Despite the connotations of their name, Black Hops is firmly on the radar of local beer lovers. The trio of Queensland-based brewers set out to become the first crowd-funded brewery in Australia, and yesterday smashed their funding target within less than 24 hours of going live.

The band of brewers has been operating covertly, borrowing space at other Queensland breweries, including Bacchus and 4Hearts, and will now expand into their own space in north Burleigh Heads.

Eddie Oldfield, Michael McGovern (Govs) and Dan Norris started Black Hops 18 months ago, when a chat at the bar ended with Govs using a home-brew system to create eggnog stout in his girlfriend’s home yoga studio.

“It was a bit of a joke at first, but people really liked it,” Norris says.

“We decided to start blogging about it and people in the industry really liked it, and it just grew.”

To follow the stout, the boys created a Beach House Ale, based on a French/Belgium farmhouse style wheat beer called saison.

“It’s a saison but made as something you’d drink on the beach. So it’s less full on, a bit more hop character, with more of an Australian feel to it.”

Black Hops really took off after Activision, the gaming company that produces Call of Duty, asked the guys to brewing an official beer for the Call of Duty: Black Ops III.

“They asked us to partner with them for the launch. We used midnight wheat and brewed in black bottles, so the end result looked like a black beer but tasted like a pale ale.”

The team called on friends, family and dedicated fans to help fund the upcoming brewery, smashing through their $10,000 goal (to supplement their own investments) in less than 24 hours.

The Burleigh Heads brewing site is only 200m from the beach, nearby popular Paddock Bakery, and will feature a tasting room, cellar door and brewery tours, with an initial core range of six beers.

“We’re going to have the Beach House, plus a Gold Coast pale ale, Pink Mist (raspberry saison), ABC bomb (black IPA) and Code Rad (red IPA).”

The Pozible campaign will pay for their bottling machine, and the team is considering an extension of the campaign to allow customers to take home reusable growlers and squealers as well.

If you’re outside Queensland, check out some of our favourite breweries here, and the beers we recommend sipping this summer here.