When Luke Shields and Mark Howes tabbed Saturday April 1 as the official opening date of Working Title Brew Co.’s own bricks-and-mortar brewpub, they did so knowing that the date had some jocular connotations to contend with. Thankfully, Brisbane’s craft-beer drinking set knew the date was no joke – they turned out in droves to celebrate the launch of Newstead’s newest brewery and drinking den, meaning the only fools on the day were those that elected to stay home. “It was incredible, to be honest. We were blown away,” says Luke of the buzzing opening day atmosphere. “We were just flying from 12:00–7:00 pm – people seemed to be loving the beer, they loved the food, a lot of cocktails and a lot of wine.” Working Title, which launched in 2021 as a nomadic brewing outfit with a penchant for concocting wonderfully weird and wildly experimental beers, has built a name for itself thanks to its ever-changing range of quaffable beverages. A solid portion of the opening-day crowd were punters familiar with the brand’s innovative and nonconformist brewing style, but an even larger contingent were locals curious to see what had replaced long-standing pint-pouring pillar, Newstead Brewing Co., which was founded inside the Doggett Street warehouse Working Title now occupies (Newstead Brewing Co. has consolidated its operations over at its Milton hub). All launch-day guests were greeted by a brand-new internal look, with Luke and Mark expanding upon Working Title’s vivid branding to craft a 70s-inspired aesthetic via all-new signage, neon lights and new wall murals. Though the structure of the building remains the same (including the positioning of Working Title’s 100,000-L-a-year capacity brewing setup), a new set of booths, a bank of arcade games and racks of wooden casks housing the team’s barrel-aged beers add new wrinkles to the layout. Plans are in the works to liven up the street-facing entrance by converting it into an indoor beer garden, while the building’s upstairs function room will soon be converted into a cosy whisky bar space specialising in boilermakers.

While Working Title beers have appeared on bar taps and retail shelves at various booze specialists around Brisbane, the Newstead brewpub is where sippers will be able to get a comprehensive view of the range as it currently stands. Working Title will release four new beers per month, with the majority of beer kegged for bar sales, rather than wholesale. This means that favourites aren’t likely to stick around long, but they’ll always been replaced with something of a similar style – just made with some fun new flavour combinations. “I think a lot of the people that had never heard of Working Title were kind of taken aback, because they’re used to that model where you walk into a pub and you’re always gonna get the exact same beer,” says Luke of the brewpub’s approach to beer making. “But once we explain that there’ll always be a pilsner tap, there’ll always be an IPA, there’ll always be a West Coast on tap and a sour – but they’ll just be changing with different hops and we can talk through the flavours – then they get on board with the concept and the idea. A lot of them seem to find it really refreshing.” Working Title might boast one of the most interesting beer lists in Brisbane, with its opening-day 12-tap offering including the likes of Crush, a pillowy hazy DIPA with citrus and stone-fruit notes, The Place Beyond The Pines, a native pine Christmas ale boasting a woody and earthy character, Hive, a carbohydrate- and gluten-free sparkling mead made using honey and honeycomb sourced from a hive on the roof, and Moonlight & Pretzels, a salted-caramel pretzel pastry stout with a roasted biscuity profile. Beer isn’t all that’s available at Working Title, though – a wine list showcasing small-batch vino from producers like Defialy, Jilly Wines, Amato Vino and Sabi Wabi features alongside a trio of classic cocktails (negroni, whisky sour and espresso martini) and three signatures.

As for food, the venue’s on-site kitchen follows Mark and Luke’s brewing philosophy – never stagnant, flavour forward and boundary pushing. Overseeing the culinary spread is head chef Sam Kersley (previously of Mongrel in Milton and Netherworld in Fortitude Valley), who is putting his skills towards fashioning a menu that not only breaks away from the mould of conventional brewery fare, but establishes Working Title’s kitchen as a source of adventurous eats worth seeking out on its own merit. “Everything that we spoke to him about wanting to do at Working Title – with the evolving beers and the experimentation – was exactly what he wants to do with the menu,” explains Luke. “We wanna push limits and taste buds, here in Newstead especially.” Small snacks such as chips sprinkled with hopped salt, battered plantain with jalapeno cashew cream, barley arancini with fried enoki and blue cheese, and fried ponzu crocodile with furikake set an incredible tone from the outset. Bigger portions like panko-chicken sandos made with Riser bread, miso butter, plum okonomiyaki and yuzu mayo, pig head and blue cheese croquette baos, ox tongue, kimchi and gruyere toasties, beer-basted panca chilli octopus sticks with Hawaiian sweet potato, and a sirloin with kipfler potatoes and kai lan are equally, if not more, impressive. All told, Working Title is a venue that nails the balancing act between being a hop-head haven and an approachable space for punters to park their posteriors for a feed. “I think that we’ve catered well,” Luke agrees. “[Not just] for the craft-beer nerds, but also for the locals that want to come in and have some good beer, good wine and good food.”