This article is part of FT Globetrotter’s guide to Melbourne
Australian beer drinkers used to have as few choices as local football lovers, with each major city “owned” by one or two dominant breweries and one footy code.
Melbourne had Aussie Rules football and Carlton & United Breweries (producer of Foster’s lager and a range of boringly similar drops), while Sydney had rugby league, Tooheys and Tooth beers.
Football codes and big beer brands went national in the 1980s, and this marvellous new thing called “choice” eventually led to a demand for more and more drinking options. By the 21st century, craft brewing was booming, with Melbourne boasting the nation’s most diverse micro- and independent brewing scene.
The busiest cluster is in the inner northern suburbs of Abbotsford and Collingwood, but small breweries and brew-pubs have spread through the city in all manner of guises. Look hard enough and you will find one venue as big and boisterous as a beer theme park and others that feel like a traditional neighbourhood tavern, a retro cocktail bar or a modern hipster haven. Just a few minutes apart in the western suburbs are a family-themed venue that welcomes kids and an industrial grunge-style operation hidden in a row of factories. Here are some suggestions for starting your research.
Bodriggy
245 Johnston Street, Abbotsford, VIC 3067
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Must-try: Cosmic Microwave New England IPA (6.2 per cent). A sweet and cloudy top-seller
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Opening times: Sunday–Thursday, noon–11pm; Friday–Saturday, noon–1am
This converted factory warehouse is the highlight of a cluster of microbreweries that has spawned its own walking tour, the Collingwood Beer Trail. (Ask at the bar for a map of the trail and its venues).
Spacious but filled with character, Bodriggy has a retractable roof that makes it light and airy by day and comfortable at night when things get noisier. It is full of greenery and has an open kitchen, plenty of seating areas and huge vats behind the bar to remind you why are here. The artwork and humour have a strong Aussie flavour — ask a local to explain names such as Speccy Juice (3.5 per cent) and a recent limited release called Howizee? (6 per cent).
With eight core beers on tap plus a monthly limited release — they make one tankful and that’s it — Bodriggy sells itself on its fun vibe and time-tested favourites such as the aforementioned Speccy Juice, a mid-strength, hazy IPA with hints of mandarin, rather than the enormous range of beers boasted by some brewpubs.
If you include Bodriggy’s fruity Utropia Pale Ale (4.8 per cent) and blander Stingrays Draught (4.5 per cent) in a five-beer tasting paddle, the nine options on offer should see you out. I was so keen to sample the whole range that I needed a second visit to remember what I had enjoyed.
Molly Rose
279-285 Wellington Street, Collingwood, VIC 3066
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Must-try: Mugnificent (6.5 per cent). The wisdom of crowds went into this smooth IPA, a winner that was designed with community input. Great on the nose and super-smooth down the gullet
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Opening times: Wednesday–Thursday, 4pm–10pm; Friday, 3pm–midnight; Saturday, noon–midnight; Sunday, noon–8pm
From Bodriggy you can walk 950 metres or hop on a bus for most of the way to nearby Molly Rose. Launched as a small brewpub in 2019, it expanded four years later by opening an upmarket dining venue next door and a brick-paved beer garden.
The open-air experience is best in the late afternoon when fruit bats are swooping overhead to the nearby Yarra Bend parkland (and the coverage of the planned awning is a good idea in Melbourne’s weather at any time of the year).
Named by founder and brewer Nic Sandery after his grandmothers, Molly Rose works hard to be community-based, even consulting regulars during the creation of new beers.
The restaurant is pricier and a lot more interesting than typical pub fare, and while the wine list is strong there is an intriguing emphasis on pairing the Modern Australian–south-east Asian dishes with beers and cocktails rather than just wines.
The Coffee Citrus Sour (4.2 per cent) is a tart mouthful of orange, lime and grapefruit that goes beautifully with dessert, while Kuro (6 per cent), a dark lager laced with umami, neatly complements Japanese food.
They’ve just released a Berliner Weisse called Forgotten Story #1 (3.1 per cent), for which Sandery cultured the yeast from an old Belgian beer and then spent two years conditioning it. The Raspberry Lamington (4 per cent) is a sour that blasts out berries and coconut in a bow to the classic Aussie cake.
My one disappointment was the hoppy dark ale Hugs Allowed (5.2 per cent), which I found overly light on the palate with not a lot going on in terms of substance or structure.
The staff are chatty, the hipster regulars are happy without being rowdy and a lot of thought has gone into the whole operation. Leftover grain and brewing by-products, for instance, are sent from the brewery to the kitchen to make vinegars and sauces, while excess fruit heads the other way to enhance the flavours in the more exotic beers.
Fixation
414 Smith Street, Collingwood, VIC 3066
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Must-try: Obsession (4.6 per cent). A golden pale malt with tight, almost fizzy, bubbles, it is not exotic but it is well suited to a long session
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Opening times: Wednesday–Thursday, 4pm–10pm; Friday–Saturday, noon–10pm; Sunday, noon–6pm
Four hundred metres up Hotham Street from Molly Rose, Fixation sits on trendy Smith Street with trams trundling merrily past and a large Dan Murphy’s liquor store next door to dramatise the modern beer-lover’s choice between enjoying the buzz of a real-life brewery or taking the cheaper option of drinking at home.
The team behind Fixation maximise the benefits of the real thing with tasting paddles of five 150ml beers, sales of their own branded merchandise and hour-long brewery tours explaining their history and brewing process (Fridays and Sundays at 3pm).
A touchy point is the passion of many craft-beer lovers for independent breweries, as Fixation has followed the popular business plan of building a fanbase then being bought by a large “industrial” brewer, in this case the Kirin subsidiary Lion, which has been purchasing popular Australian and New Zealand craft labels.
Only a fanatic would hold that against Fixation, which created its self-titled ale, a robust West Coast IPA (6.4 per cent) with a lingering bitterness, back in 2015 and still serves it alongside about nine other beers on tap.
Highway to Helles (4.4 per cent) is a light, crisp and refreshing lager, while Squish (5.9 per cent) is a citrus IPA with subtle blood orange and grapefruit flavours. Gut Nectar (4.1 per cent) is more surprising, as not many session IPAs have such a strong stone-fruit aftertaste.
Moon Dog World
32 Chifley Drive, Preston, VIC 3072
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Must-try: Crème de la Crème de la Crème Brûlée Imperial Stout (9 per cent). The only beer you will ever drink that tastes like a toffee, vanilla and cream dessert. It’s silly but amusing
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Opening times: Monday–Thursday, 4.30pm–10:30pm; Friday–Saturday, 11.30am-midnight; Sunday, 11.30am–10.30pm
Tucked away in the industrial back streets of Preston, 8km north of the Collingwood cluster of breweries, is Moon Dog World, a massive converted warehouse that feels like a theme park with a huge range of flavours, wide open spaces and beach umbrellas surrounding a “tropical lagoon” that drinkers occasionally turn into a swimming pool.
Launched in 2010 by brothers Jake and Josh Uljans and their childhood friend Karl van Buuren, Moon Dog has expanded enough from its early days selling beer from the back of a 1997 Volvo station wagon to be now stretching the “micro” in microbrewery, with a total annual brewing capacity of more than 15 million litres.
The trio have opened other brew pubs in Abbotsford (17 Duke Street) and Footscray (54 Hopkins Street), but the 725-person capacity Preston operation is the star of their empire, with 72 taps that pour more than 30 different Moon Dog beers.
Many of the flavours are designed to tempt drinkers’ curiosity, even if they will only try each beer once, and the fun the team has with names and flavours is so cheeky that it must attract the attention of the occasional copyright lawyer.
Anybody familiar with popular Australian biscuits would have recognised the chocolate flavour of the milk stout dubbed Timothy Tamothy Slam-othy (6.5 per cent). Foreign visitors might not know Splice ice creams, but they would still have enjoyed the pine-lime and vanilla ice-cream flavour of the (now discontinued) Splice of Heaven IPA (6.5 per cent).
A barrel-aged Belgian blonde ale made with New Zealand ingredients is called Six Months in a Leaky Oak (8.4 per cent), a tribute to the 1982 song of a similar name by Kiwi band Split Enz. And anybody who has seen the local cult film The Castle might be curious enough to try a mid-strength creaming soda ale called Tell Him He’s Creamin’ (4 per cent).
Children and dogs are welcome, there are burgers galore and it can all be noisy and bouncy. It is not the dour beer nerd’s idea of serious brewing, but it is certainly fun.
Barbarian Brewing Co
289 Geelong Road, Kingsville, VIC 3012
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Must-try: The Magnate XPA (4.9 per cent). Smooth, crisp and clear on the palate
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Opening times: Wednesday–Thursday, 3pm–9pm; Friday–Saturday, noon–10pm; Sunday, noon–8pm
This is the epitome of a family brewhouse.
Two young couples who met via their children’s attendance at Kingsville Primary School decided to create a little brewery in their home suburb, and with the support of 100 local volunteers they managed to build it.
A massage parlour next door was not thrilled by its arrival, but that resistance was overwhelmed by support from locals, many of whom have now become regulars.
Founders Zoe and Pete Raine and Kent and Michelle Mincherton brought in experienced chief brewer Mat Maddox from the now-closed Two Birds brewery.
The entire project feels like a wholesome family activity: children are not only welcome, they can eat for free on Wednesdays (one kid’s meal with each purchased adult meal) and there are corners lined with books and toys and a whiteboard to keep them amused.
The former glassworks factory has a clean industrial feel, with high ceilings, concrete floors and a wood-burner fire. Happy hour is from 3pm to 5pm, Wednesday to Friday.
In full operation, the brewery has 12 taps, half of them offering seasonal beers. There will also be a “monthly homebrewer tap” where a local hobby brewer can spend a day with Maddox producing their own recipe.
When I visited, guest drinks including a stout, a sour, an IPA and a lager were used to complement Barbarian’s own relatively narrow range, such as the easy-drinking Amber Ale (4.7 per cent) and super-fresh Pale Ale (4.6 per cent).
Bonehead Brewing
86 Parsons Street, Kensington, VIC 3031
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Must-try: Melon Head Watermelon Sour (5.9 per cent). A Brazilian-influenced, wheat-packed sour jammed with refreshing fruit
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Opening times: Friday, 4pm–11pm; Saturday, 1pm–11pm; Sunday 1pm-8pm
Bonehead is another ultra-local brewing house that reflects a very different strand of the culture of Melbourne’s inner-west. Instead of a happy-families vibe, its aesthetic is more like what might happen if the chortling cartoon characters Beavis and Butt-Head grew up and went into business.
The brewery is based in a former car workshop in a row of roller-doored factories, and its atmosphere is underground humour, alternative art, black T-shirts and tattoos.
The founders’ own explanation is that “circa 2016, two Boneheads decide to open an independent brewery . . . After all, we’re all Boneheads.”
Anthony Dinoto and Travis Nott are actually pretty sharp operators, having graduated from their backyard hobby-brewing into this commercial operation in a mechanics shop that Dinoto’s grandfather used to own. They set up a tiny 1,000-litre brewhouse that serves core and seasonal beers with a constant flow of one-off micro-batches from 12 taps in an industrial-chic space that can supposedly hold 80 people but feels smaller.
Collaborations with local artists often focus on the street art that Melbourne loves, and the team generally does not take itself too seriously.
Sweet Pea Melbourne Dark Lager (4.8 per cent) is similar to a Schwarzbier, a dark brew with a touch of acidity but the name has nothing to do with its flavour: it is named after Nott’s dog.
Mum’s Pilsner (5 per cent) pays tribute to the first beer Nott produced with the homebrewing kit his mother gave him. It goes down dangerously easily, leaving hints of toasted toffee malt.
The Local Taphouse
184 Carlisle Street, St Kilda East, VIC 3183
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Must-try: Gipps Street (5.2 per cent). A medal-winning American pale ale jammed with tropical fruit and named after the site of the Stomping Ground brewery’s biggest venue
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Opening times: Sunday–Thursday, noon–11pm; Friday–Saturday, noon–1am
One of the real stars of the Collingwood brewhouses is the Stomping Ground Brewery & Beer Hall (100 Gipps Street), a grand converted warehouse with a retractable roof and 30 taps, but to get a sense of this label’s history it is best to go to its first outlet, in bayside St Kilda.
The Local Taphouse is small but has an important place in the history of Australian craft beer, launching in 2011 the Great Australian Beer SpecTAPular, which has since been ranked as one of the world’s top 20 beer festivals.
Warmly decorated with wood panelling, it feels like a cosy neighbourhood tavern rather than a rowdy beer hall, and the food line-up is unusually strong for a pub (the chicken Parmigiana and steaks are standouts).
Big Sky (4.3 per cent) is a hazy pale ale mixing a mouthful of sweet fruit with a bitter finish, while Laneway (4.7 per cent) is a slightly watery Munich-style Helles lager named for Melbourne’s famous inner-city streets.
The 20-strong tap line-up is dominated by guest beers rather than Stomping Ground’s own products, but the biggest surprise is the quality of the low and no-alcohol offerings.
Stomping Ground’s Footloose Pale Ale (0.5 per cent) offers a light bitterness and richness of tropical hops that puts many full-strength beers to shame, and the Smash Zero Pine Lime (under 0.5 per cent) could hold its own with many full-strength sours.
Nice Guys
306 Victoria Street, Richmond, VIC 3121
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Must-try: Vanilla Porter (5.6 per cent). Made with real vanilla beans rather than extract, but the favour is dominated by malted chocolate
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Opening times: Wednesday–Thursday, 5pm–10pm; Friday, 5pm–late; Saturday, 2pm–late; Sunday, 2pm–8pm
For yet another change of atmosphere, this small inner-east venue is styled as a jazzy retro-chic cocktail bar with 1960s-themed lampshades and generously padded furniture.
Founder Grant Morley is a scientist who put his love of home-brewing into action in 2018, developing a super-hip space with three large vats in a back corner.
The brewing emphasis is on quality natural ingredients wherever possible, and the 25 taps range from a convincing and quaffable Mexican-style Cerveza (5 per cent) to a Lemon Thyme Saison (5.8 per cent) that has a nicely peppery finish.
The aftertaste of the Bergamot IPA (6.8 per cent) will be too strong for many, while the Dark Mild (3.7 per cent) is light enough to drink all afternoon.
What’s your favourite craft brewery in Melbourne? Tell us in the comments below. And follow FT Globetrotter on Instagram at @FTGlobetrotter
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