Local Brewing Co

It’s often said that good people drink good beer and, while that’s often very true, there’s an added benefit when drinking good beer can bring about good too.

It was such an idea that drove a group of mates in Melbourne to launch A Local Beer at the start of 2019 with the aim of using beer as a way to help feed those in need. The brewing company went about it by teaming up with SecondBite, an organisation that rescues food from major supermarkets and passes it on to hungry families. For every six-pack or pint of XPA sold, SecondBite would be able to secure a meal for someone facing food insecurity.

The team behind the beer was Claudia Mitchell, Chris Cefala, Hugo Mylecharane, Sam Harris and Nick Campbell; they’d met at university and shared a love not just for craft beer but social enterprise as well.

Their range wouldn't be limited to XPA forever, however, and neither would the beer label stick with the name A Local Beer. In October 2020, they became Local Brewing Co and expanded their core range to include Runaway IPA and Pacific Paradise alongside the newly-monikered Sunset XPA.

One thing that hasn’t changed, however, is the original ethos that brought Claudia, Chris, Hugo, Sam and Nick together: for each pack or pint sold – now alongside a growing band of limited releases – someone would receive a meal.

By the time of the rebrand, Local Brewing had donated close to 18,000 meals to people in need. What’s more, their beers were finding an audience well beyond Melbourne too, as the team secured distribution across Australia’s East Coast.

Without a brewery of their own, the group worked with some of Melbourne’s local breweries to turn their recipes into beer, with the majority brewed in partnership with Burnley Brewing.

Their focus isn’t just on making sure food gets to those who could use it but also on cutting waste; the group has teamed up with their brewing buddies at Burnley on the Fruits Of Our Labour series. These beers use excess sourdough from a local bakery and highlight not only different fruits but also the sheer amount of food that is wasted. The concept has led to their Surplus Sour series too: these use fruit otherwise destined for landfill, such as mangoes from the NT, and are stocked in Coles' liquor stores.

The pace of the project stepped up a notch or three in 2023 when they finally opened the doors to their own venue. While we'd expected them to set down roots in Richmond, they ended up finding the ideal location in Clifton Hill and, after initially using it as a base to sell coffee to locals during the last of Melbourne's long lockdowns, they turned it into their taproom at the end of March 2023.

You'll find their core range and a rotating selection of limited releases on tap, alongside the odd beer from brewing mates, in a space that features their new branding in a giant mural along the main wall and which they envisage as a community hub.

Conversations have taken place over beers for millennia; Local Brewing Co hope the conversations sparked by theirs will bring about positive change too – and now they have a space of their own in which to start them.

Will Ziebell

Name
Local Brewing Co
Address

3 Hilton Street
Clifton Hill
VIC 3068

Phone
0432 909 040

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Local Brewing Co Regulars

Local Brewing Co XPA

The beer that started it all for the crew at Local Brewing Co was this XPA and it's a beer that's always been good to them and hop fans. The pale, yellow and hoppy beer that fits nicely into the XPA category that might have confused even the more knowledgeable beer geeks in 2015 but has become a ubiquitous trio of letters in the beer world. At its heart, there are tropics-conjuring qualities that can take you far away from Local Brewing's Melbourne home and they come from the inclusion of Citra,… Read more
Style
XPA
ABV
5.0%

Local Brewing Co IPA

IPA is the biggest and boldest beer in Local Brewing Co’s core range and if you like West Coasts with a bit of body, it's likely the beer for you. In the modern beer world, brewers and many hop heads have turned towards juicier and softer beers without the bitterness but this one retains much of what helped the early IPAs take off in America. It's hopped with Simcoe, Ekuanot, Citra and Centennial, a quartet that creates a mix of mango, pithy grapefruit and pine. There's a slightly sweet caramel… Read more
Style
West Coast IPA
ABV
6.2%

Local Brewing Co Lager

Fancy a lager by a local brewery? Good news: Local Brewing have Lager. It has everything you'd look for in a classic easy-drinker too, with the glisteningly golden beer providing an enticing hue and nose of earth floral notes. Joining that subtle hoppy side is a touch of dry biscuit and freshly-baked bread before a building bitterness takes over.… Read more
Style
Lager
ABV
4.2%

Local Brewing Co Specials

Local Brewing Coffee Citrus Sour

Published October 21, 2022
It’s funny how quickly a beer can take you to a time and a place. In this instance, that transportation is summer 21/22 after living through another long Melbourne lockdown. As the omicron wave swept through the country a favourite treat was a tonic and coffee spritz from my local cafe that proved the perfect panacea for hot sunny afternoons. That brings us to Local Brewing’s Coffee Citrus Sour, a beer that instantly connects to that delicious afternoon caffeine hit. The beer is a collaboration… Read more
Style
Coffee Sour
ABV
4.5%

Local Brewing Co Talus WCIPA

Published September 29, 2022
Towards the end of 2021, Local Brewing Co gave Strata a starring role with their West Coast IPA Stratum, which also featured two American classics in Simcoe and Amarillo. Now they’ve followed it up with Talus WCIPA, which once again picks those two hops as more background players and lets another shine. If you’re family with Talus, the American hop is an impressive varied one, with descriptors like oak, wood and coconut (it’s a daughter of Sabro after all) applied to the variety, alongside… Read more
Style
West Coast IPA
ABV
6.4%

Local Brewing Co Victory Draught

Published September 20, 2022
A few weeks out from the 22/23 A-Leagues men’s season, Local Brewing Co announced they’d been named the official beer partner of Melbourne Victory. It’s an impressive feat for the indie Melbourne brewing company and as well as making them an associate partner, it will see their forthcoming taphouse act as one of the club’s away-game venues throughout the season. They've also marked that partnership with a beer to call their own, which brings us to Victory Draught. If you're an avid A-League… Read more
Style
Draught
ABV
4.5%

Local Brewing Red Velvet

Published July 18, 2022
In 2021, Local Brewing released a milk stout called Moonlight and clearly the team had a thought while drinking it over winter. What could be added to this stout to improve it? Come to think of it, it might not have been all that active a thought process at all, it could have come from the sheer joy of drinking a dark beer while shovelling either raspberries or the raspberry-flavoured cake into your face. However the brewing company landed on the decision to brew it, 2022 brings us Red Velvet Milk… Read more
Style
Raspberry Milk Stout
ABV
4.5%
Bitterness
20 IBU

Local Brewing Co Milkywave

Published May 18, 2022
It can be hard work stargazing in Melbourne but such a challenge doesn’t seem to have held Local Brewing Co back. Following on from their Moonlight Milk Stout in 2021, the brewing company have again looked high in the sky for a beer inspired by our very own galaxy, Milkywave. Much like a nebula, the oat cream IPA is as hazy, soft and creamy as you should expect a beer lined with lactose and oats to be but compared to some in the style, Milkywave has quite a strident bitterness to counter its rich… Read more
Style
Oat Cream IPA
ABV
6.5%

Local Brewing Stratum IPA & Mojito Sour

Published November 18, 2021
Whether it’s hops you crave or to be whisked away to a sunny location, Local Brewing Co might have the beer to suit. Stratum IPA is a West Coast brewed in collaboration with the beer retailers at Hops to Home, with the name referring to layers within a structure. It's also a nod to the heavy use of Strata in the beer, which along with Simcoe and Amarillo provide their own layers of tropical fruit, which come in the shape of sticky passionfruit and papaya, and a dank, piney and bitter finish. From… Read more
Style
West Cost IPA & Sour
ABV
6.4% & 5.5%

Local Brewing & Veneziano Coffee On What Grounds

Published August 25, 2021
One drink might be designed for the start of the day and the other for the end of it but there’s a natural affinity when it comes to coffee roasters and brewing companies. Decades ago, those drinking either might not have put too much thought into what's in the glass - or mug - but recent history has seen small operators encourage people to carefully consider both drinks. Bringing the two together in August 2021 are Local Brewing and Veneziano Coffee Roasters, with the collaborative coffee porter… Read more
Style
Coffee Porter
ABV
6.1%

Local Brewing Co Moonlight Milk Stout

Published June 22, 2021
A brief look over our New Beer releases or a glance on social media will make one thing clear: stout season is here. Melbourne’s Local Brewing have joined the fray with their winter 2021 seasonal Moonlight, which has a fitting name given its release has coincided with the Southern Hemisphere's darkest days. It's a dark beer that fits those days too, ready to be enjoyed by the fire (or the small and frankly, pathetic, heater in your sharehouse) with its rich swirl of dark chocolate. The beer's… Read more
Style
Milk Stout
ABV
4.5%
Bitterness
20 IBU

Local Brewing 97 Draught & This Is Your Captain Speaking

Published June 4, 2021
They might share a similar hue but the two latest limited releases from Local Brewing Co probably couldn’t be further removed from one another. For 97 Draught, the kolsh was brewed as a collaboration with Westgarth Liquor, which occupies number 97 High Street, Northcote. Effectively, it’s the kind of beer you might hand to someone who mostly drinks mainstream lagers and though it has similar hallmarks to such a beer, it still packs a punch of flavour. Mostly that's of the floral variety thanks… Read more
Style
Kolsh & NEIPA
ABV
4.5% & 7.5%

Local Brewing Co & Burnley Brewing Fruits Of Our Labour: Mango Nectar Sour

Published April 15, 2021
The ongoing bread-saving collaboration between Local Brewing Co and Burnley Brewing reached its third iteration in April 2021 with Mango Nectar Sour. The Fruits of Our Labour series utlizes bread destined for the bin, in this case from three separate bakeries, and fresh fruit and like all Local Brewing beers, each pack sold provides a meal for someone in need through SecondBite. It might be a sour but really the keyword in the beer’s name is “nectar” with the mango oozing out quite sweet… Read more
Style
Mango Sour
ABV
3.5%

Local Brewing Co Runaway DIPA

Published February 18, 2021
February 2021 is the two-year mark since the team behind Local Brewing Co launched and plenty has changed in that time. For one, they used to be called A Local Beer and only had a single beer too but in 2020 their name change saw the team expand the core range to become Sunset XPA, Pacific Paradise and Runaway IPA. To celebrate turning two, the brewing company has doubled down on the last of those to brew a double version of Runaway. The DIPA contains the same hop combination of Simcoe, Ekuanot,… Read more

Local Brewing Co Gingerbread Brown Ale

Published December 11, 2020
To welcome Christmas’ fast approach (and potentially say goodbye to the wild ride that 2020 has been) Local Brewing Co have launched a dark but light-on-its-feet, holiday-inspired beer. Gingerbread Brown Ale does present with plenty of ginger notes but it's joined plenty of pantry items too. There's nutmeg, cinnamon and allspice, combining with slight chocolate notes from the malt to quite fittingly capture a baked treat in a can. But there’s still a dryness to the beer too and the malts are… Read more
Style
Gingerbread Brown Ale
ABV
6.0%

Burnley Watermelon Crush (with Local Brewing Co) & Wit Me Away

Published November 4, 2020
The perennial fruit gatherers at Burnley are back plundering trees again. For their second Fruits of our Labour collaboration with Local Brewing Co, who use beer to provide meals to those in need through their partnership with SecondBite (and recently rebranded from A Local Beer), they follow their banana bread brown ale with Watermelon Crush. Again, the beer makes use of sourdough bread destined for the bin and, while watermelon is often showcased in sours, here it’s found in a hazy pale, where… Read more
Style
Watermelon Hazy & Belgian Witbier
ABV
4.8% & 5.4%

Local Brewing Co & Burnley Brewing Fruits Of Our Labour: Banana Bread Brown Ale

Published September 3, 2020
Melbourne-based A Local Beer have made it their mission to help ensure less food is wasted and more goes to people who need it, and the brewing company’s collaboration with Burnley Brewing takes that philosophy a little further. The Fruits Of Our Labour series takes food otherwise destined for landfill and creates a beer from it, and through A Local Beer’s partnership with SecondBite, each four-pack sold provides a meal to someone in need. The first release in that series is Banana Bread Brown… Read more
Style
Banana Bread Brown Ale
ABV
5.8%

Local Brewing Co Pacific Paradise

Packed inside a golden and blue can, Pacific Paradise manages to conjure images of beaches a little more picturesque than those skirting Local Brewing Co’s Melbourne home. The core range beer feels like it’s been designed for a spot of post-swim refreshment too: a pale, light and highly quaffable affair. It’s brewed with one of Germany’s newer hops in Huell Melon (well, it’s been around a little while at the time of writing but it’s hardly centuries old) and an American craft beer stalwart… Read more
Style
Summer Ale
ABV
4.2%