Sydney is a city that’s always in a rush. Standing defiantly amid all of this is Slow Lane Brewing.
Hidden away from the hustle and bustle on a quiet backstreet in Botany, this small South Sydney brewery opened in 2020 and instantly made a big impression with their modern take on traditional, European-inspired beers.
While most budding breweries launch with a lager or a pale ale, husband-and-wife team Alex and Yvonne Jarman announced their intent early, debuting with a Belgian blonde ale and a saison aged for three months in a wine barrel with Brettanomyces yeast for added complexity.
The accolades soon followed. In their debut year, they won Champion Mixed Culture Beer at the Indies for their Botany Weisse. In 2021, their Threefold Belgian tripel took home trophies at the Sydney Royal Beer & Cider Awards and a gold medal at the Australian International Beer Awards.
Despite their Euro focus, Slow Lane’s origin story actually started in the US, where Alex And Yvonne worked for five years. While living in New York and then California, the couple visited countless breweries and fell in love with those focused on reinterpreting classic continental styles, so much so that Alex, already an avid homebrewer, quit his corporate job to work at breweries before returning to Sydney in 2017 with a vision to start one of their own.
Once home, Alex dove wholeheartedly into his new career, blending new ideas with old world techniques and revelling in funky yeasts, open ferments and can-conditioning. Along the way, Slow Lane’s beer range has evolved and expanded as they experiment with new gear and more modern styles. The purchase of three horizontal lagering tanks means he can now craft the European lagers he’s always wanted to – while he’s also been producing more contemporary styles – hazy IPAs and West Coast pilsners – with dazzling results.
Like the beers, the brewery and taproom channel a similar mixture of traditional and contemporary. It may reside in an industrial warehouse but the stark white walls and oak barrels stacked to the ceiling hint at a beer cellar in Belgium. There’s a feeling of striking simplicity, which is mirrored in the modernist branding and minimalist can art.
More recently, Alex and Yvonne have been busy expanding that space to offer even more options for thirsty and hungry visitors. The wooden-panelled bar now boasts 14 taps (including two Czech side-pour Lukr taps) alongside a large selection of wines, spirits, cocktails, ciders and spritzes, if beer ain’t your beat.
There’s also an in-house kitchen dishing out Neapolitan-style pizzas, share plates, cheeses and charcuterie plus a bigger beer garden out front with wine barrel tables. On the events side, punters can catch live music on Saturday nights and Sunday arvos as well as themed months celebrating different beer styles from around the world.
Wash it all down with some award-winning brews and you can’t lose with this small yet mighty brewery.
Jason Treuen & Mick Wüst
