Hip Hops Brewers is heading to Japan this week, joining a Moreton Bay trade delegation bound for SusHi Tech Tokyo 2026, one of Asia’s largest global innovation conferences, armed with award-winning beer, a gold medal lager already known in Japan, and serious ambitions for what a small regional brewery can achieve on the world stage.
The timing is significant. The brewery won 19 medals at the recent Royal Queensland Beer Awards, its best result yet, including three gold, 11 silver and four bronze.
That haul arrives just as owner and director Shaun Reeves boards a flight to Tokyo Big Sight, where the three-day event draws city leaders from 49 countries, 750 startup exhibitors and more than 10,000 pre-arranged business meetings between organisations looking for international partners and collaborators.
For a brewery that opened inside The Sheds precinct in 2023 and took years to get off the ground through freight delays, construction holdups and licensing complexity, the invitation to join the Moreton Bay overseas trade mission is a meaningful chapter.
“If you look at our little brewery you might say we’re a fair way away from having this sort of capacity to be a major export player,” Reeves said. “But if we had niche collaborations, niche partnerships we could look at possibilities and take advantage.”
The Beer That Already Has a Fan in Japan
Hip Hops Brewers is not walking into Tokyo cold. The brewery already has a profile there, built around one of its most inventive recent creations.
Late last year, when a delegation from Sanyo-Onoda visited Moreton Bay to mark the region’s 33-year friendship city relationship with the Japanese city, Reeves was asked to create a commemorative beer for the occasion.
The result was Tomodachi Lager, which translates to “friendship beer,” a Japanese-style rice lager built around two locally sourced ingredients: sea lettuce grown by researchers at the University of the Sunshine Coast Moreton Bay campus and yuzu citrus from a farm in Gympie.
“I had an idea for a sushi beer,” Reeves said. “(We) used fresh Moreton Bay seaweed sea lettuce, produced by UniSC, balanced it with yuzu from a farm in Gympie and came up with a beer we were happy with.”
The beer went on to win gold in the Hybrid Beer section at this year’s Royal Queensland Beer Awards. Last week, the Mayor of Sanyo-Onoda sent Reeves a letter of congratulations. “Which made my day!” Reeves said.
What Tokyo Holds for a Regional Brewery
Moreton Bay is one of the confirmed city partners at SusHi Tech Tokyo 2026, running its own reverse pitch session at the event, essentially inviting Japanese startups and organisations to identify collaboration opportunities with Moreton Bay businesses.
It is a format designed for deal-making, not just networking, and it places the delegation, and Hip Hops Brewers alongside it, in front of exactly the kind of Japanese organisations the brewery could partner with.
Reeves is going in with two parallel lines of inquiry. Through connections the City of Moreton Bay holds with Sanyo-Onoda and other Japanese partners, he wants to explore whether niche collaboration, perhaps a contract brewing arrangement, a co-branded product or a distribution foothold, could create a genuine export pathway for a brewery of Hip Hops’ scale.
The second thread is about what to bring back. Reeves has flagged one particular ambition.
“Is there a way we can get Queensland’s first sake production going?” Reeves said.
The delegation is paying its own way. Reeves is clear-eyed about what the trip is and is not.
“This is certainly not a junket. It’s a great opportunity to go because it can open doors a business operator would not be able to open,” he said.
He has also been working with Trade and Investment Queensland ahead of the trip to explore specific opportunities, going to Tokyo with groundwork already laid rather than starting from scratch at the conference.
Beers Built from Local Stories
Back in Brendale, the Royal Queensland medal haul reflects a brewing programme that is deeply embedded in the geography and history of the region.
Reeves’ approach to naming his beers, built around alliteration, local history and a genuine love of a good backstory, has produced a range that reads like a map of the Moreton Bay and northern Brisbane area: Lakeside Lager, Samford Sessions, Redcliffe Red, Petrie Pilsner, Samsonvale Stout and Griffin Golden Ale among them.
One recent award winner carries a story worth telling. Brentdale Buddies, which won silver in the Amber Dark Ale category, was a collaboration with Buddy Brewing from Burpengary. Buddy Brewing proposed an Irish red ale, and Reeves went looking for the Irish heritage in South Pine Road’s history.
“It was from the Davis family that (developer) Bill Bowden bought land and named his horse stud Brendale,” Reeves said. “That was after the Davis family’s original property back in Ireland called Brentdale. So there’s no spelling mistake… Bill just shortened it to Brendale.”
Visit the Taproom
Hip Hops Brewers operates from The Sheds at 264 South Pine Road, Brendale, a converted truck workshop with 21 taps, an in-house kitchen, a beer garden, live music and a dog-friendly outdoor area. The brewery is family-friendly and open for walk-ins, with weekend bookings recommended to avoid disappointment. Surcharges apply on public holidays.
For bookings and enquiries, phone (07) 3448 9339 or message via the Hip Hops Brewers Facebook page. Follow the brewery on Instagram at @hiphopsbrewers for updates on the Tokyo trip and new seasonal releases.
Published 25-April-2026
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