Craft Breweries in Melbourne

January 22, 2016 4:35 AM

Travelling to Melbourne in February, what are some great craft breweries to check out?

I work for a craft brewery in Ontario so whenever I travel I love to check out the local scene. Staying in Melbourne with small side trip to Tasmania. Already have a tour booked with Two Birds Brewing.

Bonus: baby friendly for my niece but not 100% necessary.

posted by Dampf to Travel & Transportation (9 answers total)

Two I can recommend near Melbourne based on the quality of their beers: Bridge Road and Mornington Peninsula. The latter, in my opinion, is as good at producing their basic line top-to-bottom as any brewer in Australia. Their porter is a personal favorite.

(I've not been to either brewery so can't speak to anything but the quality of their beer and that they're both close to Melbourne)
posted by GamblingBlues at 4:54 AM on January 22, 2016

I may get time to write more later, but my favourite Melbourne brewery (ish - they are 40 minutes away up the Calder Highway) is the Holgate brewery in Woodend. I'm a big fan of English style beer and this brewery makes me very happy, but they are broader than that. Go on a weekday and have lunch at the bar and there's a chance you can talk about beer to someone that knows what they are on about while you drink it. There's plenty of other things to do around the area as well, it would be a pretty nice day if you wanted.
posted by deadwax at 5:03 AM on January 22, 2016

Try Mountain Goat -check opening days.

Little Creatures (craft? Maybe not) in Geelong is certainly family friendly and I can vouch for Holgate. Both accessed via V Line train.

The ladies at Two Birds should also be able to point you in the right direction!
posted by WayOutWest at 12:59 PM on January 22, 2016

Hawkers Brewery in Reservoir (northern Melbourne). I haven't been there but it looks like an interesting place to check out. They are one of the stops on a brewery tour of that neighborhood I've seen running. Considering your expertise and interest, maybe that isn't what you need.

Closer to the city is Moondog in Abbotsford. They are marching to the beat of their own drum, have a lot of weird beers and open a bar part of the week.

If a day trip is in order, Ballarat is home to many microbreweries. That's what you get when the university there offers grad diplomas in brewing and has its own brewery.

Little Creatures in Geelong is a very family friendly venue (and threw $ to an arts org I was involved with. Thanks LC) but they will stop serving you if you take off your shirt :( Geelong also has Southern Bay Brewing which brews the beers for Rockpool Restaurant group as well as their own stuff.

If you head in that direction, keep going to the Otways and check out Prickly Moses and Forest Brewing. Sorry for scant links, I'm on my phone and weirdly feel like a beer now. There's other breweries in Melbourne I've failed to mention. Shout out if you want a llocal guide.
posted by Trivia Newton John at 3:29 PM on January 22, 2016

Temple Brewery is close to the city as well.
posted by Trivia Newton John at 3:35 PM on January 22, 2016

Here, just take the microbrewery list from our government open data website. It is in no way complete but it did remind me about White Rabbit in Healesville.
posted by Trivia Newton John at 3:39 PM on January 22, 2016

Broadsheet is often a useful (if a little pretentious) guide to Melbourne venues. Here's a roundup from 2014 on craft beer breweries that are also bars.
posted by une_heure_pleine at 3:43 PM on January 22, 2016

Just north of Fitzroy is the relatively new Clifton Hill brewpub. I'd recommend it. Also seconding Geelong and Little Creatures they're in an old woolen mill. Quite the facility, and they do tours. Also, White Rabbit has just moved from Healsville to the Little Creatures "campus" in Geelong.
posted by Zedcaster at 5:57 PM on January 22, 2016

Response by poster: Wonderful! Lots of great suggestions. Thanks!
posted by Dampf at 7:25 AM on January 23, 2016