Independent SA brewer calls last drinks
One of Adelaide’s favourite craft brewers is the latest victim of a tough operating environment for the industry and is calling closing time on a 23-year journey.
Craft brewer Big Shed Brewing has entered liquidation, following the termination of its lease at its Royal Park brewery and restaurant, citing a tough operating environment.
In a Facebook post, the company, famous for its off-kilter collaborations with brands like FruChocs and Mitani Chicken Salt, confirmed it was closing down after 23 years of independent craft beer brewing.
The company appointed Mark Lieberenz, director of Adelaide-based firm HPL, as liquidator on December 3.
Earlier in December, Big Shed told its passionate fanbase that its landlord had terminated its lease and had secured the Royal Park building: “This obviously means that for now at least we are closed”.
Yesterday, the company said that “once the lease was terminated it was a road back that we simply couldn’t walk”.
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“So now begins the process of moving out the remaining stock etc,” Big Shed said.
“Thanks to you all, your ongoing support has been amazing.
“Keep supporting small business and indie beer. It needs you now more than ever.”
Big Shed previously appointed voluntary administrators to restructure its operations in February 2024, at the time saying it had struggled to recover from the economic impact of the pandemic.
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By March 2024, the company had restructured its debts, and things were looking up, but a “tough environment to operate in” has undone Big Shed.
In a Facebook post from December 3, 2025, the company said it had let go of staff and had come up with a plan, which it claimed was shared with the landlord, “which included making sure he would see the benefit of that plan”. The Royal Park lease was terminated nonetheless.
While Big Shed did not commence commercial brewing until 2013, co-founders Jason Harris and Craig Basford’s craft beer journey dates back to 2002 when they started home brewing in a shed in the Barossa.
The pair moved into the Old Port Road site in 2019 – just before COVID. This was a 1400sqm warehouse where the company could scale up its brewing operations and host punters in a large hospitality area out the front.
But the pandemic slowed things down, with gathering restrictions a particular weight on the company’s hospitality aspirations.
As such, Basford told InDaily in 2024 that “we’d gone into more debt than we’d ever known to build this thing”.
“You just almost laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation. Of all the things we looked at before we built, a pandemic that shuts down society was not on the list.”
