Mechanical engineer and homebrewer Craig Blesing has lodged plans to renovate the Laura Baptist Community Church into a local tourist attraction featuring a microbrewery with a kitchen and beer garden.

Built in 1875, the limestone church in the southern Flinders Ranges has been home to the Laura Baptist Christian Community for 146 years.

Blesing and his wife Catherine bought the Victoria Street property last month after the church’s custodians put it up for sale in March.

The Laura Baptist Community Church was used for 146 years and held its last service in August. Photo: realestate.com

The historic building hosted its last church service on August 7.

Blesing has filed plans with the Northern Areas Council for a “full renovation” of the church – transforming its interior into a taphouse, the outdoor area into a beer garden and the rear into a microbrewery.

To be named “Little Blessings Brewery” (a play on Blesing’s surname), the microbrewery is expected to have a total production capacity of 45,000L per annum when it opens in 2023.

A computer-generated image of the proposed interior for the Little Blessing Brewery.

Blesing said he was surprised by the positive reaction of the local Baptist community to his plans, given some orthodox members of the denomination abstain from alcohol.

“They knew my intentions from the beginning and to be honest the support we got from the Baptist Church was actually surprising – I was actually quite touched,” Blesing told InDaily.

“They were actually just happy that someone was taking over the building and was going to open it up to the public.”

Laura has a population of 765 people, according to the 2021 census, and is a popular tourist town for those heading up to the Flinders Ranges.

Blesing said his plan for the church was to develop a “brewpub with finger food” pitched at both the local and tourist market.

“We’re not changing anything about the building, we’re trying to keep it as original as possible,” he said.

“The one thing that we are doing is we’re just going to chuck a new roof on it because there’s some rusty iron on the top.

“We’re basically going to put a nice beer garden around the outside on the western and eastern side.

“Inside will be the taphouse itself with a lot of barrels and seating and so forth… that way people can get to have a look at the beautiful historic stained glass windows.”

The Laura Baptist Church dates back to 1875 and was built just three years after the town of Laura was settled. Photo: Laura Baptist Church Community/Facebook

The local Baptist community has since found a new home at an old café closer to the centre of Laura on Herbert Street.

Laura Baptist pastor Jenny Pryor said the church community was looking for a more flexible space to offer a wider range of community services.

A recent photo of the interior of the Laura Baptist Church, which will soon be renovated into a brewpub. Photo: realestate.com

She said the community is “by and large… very supportive” of the brewpub plan and glad the circa-1870s church would be “lovingly restored”.

“Laura’s obviously a little town, we have a lot of tourists come through – so in terms of tourism this will be a good thing,” she said.

“The town is very happy about that, they’re delighted as we are that the building is going to be restored, that the memorial windows are going to be restored, because there’s a lot of history in that building.”

Asked whether there was any objection to alcohol being sold in the church building, Pryor said: “The church is the people.”

“That is the historic church building, but the church is the people, so we’re gathering here now and not there,” she said.

“They have purchased it and what they choose to do with that is their prerogative.”

The Laura brewpub represents Blesing’s first commercial venture after years of homebrewing craft beers.

He said the range of beers that will be available at the taphouse will be more diverse to please both the locals and the tourists.

“We are pitching towards generally everybody, but we need a local content to make sure that we remain viable,” he said.

“So we’ve had to craft a few beers and I’ve been doing some trial batches for some hardy lagers and pale ales and so forth.

“Traditionally, what I like to brew is the crafty IPAs and sort of dessert stouts and so forth.

“So I’ve had to sort of cross that blend between both worlds.”

Blesing said he was expecting to employ two to four locals to work at the brewpub, depending on customer demand.

“With the response that we’ve got, I think we’re going to be busier than we probably planned.”

Little Blessings Brewery claims it will be “Australia’s Church brewpub” when it opens next year.

A number of South Australian wineries, including Sabella Vineyards in McLaren Vale and Robert Johnson Vineyards in the Adelaide Hills, have repurposed vacant churches into cellar doors.

Oddio Bowden, a cellar door featuring three wine labels, is also housed in a Methodist Church built in 1876.