White Bay Beer Co

White Bay is an area that holds both industrial behemoths and a Hollywood film location, so it stands to reason White Bay Beer Co would capture that blend of character - down to earth, but not without sophistication.

The brewery’s logo shows the twin smokestacks of the abandoned White Bay Power Station, a nearby heritage listed landmark that’s been watching over its surrounds for a century. The history of this rusty chaperone ranges from grimy labour to glitzy glamour, as it was used to film scenes from The Great Gatsby and one of the Matrix movies, putting the Balmain peninsula on the silver screen.

Born in such an area, White Bay Beer Co could hardly help but take on the tagline, "Working Classy".

Housed in an industrial precinct that backs onto White Bay itself, the brewery is inside a 150-year-old steel mill that’s criss-crossed with steel beams like the bones of a giant, and wrapped in corrugated iron walls that show rusty streaks to remind you this building has stood the test of time. But it’s the massive size of the building that caught the attention of the WBBC team, who wanted plenty of space for a lager program.

Right from the beginning, the team - beer industry veterans the lot of them - agreed that a great lager was to be the focal point of their core range. And since lager typically stays in fermenting tanks longer than other beer styles, a brewery planning to pump out excellent lager needs room to store the beer. Thus a 1400m2 warehouse and a hefty amount of stainless (an amount that doubled in the first couple of months) made perfect sense.

“Go big or go home, right?” says head brewer Dennis de Boer.

Like many brewers, Dennis sees a well-made lager as the holy grail of brewing. He pours his mass of brewing experience into Union (since renamed Lager – of which more later), an approachable Euro lager of his own creation that’d sate the thirst of steelworkers of old. Its easy-drinking nature and mesmerising white head of foam belie the amount of effort that goes into creating its stunning simplicity.

The other core range beer, Sunny, is equally sessionable but floods White Bay with flavour. It’s closest in style to a hoppy American blonde, but stuffed with Aussie hops to give it those familiar passionfruity and citrus vibes.

While Lager and Sunny are the cornerstone of White Bay, there’ll always be an IPA (update: multiple) in market as well – a kind of adopted core range beer. Each IPA in the series is made as a one-off designed to capture a moment in time, and the can designs are accordingly unique to showcase the different recipes. In addition to these, a regular rotation of special release beers keeps the brewers and punters alike on their toes. After all, even steelworkers need to change things up every now and then, right?

Right from when they planned their core range beers to suit Balmain, the White Bay team has shown a special love for their locals, and the locals have responded in kind. The brewery isn’t isolated from the pocket of breweries in Sydney’s Inner West, but nor is it pressed up against them, meaning there’s enough home turf for the brewery to have a dedicated following in the area. But, while White Bay belongs to the Balmain peninsula, it isn’t constrained by it. An online store and a string of supportive bars and bottleshops get White Bay’s beers out to drinkers in greater Sydney and beyond.

And, os of 2022, you can call in yourself and enjoy a vast array of their beers at the brewery itself, after they were finally able to open a venue on-site. There's a good chance you'll find rather more lager variants on tap than is typical at such a modern-minded craft brewery as it's become a serious focus of the brew team. It's a focus that's paying off too: while beers like Gantry Crane Czech Pilsner can fire the most excitement among beer fans, their Lager claimed the none-too-shabby title of Champion Independent Beer at the 2022 Indies.

You may not be able to see the smokestacks of the White Bay Power Station from where you are. But you can sit down after a hard day of work, re-watch the Matrix movies and drink a lager with a damn impressive head of foam.

Mick Wust

Name
White Bay Beer Co
Address

26C Mansfield Street
Rozelle
NSW 2039

Open Hours

Thurs & Fri: 4pm to 10pm
Saturday: midday to 10pm
Sunday: midday to 8pm


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

White Bay Beer Co Regulars

White Bay Beer Co Lager

Imagine a cartoon of a beer in a glass mug with a perfect white head. (Or if you have no imagination, just Google it - I’ll never know.) White Bay’s Union Lager (now called just Lager) may match this image better than any other beer I’ve seen in real life. Whether on tap or from the can, this beer pours with foam that sits high and tight and purest white. All at once, it looks like Santa’s beard, soft meringue, and fluffy snow freshly fallen. When complimented on his craft, head brewer Dennis… Read more
Style
Lager
ABV
4.7%
Awards

Indies 2022 – Champion Beer & Champion Lager

White Bay Beer Co Sunny Pale Ale

Just as sunshine sparkling off the water in White Bay is at once serene and delightful, this light golden blonde at once calms and excites. Like its sibling Lager, Sunny carries a fluffy white head and lacing that lingers in the glass til the very end. But, unlike Lager, the aptly named Sunny Pale Ale overflows with hop aroma. While this naturally hazy beer is closest in style to a hoppy American blonde, the smell of Sunny is distinctly Australian - the Galaxy hops fill it with passionfruit, grapefruit… Read more
Style
Pale Ale
ABV
4.5%

White Bay Beer Co Gantry Crane

White Bay's core range Lager took out the prestigious Champion Australian Beer title at the 2022 Indies, but for many in the local beer world it's their Czech pilsner Gantry Crane that is the lager to rule them all among the many lagers the Balmain brewers put out. As with pretty much everything lager-related they do, it's a labour of love, not just in terms of the ingredients used but also the time the beer is given in tank; well, if you're going to release a beer in cans that look like Pilsner… Read more
Style
Czech Style Pilsner
ABV
5.0%

White Bay Beer Co Specials

White Bay Beer Co In Good Company

Published March 7, 2023
White Bay's brewers have spent much of the past couple of years developing and refining some of the finest lagers in the land: their Indies champ Lager, the Czech style pilsner that made our Best Of Beer 2022: NSW roundup; its lesser-seen little sibling Bendy to name but three. They also put out plenty in the way of hazy pales and IPAs too, however, and it's into that realm they've dipped for their entry into the GABS Australian Invitational Craft Beer 8 Pack. In Good Company sees them conjure the… Read more
Style
Hazy Pale Ale
ABV
5.2%
Stockists

Find it in the GABS Invitational Packs

White Bay Beer Co Bendy

Published February 1, 2023
They've already got the 2022 Australian Champion Beer title in the back for their core range Lager and put out arguably the best Czech style pilsner in Australia in the shape of Gantry Crane, but for the brewers at White Bay there's a real fondness for Bendy. The backstory is that the "tiny pilsner" was brewed in honour of Bendy the crane and her operator John, who helped get all of their tanks into place, and also that it was an attempt to create a lower ABV version of the aforementioned… Read more
Style
Czech Style Pilsner
ABV
4.1%

White Bay Beer Co Porter w/ Coconut & Cocoa Nibs

Published May 16, 2022
Now, I'll admit to having done zero research on this, but I'd wager there's a very good chance Sydney brewery White Bay have been the most avid producers of porters since they launched. Given how few and far between porters are in Australia (OK, anywhere, really), and how far removed they are from the beers lighting up beerstagrammer accounts, it's not exactly a high bar. Yet their dedication to such beers is noticeable, and they're at it again here with a release in which it's worth paying attention… Read more
Style
Porter with Coconut & Cocoa Nibs
ABV
6.3%

White Bay Frontier Fields & Premium Bounce

Published December 11, 2021
It sure would be interesting (at least to a nerd like myself) to know who has released the most IPAs in 2021. There would be the obvious names thrown into the hat – the likes of Akasha, Range, Mr Banks, Mountain Culture, Cheeky Monkey, Rocky Ridge, Black Hops – but you'd figure White Bay would be up there. One of the younger of Sydney's breweries, they've been knocking out IPAs at a serious rate of knots this year, with two hazies landing at once in December. Starting with the smaller (in can… Read more
Style
Hazy IPAs
ABV
6.8% & 7.4%

White Bay Groovy Rhythm

Published November 26, 2021
Look, I'm a big fan of White Bay's beers, and indeed the people leading their brew team, but I have to admit I'm not so sure about the name of this hazy IPA. I dunno about you, but Groovy Rhythm has me thinking of some godawful BBC radio host with an afternoon drivetime show back in the 80s trying to get down with the kids, or a Stock Aitken & Watermen-penned, perm-wearing chart hit, even if the word "Groovy" on its own will forever be associated with Ash and his chainsaw arm in Evil… Read more
Style
Hazy IPA
ABV
6.7%

White Bay & Lotus Dining Group Australian Rice Lager

Published August 12, 2021
Fried rice. Dumplings. Noodles. Sake. Beer. Rice is an incredibly versatile grain. With eight venues across Sydney, Lotus Dining Group goes through a lot of rice and a lot of beer. Partnering with a brewery to create a rice lager to pair with their Asian dishes was a logical step and White Bay’s a brewery that takes lager damn seriously. The Lotus lager sparkles in the light, and its glassy appearance is a gorgeous visual representation of how clean this beer is. The brew team at White Bay are… Read more
Style
Rice Lager
ABV
4.5%

White Bay Beer Co Ripple Effect & Drip

Published April 30, 2021
The brewery crew at White Bay have described this hazy IPA as "easily their haziest beer to date"; I'd got with hazy cubed... If it was possible to be more opaque than opaque, this peachy-hued liquid would be there. Ripple Effect explodes with clouds of citrusy, stone fruit and melon rind aromas – indeed, the character is reminiscent of rubbing a plump hop cone in your palms at harvest time or falling backwards into a mound of freshly plucked hops. It doesn’t hold back on the pithy… Read more
Style
Hazy IPA & Coffee Porter
ABV
7.2% & 6.5%

White Bay Beer Co Jettison IPA

Published March 28, 2021
Chatting to the White Bay crew at this month's Canberra Craft Beer & Cider Festival, it's clear that not only do they have grand ambitions but also that they want to see their Union Lager become their flagship. Yet, while they back their tightly wound lager to the hilt, they clearly have a soft spot for the world of IPA too, with new variants appearing every few weeks. The newest of those pouring at the festival (and out widely in cans) is Jettison, a beer they describe as "friggin plush"… Read more
Style
Juicy IPA
ABV
6.4%

White Bay Beer Co West Coast IPA

Published February 8, 2021
The fightback continues... After a few years in which a haze has descended over the world of IPAs, smothering bitterness, boosting sweetness and fluffiness, and making the category increasingly home to words such as "juicy" and "fruity", the past is making itself felt. You could already see a growing number of West Coast IPAs appearing as 2020 dragged on – admittedly often with hop profiles very different to those of a decade before, but brighter in the glass and more bitter… Read more
Style
West Coast IPA
ABV
7.3%

White Bay Beer Co Stack Up

Published October 8, 2020
The White Bay team use their IPA series to have fun with hops, and Stack Up is no exception. Five different hop varieties, added in a few different formats, make this beer the tropical medley it is. In this new world of hazy IPAs, we’re constantly talking about dry-hopping, but before the multiple rounds of dry-hopping this beer received – with Vic Secret, Calypso, Cashmere Cryo and Citra – the stage was already set with enough Mosaic to make your head spin. As well as more traditional pellets,… Read more
Style
IPA
ABV
6.7%

White Bay & The Little Marionette Blend 26 Coffee Porter

Published October 1, 2020
White Bay are in bed with their neighbours, The Little Marionette coffee roasters, again but this time it’s less about the complexity and more about the intensity. This is the second time the two businesses at 26 Mansfield Street have blended their expertise. Their previous collab - a Baltic porter with Ethiopian coffee beans - was like the fruity filter coffee you order and discuss with your barista as you explore the intriguing nuances of flavour. Blend 26 is more like the extra strong cappuccino… Read more
Style
Coffee Porter
ABV
8.2%

White Bay Beer Co Thick Of Things IPA

Published September 16, 2020
When an IPA has the name "Thick Of Things" written on the front of the can, it might give the impression the flavours within will be frantic and frenetic. But the fifth IPA from White Bay doesn’t contain chaos; it’s the antidote to it. Everything is in harmony in this hazy. A nose full of syrupy tinned fruit salad opens up to more distinct fruits in the mouth - pineapple and peach and pulpy orange juice - with restrained sweetness. Flaked oats keep Thick Of Things fluffy and light with… Read more
Style
Hazy IPA
ABV
6.3%

White Bay Beer Co Dolcé Noir Imperial Stout

Published August 7, 2020
Given the era in which we live – one in which there's a flurry of excitement for dessert-like releases in which one of the only ways to identify the liquid as beer is the word "beer" on the label – and the contents of the ingredient list on Dolcé Noir, you'd be forgiven for thinking this winter release from White Bay should come with a handy guide on how to unblock arteries. Not only is it a 9 percenter but it's tagged a chocolate stout and features lactose as well as toasted hazelnuts… Read more
Style
Imperial Chocolate Stout
ABV
9.0%

White Bay Beer Co Wherever I Rove

Published August 6, 2020
The plan at young Sydney brewery White Bay is to always have an IPA as part of their lineup. Just not the same one all the time. And with head brewer Dennis de Boer having spent a few years knocking out IPAs a little to the north at Modus Operandi before becoming part of the founding team at the Balmain operation, it's a style he knows inside out. In the case of Wherever I Rove, the statement on the cans that it's brewed with "bushels of oats" might have minds picturing a hefty, hazy affair,… Read more
Style
IPA
ABV
6.0%

White Bay Beer Co Higher Now DDH Pale

Published July 27, 2020
Hazy pale ales done well can carry all the hop character of a NEIPA but with less wallop factor. Higher Now is an example of such a pale. In the glass it looks like pear juice, with that dull cloudy orange that’s adjacent to beige, but there’s nothing boring going on here. Galaxy, Azacca and the newer Sultana hops bringing fruit aplenty, although Higher Now isn’t a sweet glass of brekky juice like some hazies. Think more of a dry fruitiness, with tropical fruit hitting evenly across the palate… Read more
Style
DDH Pale
ABV
5.5%

White Bay Beer Co Common Ground Baltic Porter

Published July 1, 2020
This is White Bay’s first beer with an adjunct, first dark beer, and first collaboration beer. And I think anyone would agree they’ve knocked it out of the park. Right from the beginning, White Bay wanted to partner with their neighbour, The Little Marionette coffee roasters, to make a dark beer with coffee. They landed on Baltic porter as the base style, using a lager yeast to provide a solid but clean foundation to let the Ethiopian coffee shine. Like a terrific filter coffee, there’s so… Read more
Style
Baltic Coffee Porter
ABV
6.3%