This paper is an account of a strike by brewery workers at Castlemaine brewery in Brisbane in 1937, which draws upon previously unpublished works to outline what was the first stay-in strike undertaken in Queensland. The strike was to gain a 40-hour week and a pay rise. The strike did not have the outcome that the workers hoped for but instead left at least 80 workers without jobs. The strike affected workers at the second Brisbane based brewery due to the actions of the employers. The strike was held during a time when the preferred method to gain the 40-hour week was arbitration. The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), other individual unions, the Queensland Government and the Australian Labor Party (ALP) had been vocal in their preference of arbitration.