Little Creatures Geelong (Lion/Kirin)

For a long time, Geelong proved something of a mystery to people in the craft beer world. Despite being a large city only an hour away from Melbourne, the city driving the craft beer revolution in Australia, its people seemed strangely impervious to the lure of the good stuff. A few small breweries came and went, others have come and stayed, but the city continued to be a tough nut to crack.

These days, the cracks have appeared and been pried wider and wider apart. The "Beer Ambassadors" behind the city's annual Great Australian Beer Festival and its spin offs tout their plans to make Geelong a craft beer capital and better beer is appearing on menus and taps in and around the city. But the biggest single impact of all has been the opening of Little Creatures Geelong.

Little World Beverages, which used to own Little Creatures and White Rabbit before Lion purchased it in 2012, snapped up the sprawling former Valley Worsted Mills site in 2011 and set about creating a new, $60 million brewery to brew the beers that originated at Creatures' spiritual home in Fremantle fresh for the East Coast. Alongside the hugely impressive brewery, the company put their undoubted talents at creating welcoming hospitality experiences into practice too.

The result is the Canteen: one of the most welcoming of brewery bars you'll find in Australia. Before you even get to the bar and kitchen inside a vast warehouse space you make your way through a cheekily landscaped and colourfully planted outdoor courtyard that plays host to regular craft markets. Inside, the bar and kitchen add to the reclaimed industrial feel of the place: they're built inside shipping containers.

It's proved so welcoming that the locals have flooded through the doors since day one and, their imperviousness finally cracked, have in return been rewarded with their own beer: the pared-down quaffer called Furphy that the Geelong site only brews for the local region. The remainder of the site is constantly evolving too, with friends such as the Little Veggie Patch crew enlisted to bring more life to the grounds of the redbrick village and, from May 2015, sister brewery White Rabbit moving from Healesville to take up residence in one of the neighbouring warehouses.

Name
Little Creatures Geelong (Lion/Kirin)
Address

221 Swanston St
Geelong
VIC 3220

Phone
(03) 5202 4009
Open Hours

Mon & Tues: 10am to 5pm
Wed to Fri: 10am to 10pm
Sat & Sun: 8am to 10pm (brunch available)

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Little Creatures Geelong (Lion/Kirin) Regulars

Little Creatures Hazy IPA

Published August 30, 2021
To celebrate turning 21 in 2021, Little Creatures made a few changes to their core lineup beers, placing their Pale Ale in cans and adding two new core range members; a blue-tinned Pacific Ale and this orange-tinned (and orange-coloured beer) Hazy IPA. Using a combination of American and Australian hops, the cloudy, soft-textured beer brings together tropical notes in what's an accessible and approachable, 6 percent ABV juicy IPA. Those juicy flavours take the form of mango, pineapple and melon… Read more
Style
Hazy IPA
ABV
6.0%

Little Creatures Pacific Ale

Published August 30, 2021
In 2021, Little Creatures reached the impressive milestone of turning 21 and they celebrated with a few changes. Their iconic Pale Ale was moved into cans as all their cans were given a branding refresh, keeping the brewery’s signature cherub front-and-centre while simplifying the look and feel. They also added some new members to the core range, including this Pacific Ale, styled on the light and easy-drinking, Australian-hopped beer that many Australian breweries have been inspired to create… Read more
Style
Pacific Ale
ABV
4.4%

Little Creatures Pale Ale

Can anything be said about this beer that hasn't already been said? When it first appeared as Little Creatures "Live" on the day the brewery opened, it shocked even the bar staff who were about to serve it to the public with its punchy interpretation of big, hoppy American style pales. And while many have imitated since, it remains a standout on the Aussie beer scene, if one that's been surpassed in terms of potency by many newer pales on the market. Possessing everything you would want… Read more
Style
Pale Ale
ABV
5.2%
Bitterness
38 IBU

Little Creatures Furphy

When they opened the doors of their brewery in Geelong, the Little Creatures team decided to offer up a gift for their new locals. It took the shape of Furphy, a new beer made with all Victorian ingredients and with challenge-free sessionability in mind. The "Refreshing Ale" was originally only available around the city of Geelong but by mid-2015 was offered up to the rest of Victoria too. The briefest of glances makes it clear that a) it is making a direct pitch to Victorians and b) it's… Read more
Style
Beer
ABV
4.4%
Stockists

Available across Victoria