Following the tax excise on beer increasing again on February 5, another brewery has fallen victim to the Australian craft beer recession.

The excise has added about 90c to the cost of every pint in a blow to both beer lovers and brewers.

Australian Brewers Guild, trading as Hawkers Beer and based in Reservoir in Melbourne, has appointed DBA Reconstruction & Advisory as its administrator. 

Hawkers founder and managing director Mazen Hajjar said: “Post Covid has been a challenging period with bigger players increasingly restricting access to taps and shelf space, combined with broader economic pressures, including increased input costs and taxes. However, we are confident that the restructuring will ensure the business is in a stronger position to fight these challenges going forward.”  

The Independent Brewers Association (IBA) has called on government to adopt common sense reforms to ensure Australia’s vibrant independent brewing industry is not squeezed out of the market in favour of large multinational businesses.  

The IBA said: “In an environment where small breweries simply cannot keep absorbing costs – the Federal Government are the only ones that have the power to provide immediate relief.”

It has called on the Federal Government to implement three measures that would provide immediate relief by reducing the regulatory burden – even on a temporary basis:

1. Freezing indexation of alcohol excise for a period of two years.
2. The excise remission cap of $350,000 that was introduced in July 2021, should be indexed in line with inflation
3. Extending terms for repayment of excise debts that were deferred during the covid years. 

IBA CEO Kylie Lethbridge, said “Every time excise rates go up, my first thought is how many of our independent breweries are going to survive this round and who will close next.”

Price of a pint predicted to hit $15