The Craft & Co - Collingwood

Collingwood has long been a melting pot of ideas, culture, food and drinks and The Craft & Co’s Smith Street venue aims to unite that ethos under the one roof. Located in a grand building that dates back to 1861, the venue opened in 2015 as a space that treats beer, wine, food and, following the installation of a still, spirits with equal reverence.

The Craft & Co philosophy is simple: drinks should be made with care – or crafted, as the name suggests. The blended approach makes sense once you understand the venture comes from Paul Baggio, whose various businesses have been supplying breweries, wineries and other food and beverage producers and manufacturers since the early 1990s.

Even before you enter the historic two-storey building, it’s clear that it’s more than a venue: it’s a production space too. The aforementioned still sits in the front window to entice people inside; once they walk into the subway-tiled venue, a ten-hectolitre, Italian-made brewhouse can be found at the rear behind the kitchen.

When it comes to production, The Craft & Co have favoured the approachable on one hand – their core range of beers, for example, which is made up of core range of Hazy Pale, Draught and Japanese Rice Lager – with the experimental, such as beers made with a clay amphora. Their range of spirits is vast, from gins, whiskies and vodkas to amaro, vermouth and rum, and has picked up an impressive collection of awards over the years too.

Since 2022, the bulk of The Craft & Co’s production has come from their main facility in Preston, leaving the team at Collingwood to focus on experimentation and trialling new recipes. As such, the taps always cover a breadth of styles, and you’re not just limited to beer when it comes to tasting paddles: you can line up a paddle of gin too. Or select one of their cocktails or wines.

The menu goes to great lengths to make use of these drinks: their focaccia is made with spent grain; meats are often braised in beer; you can try trout cured with gin. The diversity of offering, and opening hours from midday until late most days, means the crowd inside can vary from hungry workers stopping in for some modern Australia fare on their lunch break, to mates enjoying a knock-off or those grabbing a bottle of wine or six-pack on the way home.

Beyond being a place for people to sample and buy food and drink, The Craft & Co is also a place in which you can learn. Staff frequently run beer and food pairing dinners, alongside those celebrating gin, dark spirits, digestifs and everything in between.

The upper level hosts events throughout the year, including their much-loved gin markets at which distillers from across the country show off their wares. It’s also a popular function space for work parties, weddings and other celebrations, with expansive windows offering views over the melting pot that is Smith Street below.

It’s a street, and indeed suburb, with no shortage of places to enjoy beer, wine, cocktails and food, yet The Craft & Co pulls them together in a way that’s unlike anything else in the area.

Name
The Craft & Co - Collingwood
Address

390 Smith Street
Collingwood
VIC 3066

Phone
(03) 9417 4755
Open Hours

Wed to Sat: 12pm to 11pm
Sunday: 12pm to 6pm


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The Craft & Co - Collingwood Regulars

The Craft & Co Draught

Published November 23, 2022
The Craft & Co’s core range Draught was given a new look in 2022 just as the Melbourne brewery's new production brewery started firing but that’s not where the beer’s story starts. By then, it had already been around for some time, found fans in the brewery's Collingwood home and picked up a gold medal at the Sydney Beer & Cider Show. Go back some way further and you’ll find the beer’s inspiration sitting beside the cathedrals of Cologne and being served in tall thin glasses. The… Read more
Style
Kölsch
ABV
4.0%

The Craft & Co Hazy Pale

Published November 23, 2022
It may have bubbled away for some time but hazy pale ales have found a natural home in core ranges of Australian craft breweries. The haze craze might have started in America but the infusion of tropical juice flavours and drinkability seem to have ensured their success in the eyes of many beer drinkers locally. The Craft & Co’s hazy pale is such a beer and immediately provides fresh notes of pineapple, mango and rockmelon, while grapefruit soon joins proceedings and a gentle bitterness slowly… Read more
Style
Hazy Pale
ABV
4.5%

The Craft & Co Japanese Rice Lager

Published November 23, 2022
Long ago, rice lagers weren’t the kind of beer you expected to see in a craft brewery’s core range but as time has gone on, more brewers have embraced the beautiful simplicity at their heart. Craft & Co is among them, with the Melbourne brewery’s Japanese Rice Lager about finding the beauty in life’s quiet corners. Pouring sparkling and golden with a dense white head, the lager might be about crisp refreshment but there’s plenty to discover here. A wave of lemon comes through first… Read more
Style
Japanese Rice Lager
ABV
4.5%

The Craft & Co - Collingwood Specials

The Craft & Co Tropical XPA

Published August 7, 2019
The Craft & Co in Collingwood is many things: restaurant; bar; deli; function space; distillery; brewery. The team there also release wines alongside their beers and spirits and, as of winter 2019, they're looking to bring all their booze offerings into a recognisable family courtesy of a new look. With the new look comes new beers, including a Tropical XPA previously only available on tap. They've plumped for four fruity hop varieties to do the heavy lifting – Galaxy, Vic Secret, El Dorado… Read more
Style
XPA
ABV
5.0%
Bitterness
30 IBU

The Craft & Co Vermont IPA

Published November 29, 2017
Among the first canned beers to come out of Collingwood’s The Craft & Co is the brewery’s take on hazy IPAs. Head brewer Heath McVeigh says the brewery went for Vermont IPA to keep the beer distinct from the cloudiest examples of the style and focus instead on the hops and how they were added to the boil. Featured hops are El Dorado, Citra, Falconers Flight and Idaho 7, which together produce a medley of flavours from tropical fruit, citrus and pine, with a light hint of honey. Compared to… Read more
Style
Vermont IPA
ABV
6.3%

The Craft & Co Bangholme Bitter

Published November 29, 2017
The Craft & Co may brew in the heart of Collingwood, but the owners also have a second home in Melbourne’s southeastern suburb Bangholme. Bangholme Bitter was brewed with that second venue, The Farm, in mind and with the intention of having an accessible beer for those calling into the 40-acre winery, café and cellar door. While the beer might be accessible, and is in many ways an ode to the traditional British style, it packs no shortage of flavour. Sweet biscuit and toffee dominate on the… Read more
Style
English Bitter

The Craft & Co Amphora Tripel

Published October 23, 2017
The Craft & Co’s Amphora Tripel is one of a few firsts for the small Collingwood outfit. It’s the first of the brewery’s beers to be released into bottleshops and also the first Australian beer brewed with clay to be bottled too. Having brewed Australia’s first amphora beer as a limited run for Good Beer Week, The Craft & Co proceeded to look for the style which could showcase the effects the terracotta pots had on a beer’s yeast profile. So, with Belgian beers known for their fruity,… Read more
Style
Amphora Beer
ABV
8.7%
Bitterness
43 IBU

The Craft & Co Marzen

Published October 23, 2017
What better way is there to recognise Oktoberfest in Australia than by brewing a Marzen, the beer style most often associated with the world’s most famous Volksfest. The amber lager is traditionally brewed in March and lagered for months before being drunk by the litre9s) by the six million attendees at the Munich festival. While The Craft & Co’s take on the beer style may not be enjoyed by quite as many drinkers, there’s still much of the traditional about the beer. It pours a clear, dark… Read more
Style
Marzen
ABV
5.3%
Bitterness
23 IBU

The Craft & Co Weissbier

Published October 23, 2017
For its second Oktoberfest release in 2017, The Craft & Co looked to one of Bavaria’s other famous styles, the weissbier to join the Marzen on tap. Created with a blend of two different yeast cultures and fermented at a fairly high temperature, it’s a beer primarily about yeast-driven flavours. Here, primarily that means clove, with a light, peppery spiciness becoming more prominent over time. While there's also some banana like character present, it’s restrained, adding a soft sweetness… Read more
Style
Hefeweizen
ABV
5.6%
Bitterness
18 IBU

The Craft & Co Scotch Ale

Published July 27, 2017
For its 2017 winter seasonal, The Craft & Co brewers have steered clear of the darker choices like porters and stouts and instead focused their attention on the humble Scotch ale. The beer originally designed to warm the spirits of the Scottish doesn’t quite get the same amount of love from Australian brewers in winter as its British stablemates. Yet, at 7 percent ABV, this Scotch Ale packs more than enough of enough of a punch to warm a winter’s evening. Pouring a deep red brown with a… Read more
Style
Scotch Ale
ABV
7.0%

The Craft & Co Signora Amphora

Published May 20, 2017
Never heard of an amphora? If not, you wouldn't be alone, particularly when taken in the context of modern day brewing. They are large clay vessels once used regularly for fermenting wine and, on occasion, beer. As craft beer culture has fired up experimentation globally and brewers have looked for new flavours and textures, a tiny number have dipped into the history books and brought amphora into their homes. As we wrote about in this article, perhaps the best known is Italy's Birra del Borgo but,… Read more
Style
Amphora Beer
ABV
5.5%
Bitterness
25 IBU

The Craft & Co Lincoln Bitter

Published April 1, 2017
The Lincoln Bitter was first brewed in collaboration with Carlton’s Lincoln Hotel, although it has since made its way onto the taps at plenty of other Melbourne venues. Designed as the sort of classic English ale you might find in any number of UK pubs, Lincoln Bitter has those classic honey like sweet malt and caramel flavours. Some floral hop flavours are also present, while a slightly smoky undertone nudges the beer into the realm of a classic Scottish heavy. As the beer warms up, the layers… Read more
Style
English Bitter
ABV
4.9%
Bitterness
20 IBU

The Craft & Co American Pale Ale

Published April 1, 2017
The Craft & Co’s limited release American pale ale brings some classic hop flavours to the fore. Pairing American mainstay Cascade with the more contemporary US varieties of Falconer’s Flight (itself a blend of five varieties from the Pacific Northwest) and Azacca. Unsurprisingly, considering it is more or less the de facto American pale ale hop, most of the beer’s bitterness comes from Cascade, while the aroma is driven by Azacca and Falconer’s Flight. Named after the Haitian god of… Read more
Style
American Pale Ale
ABV
6.4%
Bitterness
52 IBU

The Craft & Co Pilsner

Published March 1, 2017
While, for the most part, The Craft & Co’s pilsner is a traditional take on the style, it does add one slightly modern twist. Sure, it pours a pale golden with a creamy white head and light carbonation and the presence of the hop Saaz puts out aromas and flavours of an earthy spice. Yet the inclusion of the wonderfully named and underused New Zealand hop Sticklebract adds a modern twist to the pilsner and contributes some light notes of citrus alongside Saaz’s herbal aroma. True to tradition… Read more
Style
Pilsner
ABV
4.3%
Bitterness
25 IBU

The Craft & Co Porter

Published March 1, 2017
A classic style traditionally associated with England’s working class, The Craft & Co’s porter pours a deep black with a clear aroma of chocolate and some light notes of aniseed. Those aromas are met by a rich and smooth texture and flavours that are driven by the beer’s dark malt profile. This includes classic notes of chocolate and coffee that match with nutty undertones and some sweetness. As it warms up, that chocolate sweetness develops and flavours of berry or blackcurrant – similar… Read more
Style
Porter
ABV
4.5%
Bitterness
45 IBU

The Craft & Co IPA

Published March 1, 2017
For its core range IPA, The Craft & Co’s brewing team decided to make New Zealand hops the central feature, including no less than eight separate Kiwi varieties in their beer. Two of them – Wakatu and Waimea – are included during the whirlpool as whole hop flowers and later during the dry hopping process. The outcome? There's an upfront resinous aroma that hints at a slightly sticky sweetness, which is met by flavours of tropical fruit and citrus. The sweetness of the malt adds balance… Read more
Style
NZ IPA
ABV
7.0%
Bitterness
70 IBU

The Craft & Co Pale Ale

One of the first beers ever to hit taps bearing The Craft & Co name – before they'd even got the brewery up and running at the Smith Street venue – was its Pale Ale. Designed to take a little of the Old World and mix it with the New, it's built upon the sturdy malt base you might expect to find in an English pale ale with American hops laid upon them. Look out for piney, earthy hop aromas balanced by a rich, biscuity sweetness and a well judged bitterness.… Read more
Style
Pale Ale
ABV
5.4%

The Craft & Co Mocha ESB

Brewer's notes: Specially selected coffee is roasted and then distilled in-house and added to this ESB, creating a balanced brew with sweet caramel and toffee notes, and light chocolate and vanilla bean from the coffee.… Read more
Style
Mocha ESB
ABV
5.5%