The craft beer revolution is here to stay, despite the latest fashion to push back against these handcrafted style of brews. And there’s plenty of evidence for that in the number of breweries in New South Wales — you’ll find them in all parts of the state, not just the hipsterfied inner city. But craft beer was never really about hipsterdom, was it?
So you’ll find great craft brews being made up in Byron Bay, down south to Illawarra, out west to Wagga Wagga and Griffith, from Western Sydney to the Northern Beaches and right back into the inner city.
Mikey Lowe, our former Brew column writer who is now full time with Sydney brewer Wayward Brewing, said that the cooperation — and competition —of the NSW craft brewing scene is a bit like speed dating.
“You kind of have to have your wits about you,” he said, “[but] it’s all a bit of tongue in cheek fun — and everybody goes home with a prize.”
He listed a number of breweries doing exciting things in NSW, names like Akasha, Thirsty Crow, Willie the Boatman and more. And he likes Marrickville’s Batch Brewing Company, he said.
“Batch change their line-up constantly,” said Lowe. “I like pretty new things.”
Here’s a few brewers who, even if they’re not pretty themselves, are making some pretty great beer.
AKASHA, Western Sydney
Started by brewer Dave Padden (formerly of Riverside) and Wesley White this year, Akasha refers to the fifth element — the one that is “the unknown factor that combines the four elemnets of Earth, Water, Fire, and Air” according to them.
They’re making a West Coast style IPA called Hopsmith, and an American style pale ale called Freshwater Pale Ale (and it uses a bunch of cascade hops).
They’ve begun work on their own brewery on a site in Western Sydney.
The craft beer revolution is here to stay, despite the latest fashion to push back against these handcrafted style of brews. And there’s plenty of evidence for that in the number of breweries in New South Wales — you’ll find them in all parts of the state, not just the hipsterfied inner city. But craft beer was never really about hipsterdom, was it?
So you’ll find great craft brews being made up in Byron Bay, down south to Illawarra, out west to Wagga Wagga and Griffith, from Western Sydney to the Northern Beaches and right back into the inner city.
Mikey Lowe, our former Brew column writer who is now full time with Sydney brewer Wayward Brewing, said that the cooperation — and competition —of the NSW craft brewing scene is a bit like speed dating.
“You kind of have to have your wits about you,” he said, “[but] it’s all a bit of tongue in cheek fun — and everybody goes home with a prize.”
He listed a number of breweries doing exciting things in NSW, names like Akasha, Thirsty Crow, Willie the Boatman and more. And he likes Marrickville’s Batch Brewing Company, he said.
“Batch change their line-up constantly,” said Lowe. “I like pretty new things.”
Here’s a few brewers who, even if they’re not pretty themselves, are making some pretty great beer.
NOMAD BREWING CO, Northern Beaches
Ytou’d be hard pressed to find a beer more evocative of Sydney’s Northern Beaches than Nomad’s Freshie Salt & Pepper — if only because they throw a couple of buckets seawater from Freshwater beach into this brew.
This kind of unique approach is pretty much part and parcel of what Nomad does. You can take a look at their Long Trip Saison to see how they play around with conventions.
WAYWARD BREWING, Inner West Sydney
We’ve spoken with Wayward Brewing’s Peter Philip before, as he’s made some of our favourite craft beers (a couple which performed superbly in our blind tasting a couple of years back). “I’ve been a home brewer for over 12 years and always loved the idea of creating enjoyment with something I’ve created,” he said. “I’ve got a successful business in the field of superannuation technology which has allowed me a the flexibility do start another business on the side.”
After years of gypsy brewing, Philip is now putting the finishing touches on a big shiny brewery of his own.
Mike Lowe — now working for Wayward — has high praise for one of their beers in particular. “Keller Instinct,” he said, referring to their Bavarian keller style beer. “In one word: balanced. It’s got me back into drinking lighter styles,” he said.
WILLIE THE BOATMAN, Tempe
These guys are based in the Inner West of Sydney, just south of Newtown. They’ve named all the beers for characters of the local area — we particularly like The Bulger, a brew they’ve dedicated to a local home brewer, Peter Bulger. It’s a Pacific English Special Bitter, using European malts and Australian and New Zealand hops — and weighing in at 6.5% ABV.
BATCH BREWING CO, Marrickville
These guys have got a great reputation among Sydney bars for the work they’re doing. As Lowe suggested, their experimentation seems to know no bounds.In addition to six beers on tap at their Marrickville brewery, you can also get an idea of what they’ve been playing arond with by sampling the stuff in their test batch fridge.
At the time of writing, they’d just released a Belgian-style wit beer named Zonnebeke, after Marrickville’s sister city of the same name in Belgium.
STONE & WOOD, Byron Bay
Hailing from the most eastern point of Australia, and well up north of NSW is Stone & Wood, from Byron Bay.
They’re probably best known for the Stone & Wood Pacific Ale, an Australian style pale ale that has spread throughout the country — and is probably just the sort of beer you want if you’re hanging out in Byron Bay.
It also came in at number two on this year’s Hottest 100 Aussie Craft Beers list, organised by the guys from The Local Taphouse and voted for the craft beer drinking public.
YENDA, Riverina
The name of the beer is the name of the town in which it’s brewed, from the Riverina region of NSW. Brewed by Australian Beer Company, they had early success with their beers on draught, picking up medals at the Australian Craft Beer Awards last year. Those beers have now been released in bottles, and they want to bring an innovative approach to the craft beer scene — starting with their Helles lager.”When they hear the term craft, most people think of ale,” said head brewer, Andy Mitchell. “We wanted to broaden this, so we included a Helles lager in our range.” Their Helles lager joins an IPA, an Australian pale ale, a mid-strength red ale, and a golden ale in their craft beer range.
ILLAWARRA BREWING CO, Wollongong
Brewers Shaun Blissett and Ashur Hall have been running this brewery since 2010, and they’ve picked up a few gongs along the way for their hometown of Wollongong.
THIRSTY CROW, Wagga Wagga
This brewpub in Wagga Wagga, in NSW’s Riverland region, is billed as Wagga’s first microbrewery. And brewer Craig Wealands found some craft brewing fame when just after opening Thirsty Crow, his Vanilla Milk Stout won the trophy for best hybrid beer at the Australian International Beer Awards in 2011.
It’s made with vanilla from Madagascar and comes in at 5.2%, and is one of the regular beers they brew. They also make the accessible Sporting Ale.