Two administrations in a little over two years, and now a new owner. Black Hops, the Gold Coast brewery known for hazy IPAs and experimental small batches, has been bought by Tribe Breweries out of its second voluntary administration. The deal was announced in a media release that The Crafty Pint published in full on Oct. 8, 2026, and Inside FMCG also reported it. The price is “commercial-in-confidence,” The Crafty Pint was told.
What Tribe gets with Black Hops
Tribe, an independent brewer based in Goulburn, New South Wales, already owns Stockade Brew Co, Mornington Peninsula Brewery and the gluten-free Wilde Brewing Co. Per the release, Black Hops will keep operating from its original Burleigh Heads taphouse and its production brewery in Biggera Waters.
On jobs, the claim comes from the buyer’s side: the release says all Queensland roles will be retained and 90% nationally, and forecasts more jobs “in the near future.” Inside FMCG put it at 100% of the Queensland workforce and “approximately 90 per cent” of national staff.
“The Gold Coast is Black Hops’ spiritual home and that’s exactly where it’s going to stay,” Tribe CEO Heath Baker said in the release. He called the deal “a clean slate for Black Hops,” adding: “we cannot ask for that trust back through one announcement; we know we need to earn it through what we do next.”
Black Hops: the transmission log
- 2014: Michael “Govs” McGovern, Eddie Oldfield and Dan Norris found Black Hops on the Gold Coast.
- 2016: The Burleigh Heads taproom opens.
- 2019: Production expands to a far larger site in Biggera Waters.
- 2023: Black Hops wins Australia’s Best Craft Brewery, per the release.
- March 28, 2024: First voluntary administration, with Deloitte. The administrators’ report showed debts of more than $7 million.
- May 2024: A sale is agreed with a consortium of existing shareholders and “other supporters of craft beer and independent breweries,” The Crafty Pint reported.
- July 4, 2024: That sale completes. The liquidators’ report later put the price at A$3.2 million, Business News Australia reported.
- July 21, 2026: Black Hops enters administration a second time, with Worrells appointed after a planned sale collapsed.
- Oct. 8, 2026: Tribe’s purchase is announced.
What stays and what changes
The new leadership team, Cayle Lutas, Thomas Bates and general manager Nathan Seamons, told The Crafty Pint their priority is “to protect what people already love about Black Hops.” They said the core range stays central, with Japanese Lager recently added as a permanent beer, and promised “a renewed focus on the creative pilot batches and limited releases Black Hops is known for.” They’re also recruiting sales reps for Southeast Queensland and Northern New South Wales.
“Individual beers may evolve, but the Black Hops identity will remain,” the team said. Seamons added that trust will come “through actions rather than promises.”
A buyer that’s been through it
Tribe knows the territory. The Crafty Pint notes that it called in administrators in February 2023 and was later bought by a group led by the Elsie Cameron Foundation, the charity of Kathmandu co-founder Jan Cameron. Its Goulburn brewery can produce 30 million litres a year, and it became a certified B Corp this year. Bureau analysts will keep scanning the Gold Coast for signs the clean slate holds, Earthlings.
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