Wayward Brewing Co

For several years Peter Philip was one of Sydney’s most archetypal gypsy brewers. He’d brew small test batches at his house, hoard homebrew, fine-tune recipes then head to a local brewery to borrow a bit of tank space and release a commercial batch under the Wayward Brewing label. He certainly got around; in the three years following the first commercial release in 2012, Wayward’s beer came out of at least seven different Sydney breweries. But late in 2015 the gypsy brewing journey came to an end when the door was rolled up on the brand new Wayward brewery, nestled in a quiet lane on the border between Annandale and Camperdown.

The brewery itself is based on having considered the good, bad and downright dysfunctional parts of other breweries and having it custom built into something perfect for their own needs. That’s resulted in a four vessel system that belies its relatively diminutive physical size by allowing Pete and Shaun Blissett – the well-regarded former Illawarra brewer now in charge of Wayward’s day to day brewing activities – to brew several times a day if needed. It was a canny move that, in actual terms, means shorter brew days but a larger potential total output. They’d soon need it.

Wayward’s approach to beer, as the name suggests, has always been a little esoteric. The starting lineup for many new brewers generally goes something along the lines of: golden ale, pale ale, IPA and a variant on a dark beer. Wayward’s releases came roughly in the following order: India Red Ale, German Kellerbier, Biere de Garde, Jasmine Saison, Eisbock, Chocolate Dopplebock and Oatmeal IPA.

When you head to the brewery with the intent of trying some of these fresh out of the tank, you’ll do so in the most unique – and in the eyes of many, the best – cellar door of any Sydney brewery. Entering off Gehrig Lane will have you walking by a blazing yellow mural tracing a motorcycle rider’s distinctly whimsical road trip towards a brewery. Art meets life at the end of this passage, with your metaphorical journey to beer enlightenment manifesting itself physically in the form of the real motorcycle bolted to the wall next to a pile of luggage which seems to suggest that, once here, you’re in for a long visit or an adventure, or both.

On top of the regular goings on in the brewery they have a small pilot brewing system for experimental beers and a barrel program – both of which get used frequently – resulting in the bar having 14 taps to pour a sometimes dizzying array of beer styles. Plus they often throw on a keg or two from a passing gypsy brewer – Pete’s way of paying it forward for his time using other breweries. You’ll need a bit of time to try everything.

There’s a certain irony – or perhaps just a nod to changing tastes – in the brewery being set up in an old winery that once stretched all the way down Gehrig Lane and beyond. What were once enormous concrete vats housing fermenting grapes now form a series of connected rooms running off the main serving area and fully kitted out in retro furniture. But despite still being able to see and feel remnants of site’s former life in the thick wax-covered and juice-stained walls, you can smell, see and taste that with Wayward you’re firmly in beer country.

Looking at Wayward with a wider view, something that for so many years was just Pete and his wife, Yvette, working away at an idea became, with the opening of the brewery, something tangible. They’ve now got a real home of their own, won awards for their beer and the bar, have roots in a community and a growing team, effectively making them de facto parents to a whole Wayward family. You get the sense they’re proud as punch of what Wayward has become, and well they should be.

Nick Oscilowski

Name
Wayward Brewing Co
Address

3 Gehrig Lane
Camperdown
NSW 2050

Phone
(02) 7903 2445
Regular events

Food trucks Friday, Saturday & Sunday until 7pm (or until sold out)
Sunday Sessions Live music in the cellar door on Sunday afternoon

Open Hours

Thur: 2pm to 10pm
Fri: 2pm to 10pm
Sat: midday to 10pm
Sun: midday to 8pm
Mon: 4pm to 9pm

Tours

Saturdays at 2pm and 4pm
Guided tours cost $25, last 40-60 minutes and include a tasting paddle. Buy tickets at the bar.


This is a directory listing. To find out more, head here

The Specials

Bintani & Friends Flood Relief Pale Ale
Wayward Brewing Sunshine Juice
Wayward Brewing Wayward Son Lupulin IPA 2021
Wayward Brewing Barely Wine
Wayward Brewing Sourade
Wayward Brewing Peaches & Cream: Peach And Vanilla Sour
Wayward Brewing RSA Hazy IIPA
Wayward Brewing Big Birthday Beer
Wayward Brewing Cashmere Cat Hazy IPA
Wayward Brewing Wayward Son Lupulin IPA
Wayward Brewing Midnight Barley Cowboy
Show 32 more

Wayward Brewing Co Regulars

Wayward Brewing Everyday Lager

Published August 30, 2022
Nothing is ever straightforward, it seems. While craft lagers continue their slow but steady rise, it doesn't necessarily mean everyone wants something too, well, crafty. I've had many a conversation with brewers over the years about whether to call their lager a pilsner, even if it is a pilsner, as they fear it could put people off; sometimes, they'll wonder whether even "lager" is too much and plump for "draught", no matter that the beer is in cans too. A few years ago, Balter… Read more
Style
Aussie Lager
ABV
4.2%

Wayward Brewing Hazy IPA

Published April 22, 2022
Wayward Brewing spent close to three years making and refining hazy beers and, in 2022, the Sydney brewery clearly reached a point of satisfaction with where that evolution had taken them. Hazy IPA joined the brewery’s core range in April, the culmination of constant tweaks and continual learning, and designed to burst with hoppy, juicy notes while remaining the sort of beer hazy fans might return to again and again. The use of rolled oats in the malt bill ensures the beer is as soft and luscious… Read more
Style
Hazy IPA
ABV
5.8%

Wayward Brewing Hazy Mid

Published December 15, 2020
While Wayward already have one mid-strength option in their core range – Raspberry Berliner Weisse – the team have wanted to add a mid-strength pale ale to the lineup for a while (if only so the brewers can have a hoppy session after work and still rock up bright-eyed the next morning). Enter Hazy Mid, just in time for Christmas 2020. Many current hazy beers focus on newer hop varieties, but Hazy Mid leans on those classic US varieties that held up the West Coast IPA scene a few years ago: Citra,… Read more
Style
Hazy Mid-Strength
ABV
3.5%

Wayward Brewing W Seltzer Range

Published October 23, 2020
Before this year, I didn’t hear the word "seltzer" unless I was watching an American sitcom. But the arrival of hard seltzers has changed that; like "curb", "cookie", and Taco Bell, this American has come to Australian shores and is likely here to stay. Wayward have entered the hard seltzer market with a bang, introducing not one but three flavours of this brewed beverage under the sub-brand W Seltzer. The tall 330ml cans make you feel a little bit fancy and summery,… Read more
Style
Hard Seltzers
ABV
All 4.3%

Wayward Brewing Red IPA

Published April 23, 2019
Back when Wayward launched as a gypsy operation in 2012, the first beer to make its way into the hands of Sydneysiders was the Charmer India Red Ale. Since then, the brewery’s built a home in Camperdown, started sending its beers into other states and moved its core range into cans. So, it’s safe to say plenty has changed. But it seems the love for a hoppy red ale has continued unabated, as was made clear when Wayward added the Red IPA to its core range in autumn 2019. According to the Wayward… Read more
Style
6.5%

Wayward Brewing Raspberry Berliner Weisse

Published October 12, 2018
One of the unexpected but unbridled success stories of the Wayward Brewing Company, in all its forms, has been its Raspberry Berliner Weisse. It first came out in 2012, when company founder Peter Philip was a still gypsy brewer making his beer at breweries in and around Sydney, and was released very sporadically under the name Sourpuss. When Wayward got its own brewery in 2015 Sourpuss moved right on in, became part of the furniture and a platform for a gamut of sour beers over the ensuing years.… Read more
Style
Fruit Berliner Weisse
ABV
3.8

Wayward Brewing India Pale Ale

Published October 12, 2018
For more than three years Wayward’s flagship India Pale Ale was Oatis, an oatmeal IPA the brewery had debuted at the 2015 GABS festival. It wasn’t a beer that necessarily got people vocal about but it nonetheless had legions of admirers, meaning that when brewery decided to overhaul its core range in the latter part of 2018 there was little chance it would lose it place. It did, though, lose a couple of other things. For starters they sought to remove any confusion on the label by taking away… Read more
Style
India Pale Ale
ABV
6.0%

Wayward Brewing Everyday Ale

Published October 12, 2018
The only clue you need about Wayward’s Everyday Ale is in the name. It’s meant as a go-to beer for every day and situation. They must’ve been mighty tempted to just call it a pale ale (because, at its heart, that’s exactly what it is) but there’s also a sense they’re trying to push people a bit beyond the ordinary, to not have you settle for the status quo and get you dreaming of being the one astride the motorcycle on the label artwork, riding a road to who-knows-where as long as its… Read more
Style
Pale Ale
ABV
4.2%

Wayward Brewing Pilsner

Published October 12, 2018
When the Wayward range was rejigged and repackaged towards the end of 2018, the Pilsner was one of two new recipes to be debuted. And after a couple of sips you get a sense they’d put a lot of effort into getting this recipe right. After all, there’s a common line in the brewing world that beers of this ilk are the toughest to make, their lighter body and character limiting the ways a brewer can hide a potential flaw, so you really ought to get it right. This one’s hard to fault. Being an… Read more
Style
Pilsner
ABV
4.2%

Wayward Brewing Co. Charmer

Wayward’s first beer and still their flagship, the Charmer India Red Ale is the product of five years of home brewing development and extensive consumer testing, by which we mean house parties. Whenever Pete would host a social gathering, the beer that would become Charmer was often thrown into general mix of beverage offerings. When guests started preferring that to commercial beers, he knew he was onto a winning recipe. It’s a ruby red ale that bursts with hop aroma, which ins’t particularly… Read more
Style
India Red Ale
ABV
5.0%

Wayward Brewing Co. Camperdown 1

Before the opening of his brewery and during the time he was gypsy brewing his often esoteric beers at various breweries around Sydney, Wayward founder Peter Philip was known to make statements to the effect that he’d never brew a pale ale. It just wasn’t his style. But as the date for the brewery opening approached, his attitude had softened to, “Well, never say never…”. So when the brewery was finally commissioned it wasn’t a total surprise to discover that he and head brewer Shaun… Read more
Style
Pale Ale
ABV
4.6%

Wayward Brewing Co Specials

Bintani & Friends Flood Relief Pale Ale

Published April 21, 2022
After devastating floods in Queensland and New South Wales brought a lot of destruction, heartbreak and uncertainty to the brewing industry and their communities, the ingredients suppliers at Bintani wanted to do what they could to support those impacted. Joining forces with Shelter Brewing, Wayward Brewing Co, Rocky Ridge Brewing Co, Bevy Brewing Co, Konvoy Kegs and EES Shipping, they brewed a special pale ale as a way to raise more than $30,000 for those in need via Stone & Wood's InGrained… Read more
Style
Pale Ale
ABV
5.0%

Wayward Brewing Sunshine Juice

Published November 12, 2021
There’s something delightfully simple and to-the-point about the name Sunshine Juice. Just like a Jules Verne novel, this beer is aptly named: Journey To The Centre Of The Earth is about a journey to the centre of the earth; Around The World In 80 Days is about someone travelling around the world in 80 days; Sunshine Juice looks like sunshine and tastes like juice. Whether the Wayward crew were channelling simpler times when naming conventions were straightforward, or just using a word frequency… Read more
Style
Hazy IPA
ABV
6.5%

Wayward Brewing Wayward Son Lupulin IPA 2021

Published July 26, 2021
It’s now four years since head brewer Shaun Blissett’s son Austin was born and little AB is now a walking talking human person. Similarly, while the 2021 has seen the stork has bring back the beer first brewed to mark Austin's birth back, Wayward Son isn’t the same beer it was four years ago. While Wayward still refer to this beer as a West Coast, it drinks like a hybrid between west and east. The first sniff hits you like a freshly cracked mandarin, which is no doubt thanks to the addition… Read more
Style
Lupulin IPA
ABV
7.3% ABV

Wayward Brewing Barely Wine

Published July 2, 2021
The majority of barleywines I drink tend to be dark brown, with dark dried fruit flavours, dark toffee stickiness and occasionally, some chocolate to top it off. So when Wayward’s Barely Wine poured like a glass of molten copper, I learned very quickly that they were doing something at the lighter end of the spectrum. To clarify, there’s nothing ‘lighter’ about the ABV - this beer comes in at 11.7 percent, though you’d never guess it from the taste. Because Barely Wine is a gentle giant.… Read more
Style
Barleywine
ABV
11.7%

Wayward Brewing Sourade

Published July 2, 2021
Don’t drink this because you feel like a beery beer. Drink it because you feel like having fun. From the moment you crack a can of Sourade, the room smells like sour rainbow straps, that sugar-coated confectionery that looks like a multi-coloured cavity. But there’s no multi-colour once it’s poured in the glass. It’s one very distinct colour - an insane electric blue. For fans of Fallout, the post-apocalyptic video game franchise, it looks like Nuka Cola Quantum… except bluer (and presumably… Read more
Style
Electric Blue Gose
ABV
4.0%

Wayward Brewing Peaches & Cream: Peach And Vanilla Sour

Published April 21, 2021
Let me tell you how this beer didn’t meet my expectation. The colour ‘peach’ is a pinkish-orange blush colour and between the orange on the label and the pink of Princess Peach of Mario fame, that’s the colour I was expecting to pour out of this can. Instead, the liquid came out the colour of yellow peach flesh. The actual colour of the fruit that’s in the beer - can you believe it? That was the only way my expectation wasn’t met in this beer (and of course, that too could have been predicted… Read more
Style
Peach And Vanilla Sour
ABV
5.2%
Bitterness
15 IBU

Wayward Brewing RSA Hazy IIPA

Published March 19, 2021
It’s a good thing Wayward straight up reminds the drinker of the Responsible Service of Alcohol with the name of this beer* because otherwise, they could be in a lot of trouble for hiding the alcohol. This may be the easiest drinking IIPA I’ve had. The haze level is fairly low. So is the bitterness, with the tiny 15 IBUs only being there to take the edge off the sweetness. But the combination of Rakau, Simcoe and Amarillo hops bring all the fruit juice aroma and flavour you could want. Heaps… Read more
Style
Hazy IIPA
ABV
8.3%
Bitterness
15 IBU

Wayward Brewing Big Birthday Beer

Published September 17, 2020
It's five years since Wayward took up residence at their Camperdown home and they've decided to celebrate by brewing a souped-up version of a five-year-old beer. Founder Pete Philip chose to put a raspberry Berliner Weisse (then called Sourpuss) in the brewery’s lineup from its earliest years – a bold choice at a time when sour beers weren’t "a thing" in the Aussie beer scene. But the proved popular, won a prestigious AIBA trophy, and five years later it’s their best-selling beer. Berry… Read more
Style
Imperial Raspberry Berliner Weisse
ABV
7.6%
Bitterness
14 IBU

Wayward Brewing Cashmere Cat Hazy IPA

Published August 23, 2020
The Cheshire Cat from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland is a mixture of wise and whimsical, crazy and cynical. It’s often quoted as some kind of patron saint of those wishing to break free of societal norms, with lines like: “I am not crazy; my reality is just different from yours” and “Imagination is the only weapon in the war with reality.” I can only assume Cashmere Cat is a reference to that iconic character, and this year we could all do with an ally in the war against reality.… Read more
Style
Juicy IPA
ABV
6.3%

Wayward Brewing Wayward Son Lupulin IPA

Published July 27, 2020
Carry on, my Wayward Son, There'll be peace when you are done. Lay your weary head to rest… Don't you cry no more. Two years ago, Wayward head brewer Shaun marked the birth of his son Austin by brewing Wayward Son, a West Coast IPA bursting at the seams with lupulin hop powder. Of course, an IPA isn’t the kind of beer you cellar away to revisit each year in celebration, so instead Wayward returns to brewing fresh batches of the celebratory beer. But, just as Shaun’s son has grown and changed… Read more
Style
Juicy IPA
ABV
7.3%

Wayward Brewing Midnight Barley Cowboy

Published May 8, 2020
Midnight Cowboy. Such a versatile phrase. If you can only think of the Dustin Hoffman film, you’re missing all the possibilities - it could just as easily be a men’s cologne, a B-grade arthouse slasher, or an erotic novel. For better or for worse, Wayward focused the phrase a number of years ago by tweaking it to Midnight Barley Cowboy and making it the name of a winter seasonal beer. But they definitely kept the genre-bending nature of the phrase by applying it to a hopped porter, which few… Read more
Style
Hoppy Porter
ABV
6.0%

Wayward Brewing Ohana Tropical Gose

Published March 22, 2020
“Ohana means family. Family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten.” Perhaps the team at Wayward were thinking about this quote from Lilo & Stitch when they named this beer, knowing that it’s more important than ever that people look out for each other in the current climate. Or maybe they just wanted a good, Hawaiian word to capture the tropical island vibes of this beer. Either way, it's a fitting name. Ohana is by no means the first gose that the Wayward brewing team have made, but… Read more
Style
Tropical Gose
ABV
4.3%

Bad Shepherd Unicorn Beer & Lumberjack IPA

Published February 19, 2020
As is becoming increasingly apparent, not only have we reached a point at which the role of ABAC – the Alcohol Beverages Advertising Code – has become a weekly discussion point but we seem to have moved beyond that to a place in which brewers are deciding they're fair game. Take Bad Shepherd's tenth Brew Crew Series release, the Unicorn Beer. Unable to get such a beer, label design and all, past the pre-vetting process, they've instead figured: "What the heck – it's only a one-off release"… Read more
Style
IPA Variants
ABV
5.5% & 6.0%
Bitterness
14 & 47 IBU

Wayward Brewing Mango Mosaic Magic

Published February 15, 2020
It’s a long, hot summer’s day. You arrive home, open the front door, step inside… and straight away your nose tells you someone in the house has bought mangoes. You walk into the kitchen and, sure enough, there’s a tray of big, juicy mangoes, ripening on the kitchen bench. Some are still green. Some are rosy and soft and ready to eat. All will be eaten before the week is out. This is the experience Wayward’s Mango Mosaic Magic brought to mind for me. To look at in the glass, it has the… Read more
Style
Fruit Sour
ABV
4.0%

Wayward Brewing Funky Pineapple Hand Grenade (Cans)

Published January 30, 2020
Usually when you throw a hand grenade, you don't want it to come back to you. But we're glad to see this grenade return. Wayward has brought back their Funky Pineapple Hand Grenade, finally in the form of tinnies to keep our hot little hands cool. Flavour wise, this beer hasn’t really changed since we wrote about last year’s release, and we at The Crafty Pint feel no shame in linking to our own writings. But since I enjoy the sound of my own voice, I’ll still add my two cents. For all its… Read more
Style
Brett IPA
ABV
6.8%
Bitterness
60 IBU

Wayward Brewing Passionista & Fusami Victory (Cans)

Published November 29, 2019
The idea of sour beers being crowd pleasers would have seemed laughable just a few years ago, but no longer. A number of breweries - including Wayward Brewing - now have a sour beer in their core lineup, and more still bring out session-friendly sours with the onset of summer and see the masses go wild. Now Wayward has embraced that further by coining the hashtag #summerofsour for 2019/20. First brewed in 2017 under a different name - Passion of the Puss, referencing Wayward’s raspberry Berliner… Read more
Style
Fruit Sour & IPL
ABV
3.8% & 6.1%

Wayward Brewing Appalachian Mist Hazy IPA

Published October 25, 2019
The Appalachian Mountains are like the Energizer Bunny - they keep going, and going, and going. They go beyond being a mountain range and into being a system of mountain ranges, a topographical beast that stretches over sixteen states in the USA and reaches into Canada. But this monster is a gentle giant, affording huge areas of near silence and peace as the clouds settle among the kilometre-high peaks and the mist seeps into every valley and crevice it can find. It’s this embracing peace of the… Read more
Style
Hazy IPA
ABV
6.0%
Bitterness
35 IBU

Wayward Brewing Discovery Series: Ripasso Bianco & Ripasso Rosso

Published August 27, 2019
Continuing to blur the lines between wine and beer, Wayward have once again experimented with the Ripasso method, which involves the refermentation of wine - or, in this case, beer - on grape skins to give it added depth and intensity. They learned a few things from the initial release in 2018, which has been used to improve this year’s, the most pertinent of which was to not just release one beer, but two. Ripasso Bianco and Ripasso Rosso are both part of the Wayward Discovery Series, a collection… Read more
Style
Beer-Wine Hybrids
ABV
6.1%

Wayward Brewing Discovery Series: Balthazar 2019

Published August 27, 2019
Joining the two Ripassos as launch beers in Wayward’s Discovery Series is Balthazar, an imperial stout aged for six months in ex-Jack Daniels whisky barrels. The base beer was built upon expertise gained in using dark malts in the development of Coffee & Donuts, their 2019 GABS release. As expected, that gives it the typical flavours of chocolate and caramel. Then, however, things start to get more interesting. Ageing in barrels imparts flavours of burnt toffee and vanilla, whose slight sweet… Read more
Style
Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout
ABV
9.4%

Wayward Brewing Coffee & Donuts

Published June 16, 2019
Wayward went through more than four kegs of their 2019 GABS beer in Sydney alone, so it’s no surprise they’ve decided to rebrew it, stick it in cans, and release it nationwide. Although an early version appeared in Dan Murphys’ Festival Variety Pack – one that led them to issue this statement, this is a refined version, with a touch of hops to alter the flavour ever so slightly. Inspiration for the beer came from ice hockey teammates Jason Adair and Lachlan Berger, who play in Wayward-sponsored… Read more
Style
Milk Stout
ABV
6.0%
Stockists

Available in NSW, VIC, QLD & ACT.

Wayward Brewing Dead Dingo Brut IPA

Published April 10, 2019
For some reason, the can design for this autumnal release from Wayward brought back an unlikely memory. The combination of white SUV making its way through the Red Centre, the thoughts of dry dustiness and the title's reference to a deceased native animal reminded me of the day when, cruising the Outback on a quad bike alongside the farmers who were then my employers, I was first informed just how well suited a roo's scrotum was for use as a purse or wallet. (Admittedly, the large example next to… Read more
Style
Brut IPA
ABV
6.2%
Bitterness
40 IBU

Wayward Brewing Juicy Boy Pineapple Orange Gose

Published March 1, 2019
People on cooking shows are always talking about how salt brings out the flavour, leaving many of us wondering how salt brings out any flavour other than… well… saltiness. Juicy Boy, however, is a fine example of saltiness and sweetness working together in harmony. This gose contains Murray River pink salt, and is chock full of oranges and pineapples. Head brewer Shaun Blissett said he “wanted to play off that Pine Orange juice we all loved when we were kids,” and he’s nailed it. The salt… Read more
Style
Gose
ABV
3.8%

Wayward Brewing Funky Pineapple Hand Grenade Brett IPA

Published February 21, 2019
Funky Pineapple Hand Grenade Brett IPA... the name alone is a mouthful but what of the beer itself, which has returned in a limited run in the latter part of summer 2019 after debuting as a GABS festival beer in 2016? Well, first up, a clarification: there's no pineapple involved, at least not in fruit form. Or, indeed, hand grenades. But it does feature Brett and is, thus, a little funky. Essentially a West Coast IPA with a twist, the beer was fermented with nothing but Wayward's favoured Brettanomyces… Read more
Style
Brett IPA
ABV
6.5%
Bitterness
50 IBU

Wayward Brewing Kveik To Market IPA

Published February 18, 2019
OK, let’s get this out of the way. However you attempted to say the word kveik was almost certainly wrong. Correctly pronounced kwie-ick, the titular yeast in Wayward Brewing’s Kveik to Market IPA might well turn out to be one of the biggest trends in Australian beer in 2019. Originally isolated from a traditional Norwegian farmhouse style beer, kveik has been steady gaining popularity worldwide as a sort of magical super-yeast that not only ferments faster than almost every other commercially… Read more
Style
Kveik IPA
ABV
6.5%

Wayward Brewing Passionista

Published November 29, 2018
It appears the dogs have won the day at Wayward. Until recently there’d been a low level feline/canine power struggle at the brewery where you’d find cat prints all over the actual beers – the likes of Sourpuss, Passion Of The Puss and even an entire Festival Of The Puss – while pups strutted around the brewery itself to be immortalised on the famed Dogs Of Wayward photo wall. But, with the recent rebrand of Wayward’s beers, cats are evidently on the way out. The AIBA trophy-winning Sourpuss… Read more
Style
Passionfruit & Yuzu Berliner Weisse
ABV
3.8%

Wayward Brewing Ripasso

Published September 19, 2018
Ripasso is best known as a wine – or winemaking technique – of Italian denomination. It’s quite regional and varietal specific but, without going into the minutiae, essentially sees wine re-fermented on the marc (the skins and stems) of pressed grapes used to make a different wine. In a practical sense, the idea is to use the fruity dregs to add some extra colour, character and strength. And that’s pretty well exactly what’s gone on with Wayward’s Ripasso. Except, of course, they’ve… Read more
Style
Beer-Wine Hybrid
ABV
5.0%

Wayward Brewing Saint Basil's Russian Imperial Stout

Published August 21, 2018
Despite the entire state of New South Wales being in drought and half of it seemingly on fire, a glance at the calendar confirms that, yes, it is still, technically, winter. So it therefore, technically, still makes sense for Wayward to be releasing a nine percent ABV Russian imperial stout to see out the last vestiges of the supposedly cool season. Saint Basil’s is a no nonsense, straight up-and-down imperial stout, a beer you could almost write a description of before you’ve even bothered… Read more
Style
Russian Imperial Stout
ABV
9.0%

Wayward Brewing Slapshot Black IPA

Published July 27, 2018
Black IPA is one of those beer styles that seemed, in Australia at least, to rise quickly to prominence then disappear again just as fast. But there was a time, just a few short years ago, when it felt like every other brewer was attempting to make something that straddled the line between darker malts (albeit sometimes chosen for colour more than impact) and punchy American hops. Who knows why they didn’t stick around because when they’re well made they’re a real pleasure to drink. Like this… Read more
Style
Black IPA
ABV
6.5%

Wayward Brewing Passion of the Puss

Published December 6, 2017
Back in May of this year, Wayward’s Sourpuss Raspberry Berliner Weisse won the trophy for Best European Style Ale at the Australian International Beer Awards. Shortly afterwards, presumably to celebrate the win, they held an event at their brewery called Festival Of The Puss at which they tapped the champion beer alongside seven cousins, all small batches made with the same base beer but infused with something different, from cucumber to fig to blood orange. The one that was deemed to have the… Read more
Style
Berliner Weisse
ABV
3.8%

Wayward Brewing The Wayward Son & Big Richard

Published August 17, 2017
There is no moment in one’s life comparable to the birth of a first child. For the parents, in that instant – consciously or not – everything changes and a once familiar way of life begins a gradual demise, shifting its boundaries to make room for something infinitely more complex, confusing, terrifying and wonderful. It’s a big deal, and it’s worth celebrating. So when one of the parents of a new baby is a brewer, a quite natural thing to mark the occasion is with a special beer. At Wayward,… Read more
Style
West Coast IPA & Doppelbock
ABV
7.3% & 9.7%

Wayward Brewing Company Midnight Barley Cowboy

Published June 14, 2017
If memory serves, when Wayward first launched the Midnight Barley Cowboy a few years ago it had the air of an enigma. The night was dark. There was a man at the bar wearing a cowboy hat. There was poetry. And there was this beer that didn't really fit neatly into a style. In the intervening years, the mystery drifted ever so slightly as they brewed it a few more times, the cowboy ended up riding off into the sunset, and the poetry – well, that part is still as confounding ever. But it leaves us… Read more
Style
Hoppy Porter
ABV
6.0%

Wayward Brewing Company Fat Charmer

Published June 13, 2017
At the risk of exposing oneself to the suggestion of being late to the party, here's a new beer that’s been out for about two years. It was back in 2015, the year they opened their brewery, that Wayward gave its flagship Charmer India Red Ale a bigger sibling, the Fat Charmer. The idea was to essentially double everything that had made, and continues to make, the original so popular: more hops, more malt, more alcohol. Since that first one-off brew it’s actually had a few re-releases, but now… Read more
Style
Double India Red Ale
ABV
8.3%

Wayward Brewing Co. All Day Nelson

Published March 18, 2017
You don’t want to know what the team at Wayward had to do, who they had to do it to, or how many times they had to do it, in order to get just ten kilograms of Nelson Sauvin hops. This is a New Zealand hop which is so popular and limited in its availability that it’s like brewer’s crack, the kind that causes hop-forward brewers to crawl over each other in order secure advance contracts with growers amounting to tens of tonnes of hops a year. Wayward managed to score just ten kilograms, more… Read more
Style
Single Hop IPA
ABV
6.8%
Stockists

Yulli's

The Henson

Trinity Bar

Growler Depot

The Durham

Old Canberra Inn

Debacle

More stockists...

Wayward Brewing Dad Rock Imperial IPA (Gluten reduced)

Published July 20, 2016
There’s a small but slowly growing number of gluten reduced beers to be found in Australia but it’s hard to imagine there are any others as ballsy as Wayward’s Dad Rock double IPA. However, when the beer first came out, around the middle of 2016, it was as worrying for coeliacs as most any other beer. Named for a Spotify playlist of classic bands that was popular with the Wayward brewers at the time – think along the lines of Skynyrd, Creedence and The Eagles – the original Dad Rock was… Read more
Style
Double IPA
ABV
8.0%

Wayward Brewing Rose Kolsch

Published May 1, 2016
Before the Wayward brewery opened, founder Peter Philip was intent on making the space it occupied a part of the community. One of the ways he’d envisioned doing it was by giving back to it via a series of beers whose proceeds would go to charity. True to his word, the first of these is ready to flow and it’s a rose kölsch that’s been made to raise funds for Cystic Fibrosis NSW. As the style prescribes they’ve aimed for a beer with a light and clean malt character and European hops of the… Read more
Style
Kolsch
ABV
5.1%
Stockists

Wayward Brewing Co

Wayward Brewing Lilliput IPL

Published March 22, 2016
Some time around 2012, before the whole "session IPA" idea had really caught on locally, Wayward released a low alcohol but very flavourful India Pale Ale which they gave the cute name of Tiny IPA. If memory serves, the idea behind that beer was that founder and then gypsy brewer Peter Phillip liked to go out sailing and enjoy a beer or two while still being able to tell port from starboard. With low ABV and hop forward flavours, it was a rather delicious drop and would have suited its… Read more
Style
Session IPL
ABV
4.1%
Stockists

Wayward Brewing Co

Other stockists TBC

Malt Shovel & Wayward Camperdown Collective West Coast IPA

In 2015, Wayward Brewing moved into Camperdown – just across the road from the Malt Shovel Brewery. So what’d the Malt Shovel brewers do? They headed over helped them set up the tanks, and the two breweries chatted about how great it’d be to brew a beer together. Well, it took four years, but they finally came together and made Camperdown Collective. It’s a West Coast IPA that remembers the days before the haze craze, drawing its flavours from the classic US hop varieties Cascade, Chinook… Read more
Style
West Coast IPA
ABV
6.7%
Bitterness
60 IBU

Wayward Brewing Co. Sourpuss

Wayward founder Peter Philip has a wife who loves sour beers. She also happens to love wheat beers. So when she suggested he brew a sour wheat beer, who was he to argue? He duly obliged with a Berliner Weisse, then proceeded to dump about 60 kilograms of raspberries into it. In addition to a rampant berry aroma, that flooded it with a hot pink colour which made it flamboyant to look at and just as striking to drink; there’s sweetness from the fruit but it's mostly about the sour and tart character… Read more
Style
Raspberry Berliner Weisse
ABV
3.8%

Wayward Brewing Co. Oatis

Oatmeal stouts are reasonably commonplace, but an oatmeal IPA? That’s what Wayward created for their 2015 GABS entry when they added a touch of classic Old World cereal to a New World IPA. Thanks to a couple of generous hop additions it’s got every bit of tropical fruit character you’d want from a punchy American style pale ale or IPA – think grapefruit, pineapple, lime zest, plus a bit of apricot. Coming in towards the 80 IBU mark, it’s technically amongst the most bitter of the Wayward… Read more
Style
Oatmeal IPA
ABV
6.1%

Wayward Brewing Co. FUSAMI Victory

In 2012, SABMiller India, part of the then behemoth multinational brewing corporation SABMiller, filed a trademark appeal against Wayward Brewing. The crux of the matter, from their point of view, was that ‘Wayward’ sounded a bit too close to ‘Haywards’, a popular beer produced in India. On the assumption that Wayward, then a gypsy brewer producing around 20 kegs at a time in Sydney, probably wasn’t going to cause a great deal of confusion to drinkers from the Asian subcontinent, Pete chose… Read more
Style
India Pale Lager
ABV
6.3%

Wayward Brewing Co. Furious Gnome

Stemming from a belief that beers of a classic English style are a tad underrepresented in Australia, one of the first new recipes to come from Wayward’s Camperdown brewery was the Furious Gnome Extra Special Bitter. Of course, in keeping with the mantra of the brewery, they couldn’t just keep to the classic style. But where to put the customary Wayward twist? The answer came almost by way of accident when a biscuit malt, different to any malt used in a Wayward beer before, was added to a test… Read more
Style
Extra Special Bitter
ABV
6.0%

Wayward Brewing Co. Raconteur

The Raconteur, Wayward's signature biere de garde, is the result of a lot of experimentation over many years; indeed, the first time The Crafty Pint met Peter Phillip it was over a few distinctly different home brewed versions of this beer as he sought to nail down the character he wanted before turning it into a commercial brew – essentially a more modern and sessionable interpretation of the iconic French biere de garde, Trois Monts. Thus the beer itself is in the style of a farmhouse ale with… Read more
Style
Biere de Garde
ABV
6.3%

Wayward Brewing Co. Keller Instinct

During a trip through Germany which saw him undertake a number of beer pilgrimages, it was while travelling through Bavaria that Pete observed each village seeming to have its own version of a keller bier. The beers in this lager-loving land, made most famous through Oktoberfest and the bier halls of Munich, were all slightly different but linked with a common thread of high drinkability, relatively low level of hops and a smooth malt balance. Returning to Sydney inspired, the Keller Instinct was… Read more
Style
Bavarian Lager
ABV
5.0%