges no duty on fixtures worth $2 million or less when you buy a business without the land. Whether plumbed-in tanks count as fixtures or movable plant is a question for your solicitor, so get the split written into the contract. Freehold, as at Thornbury, brings duty on the land. Confirm with your accountant before you sign.

Licences do not move on settlement day. Ask your solicitor to make settlement conditional on the liquor licence transfer, the excise licence position and landlord consent.

Financing a brewery purchase

Lenders are cautious about craft brewing. After at least 80 closures in three years, two Black Hops administrations and draught taps held by two multinationals, expect some lenders to decline a brewery purchase and others to want a large share from you. We have not sourced a published standard loan-to-value for brewery purchases, so we do not quote one. Ventas is a finance broker, not a lender, so we do not quote rates here. They change with the lender, the security and the file.

Illustrative only, subject to lender assessment. A realistic leasehold taproom brewery at an $800,000 asking price:

And how it is typically funded across lender types:

Debt here is $450,000, about 56 per cent of the asking price (our arithmetic). Equipment finance is sized on what used brewing equipment would resell for, which can be less than the vendor allocates, and taproom fit-out resells poorly. A property-backed loan secured on your home or another property can fund the equity gap, or most of the purchase, because the lender relies on the property instead of the brewery. The cost is that your property is at risk if the brewery fails.

What makes a brewery deal fundable:

• Brewhouse as security. A brewhouse, fermenters and packaging line a lender can value and sell, with age and condition documented.
• Freehold. Land and buildings are a steadier asset than tanks.
• Taproom trading history. Two to three years of financials that reconcile to BAS, bank statements and excise returns, with taproom, wholesale and packaged sales shown separately.
• Documented wholesale and remission. Written accounts and tap contracts with the term left on each, and evidence the brewery qualifies for the remission now and under your ownership.
• Lease and people. A committed lease at least as long as the loan if you do not own the site, and a head brewer who stays through handover.

To get a number from Ventas, send the listing, the brewhouse size in hL and its age, the sales split between taproom, wholesale and packaged, two to three years of financials and BAS, the lease or title, and your security. Start at brewery finance, see business acquisition finance and hospitality finance, or read how to finance packaging or bottling equipment. Finance is subject to lender assessment and approval.

This is general information only and not financial, credit, or tax advice. Figures are indicative market data from the sources listed, not Ventas offers, and move with the market. Consider your own circumstances and speak to a professional. All finance is subject to lender assessment and approval.

This article is general information only and not financial, credit, or tax advice. Ventas Asset Lending is a finance broker, not a lender. Approvals are subject to lender assessment. Consider your own circumstances and speak to a qualified professional, including your accountant for any tax questions.