Local Brewing Co are set to welcome Clifton Hill residents into their newest local when they swing open the doors of their taproom on Saturday. It comes more than a year after they announced their plans for the Hilton Street location, found just a stone's throw from Alexandra Parade.
It means Local Brewing Co the second of two breweries in Clifton Hill – the longstanding Clifton Hill Brewpub is the other – and place them on the boundary of the brewery hub that makes up Collingwood and Abbotsford.
The former mechanics' site has been transformed into a light and modern venue that features a dozen taps, a shipping container dedicated to slinging pizzas, and a colourful mural that welcomes punters as they walk through the room.
The mural will be a key feature of Local Brewing Co going forward: the same artwork appears on their new-look core range beers: XPA, IPA and Lager. Co-founder Sam Harris says, given they finally had a home of their own, they wanted to use the opportunity to better share their driving principles of using beer to support those in need and to build communities.
“We really wanted to bring forward our brand values and the messaging around social good and sustainability,” he told The Crafty Pint.
The operation launched early in 2019 as A Local Beer with a central focus on doing social good through beer, particularly through their partnership with second SecondBite. In the early days, much of their design work was done in-house and, as they got closer to opening the brewpub, they worked closely with Craft Instinct to better tell their story.
Both the mural and core range tell a tale of beer and community, from how it's made to how it's enjoyed, while their new logo is wrapped with the words Drink A Local Make A Difference.
“We had the opportunity to really focus in on the brand and how that can best convey our story,” Sam says.
Nick Campbell, who co-founded the business alongside Sam, Claudia Mitchell, Chris Cefala, Hugo Mylecharane and Paddy Muston, says they’ve installed 32 solar panels on the roof to help power the venue. They’ve also gone to great lengths to ensure the build itself was environmentally-friendly, with the team spending many weekends fixing up old tables.
“All the furniture is reclaimed from a pub in Warburton,” Nick says. “The new owner wanted to modernise and we really liked the look of the old school tables, [on] which we’ve replaced the legs, sanded and painted to match the mural.
The brewhouse itself will sit along one side of the venue, although at time of writing that was still making its way into the country. Once installed, although they’ll still have packaged beer produced elsewhere, Sam says it will give them the opportunity to "really engage the community. So we could do a weekly people's beer where people can vote or something along those lines.”
Unusually for a brewery, they’re opening from 7am most mornings. Sure, they won’t be pouring beers at the start of the day but, having run Greater Good Coffee as a pop up last year, they're firing the espresso machine back up this week too.
“We really want to get a service both the AM and PM,” Nick says.
The second floor is still being converted into a function room but they’re keen to start hosting community groups and their partners at SecondBite quickly. After all, already that relationship has provided more than 200,000 meals to those in need and Nick says they aren’t slowing that down.
“Our internal goal is to reach two million,” he says.
With a venue of their own to help bring their story – and their beers – to more people, such goals don't feel out of reach either.
Local Brewing is located at 3 Hilton Street, Clifton Hill, and will be open from midday on Saturday, April 1. You can find it and hundreds of other good beer venues on the free Crafty Pint app. They're also hosting brewers from The Territories for Pint of Origin from May 12 to 21, 2023.
If you can't wait until Saturday to check it out then you're in luck. Our Crafty Cabal members are being given sneak peak on Thursday evening. Find out how you could be there here.
Will Ziebell is a history graduate who knows more about The Wire than he does about beer. He was awarded the AIBA Best Media trophy for 2018; HBO have told him to please send his fan mail elsewhere. He can be found on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok.
The beer(s) or moment(s) that turned you on to good beer:
Spending time living in the UK (and backpacking across Europe) when I was 21 certainly gave me a better understanding of the beer and different styles of the world. But I'd say it was a holiday to the High Country a little while later when lunch and a tasting paddle at Bridge Road Brewers created an obsession with Australian breweries and locally made beer.
You've got three beers to turn someone else on to good beer; what are they and why?
-
Boatrocker's Miss Pinky: It's a raspberry-packed Berliner Weisse that neither looks or tastes the way many people conceive of beer.
-
Bad Shepherd Hazelnut Brown: A luscious mix of chocolate and hazelnut that can appeal to the sweet tooth within us all.
-
Stone & Wood Pacific Ale: As the father of my oldest friend once said to me: "It's the perfect refreshing pint that smells like they've loaded it with the God's herb."
The last beer you enjoyed:
Garage Project's DFA while sitting at the bar at Miss Moses as the sounds of The Rolling Stone drifting in the background.
Three things that represent you:
- Bruce Springsteen
- Ken Burns
- The State Library of Victoria
