McCoppins must hold a special place in the hearts of many Melburnians. With its main bottleshops in Fitzroy and Abbotsford staying open until midnight, they offer drinkers a magical extra couple of hours to stock up after most others have closed. Here at The Crafty Pint, we’ve certainly been grateful on more than one occasion…

They’ve also been ahead of the curve when it comes to stocking a wide range of quality beer. Both internationals – all of which are genuine imports, not brewed under license in Australia – and homegrown breweries are well represented. This is particularly apparent at the Fitzroy store where the growing beer list (with a little help from an expanding cider range) has demanded the installation of an extra fridge, ensuring beer now lines most of the wall space and takes up a fair amount of the floor too.

The latest addition is a growler filler installed by Bridge Road that allows punters to take a rotating selection of the Beechworth brewer’s beers home in draught form. The aim is to offer up Bridge Road beers that aren’t being bottled – or allow you to see how the packaged and draught versions compare.

Aside from beer, there’s an excellent wine selection that, in part, changes to reflect the season, while the Fitzroy store holds free tastings every Friday. Usually running from 5pm to 8pm, they flit between beer and wine week by week.

NB: If you click on the map to the left of this page, it’ll take you to the Fitzroy store, which is where you’ll find the biggest beer selection. However, McCoppins also operates a drive through bottleshop at 501 Victoria Street, Abbotsford, plus a couple of top notch gourmet licensed supermarkets with smaller beer and wine selections at 498 Tooronga Road, Hawthorn East, and 292 Queens Parade, Clifton Hill.