How many great ideas are concocted between mates over a few beers every time the AFL Grand Final rolls around? And how many do you reckon actually reach fruition? Not many, I'd wager. So tip your hats to the guys behind the Mornington Peninsula Brewery whose "Let's open a brewery!" conversation as the Hawks downed the Cats in 2008 became a reality in just two years.
Built inside a factory once used to manufacture exploding golf balls, the brewery is about a kilometre from the Mornington Racecourse and the same distance from the town itself. With wine barrel tables and plenty of seating, including a beer garden added a few years down the track, Mornington Peninsula Brewery has become a great destination for beer lovers on the Peninsula.
Designed to offer beer lovers the great combination of beer and wood-fired pizza, you can also soak up the atmosphere with live music played every Sunday afternoon while your pizza (made with dough using beer) is cooking in the impressive stainless steel oven. For those more into the brewing side of things you might even catch the brewers at work as you gaze out over the brewing system from the mezzanine area.
A core range initially based around a Pale Ale, IPA and Brown Ale has been joined by the likes of Hop Culture and Lager. However, it was the specialty beers with which Mornington first really started to draw attention, with beers as varied as their trophy-winning Imperial Stout, various shades of IPA and many more appearing with such regularity their posters cover huge swathes of the venue's walls. Such has been the popularity of their beers that in the second half of 2014 they built a new, much larger brewery, a short distance away where they also operate a canning line, becoming only the second Aussie micro to install its own canning line, with a growing number since following suit.
A barrel program has followed, sending out fine beers in a variety of styles under the Mornington Artisanal banner, while the production line of other beers continues apace, cementing the brewery as one of Australia's best. It's one that's now part of Tribe Breweries too, joining Stockade Brew Co and WILDE Gluten Free Beer within the NSW based operation's portfolio in August 2018.
