Rocks Brewing Co

Rocks have come a long way since the first beer bearing that name was poured in 2008.

From gypsy brewer hopping around town making beer to an established brewery that helps other gypsy brewers make their way into the industry. From their spiritual home in The Rocks to Sydney Corporate Park in Alexandria. From testing the waters of the Sydney beer scene to rocking a range of approachable beers that capture historical Sydney personalities.

As you approach the brewery, you find yourself craning your neck to see where it is - it is, after all, tucked behind a few other buildings in the precinct. But when you get to it, you see that Rocks Brewing is no small brewpub.

The entrance is via an 800 square metre courtyard, where punters can enjoy the afternoon sun with oversized planter boxes scattered around them. Glass walls show off the green-lit underbellies of towering stainless steel tanks - tanks that give Rocks the capacity to produce more than a million litres of beer a year. (Alexandria seems to do everything on an industrial scale, with brunch mecca Grounds of Alexandria just down the road.)

This is all before you even step inside and see the exposed wood brewery bar and kitchen. Behind the bar, a long line of taps serves up the Rocks core range - made up of American Pale Ale, Pilsner Lager, Mid-Strength Pale Ale and West Coast IPA - as well as a few limited releases and a couple of guest taps from Rocks Brewing’s friendship circle, including Halo alcoholic kombucha.

But it's not just those beers that greet you, with a wide mix of limited releases and seasonals always pouring too. if you have trouble deciding, you can grab a three beer tasting paddle to work your way through the offerings, and grab a six-pack of your favourite to take home when you leave.

The restaurant menu is scattered with beer and food pairings, and strikes a balance between familiar beer-friendly food and slightly more exotic items: a Wagyu burger with Irish whisky sauce sits beside a pulled lamb quesadilla; loaded waffle fries next to Atlantic salmon with Israeli couscous. Or, if you have a Flintstonian appetite, the 1.2kg Tomahawk steak will keep you busy for a while.

Rocks is the sort of place you want to share with others. Maybe that looks like taking part in the Sydney Charity Brewery Run each year, and enjoying a celebratory beer when you reach Rocks Brewing; or maybe it means pulling together people of a common interest, like the cat meet-up that filled the courtyard with small mewing customers. If you’re clever, you’ll point your boss to the corporate functions available, including a three course Brewer’s Feast in the middle of the actual brewery, with a pig on the spit as the centrepiece.

But the most obvious way to enjoy Rocks Brewing is by bringing a few friends for an afternoon session in the beer garden, with a share plate and a couple of cold ones between you. Beer doesn’t need to be complicated.

Name
Rocks Brewing Co
Address

Building 2
160 Bourke Road
Alexandria
NSW 2015

Phone
(02) 9669 3600
Open Hours

Mon & Tues: midday to 8pm
Wednesday: midday to 9pm
Thursday: midday to 10pm
Fri & Sat: 11am to midnight
Sunday: 11am to 9.30pm

Tours

Tours available through Dave's - daves.com.au


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

Rocks Brewing Co Regulars

Rocks Brewing Mid-Strength Pale Ale

Published May 28, 2018
In these frontierless days, when you hear a beer has taken out a trophy in the Specialty Beer category, you could be forgiven for wondering just what hybrid Frankenstein's monster had charmed the judges. Just what unusual ingredients were in there; what barrels did it spend time ageing in; was it the sort of beer the brewer could ever (or would even want to) make again? But, at the 2017 Craft Beer Awards (which, from 2018, became The Indies), that title went to the Conviction Pale Ale from Rocks… Read more
Style
Mid-Strength Pale Ale
ABV
3.5%

Rocks Brewing American Pale Ale

The second of Rocks' beers to appear in packaged form (alongside the Governor) was their take on the American pale ale style first popularised on these shores by Little Creatures. The Hangman arguably went on to become the best known of the Sydney brewery's beers, and here reemerges in deep orange cans as part of their 2022 rebrand. The colour of the cans is a decent precursor for what's inside: a copper coloured beer with light caramel malts supporting orange citrus, stone fruit and pine. There… Read more
Style
American Pale Ale
ABV
4.9%
Bitterness
35 IBU

Rocks Brewing Pilsner Lager

When they redesigned their core range at the start of 2022, Rocks ditched the location-based and colloquial names for some of their beers for a more straightforward approach. Thus out went Alexandria Lager – a beer of which our Mick WĂĽst had written: "Yikes. Even compared to other lagers, this is impressively easy to drink." – and in came Pilsner Lager. While the new look beer remains inspired by the classics of Germany, with the brewers stating it's "lagered for months",… Read more
Style
Pilsner
ABV
4.5%

Rocks Brewing West Coast IPA

At our Pint of Origin IPA blind tasting during Good Beer Week 2021, it might have been Big Shed going back to back with The Hazing in first place, but Rocks turned a few heads in the room when their Holey Dollar West Coast IPA was voted into third place by the 50-odd guests and brewers. A piney, dank and bitter affair, it stood out amid a high quality crowd. As part of their 2022 rebrand, that beer became West Coast IPA, and while there's been no ostensible changes, the first batch in the new yellow… Read more
Style
West Coast IPA
ABV
6.5%

Rocks Brewing Co Specials

Rocks Brewing Avenin Juice DDH Oat Cream IPA

Published December 30, 2022
Named after the oat protein that is often used by brewers to create haze in beer, Avenin Juice is the latest hop forward release by Rocks Brewing: an oat cream double dry-hopped IPA packing 7.5 percent ABV in a 500mL tin – making for three standards in each. For short, people might just call this beer AJOCDDHIPA. Easier. Pouring an opaque orange the colour of mango flesh, AJOCDDHIPA boasts a decadent head and an aroma so bold it might scare dogs. As is their wont, the Nectaron and Mosaic hops… Read more
Style
DDH Oat Cream IPA
ABV
7.5%

Rocks Brewing Trial By Thiol NEIPA

Published April 16, 2022
The first special release of 2022 from Rocks puts their newly refurbished branding front and centre, creating something a little like a holographic magic eye poster. The beer inside is a mash-hopped, double dry-hopped NEIPA titled Trial By Thiol, a reference to the flavour precursors locked in hops and malt which are mysteriously unlocked by using, as they put it, "carefully selected ingredients" at "specific times". Now, I’m not sure if MHDDH NEIPA sets a new record for abbreviation… Read more
Style
NEIPA
ABV
7.1%
Bitterness
13 IBU

Rocks Brewing Alexandria Lager – RETIRED

Published February 19, 2021
Yikes. Even compared to other lagers, this is impressively easy to drink. The aroma of Alexandria Lager gives off subtle banana bread vibes, like the cafe up the road is baking a loaf and there’s a gentle breeze bringing the smell your way. While this beer is made in the style of a German pilsner, there’s a little more malt sweetness here than many pilsners carry, but somehow it still has a clean character to rival the trickling water of a mountain stream. It’s soft and slinky like silk pyjamas,… Read more
Style
German Pilsner
ABV
4.5% ABV
Bitterness
20 IBU

Rocks Brewing Holey Dollar IPA – RETIRED

Published February 19, 2021
Holey Dollar, Batman! This West Coast IPA just bit me! Rocks’ Holey Dollar is dank, dry and affronting in the same way as the first time you tried ginger ale as a kid. Piney resin saturates your senses, followed by a savoury bitter bite that carries a touch of spice. But don’t expect the bitterness to hang around - the dryness of this IPA whips it off your tongue before you’re done with it. It’s intense but soon gone, like a slap in the face. Pair Holey Dollar with a pie and mash potato (or… Read more
Style
IPA
ABV
6.3% ABV
Bitterness
57 IBU

Rocks Brewing Short Session IPA

Published November 17, 2019
Short Session started life as a small batch trial as a session IPA, bringing fruity punch but with a little less oomph than most IPAs. Butm as it started to win people over - not least the brewers - it got re-brewed on a larger volume, with an extra blast of hops, and a jump in ABV, bringing it from its original 4.6 to up to 5.8 percent. So, what can you expect from a session IPA that’s no longer a session IPA? It’s managed to keep its clean profile and approachability. Its flavours are citrus-forward,… Read more
Style
IPA
ABV
5.8%

Rocks Brewing Ten Year Red IIPA – RETIRED

Published July 16, 2018
Ten years represents a pretty decent journey in the brewing industry, a period of time that allows for plenty of ups and downs. As they sit back and reflect on a decade gone, it’s easy to imagine the team behind Rocks Brewing having felt every mile and undulation. The company launched in 2008 as a gypsy brewer, with Harts Pub in The Rocks acting as their spiritual home. To make their beer, foundation brewer Scotty Morgan would traipse across Sydney and beyond, brewing anywhere and everywhere that… Read more
Style
IIPA
ABV
7.4%
Stockists

Rocks Brewing

And other Sydney venues

Rocks Brewing Coffee Ale – RETIRED

Published July 13, 2018
Not a great many things look like a pale lager, smell like coffee and taste a bit like chocolate. That would make this one of the few. Channeling their inner Wonka, the crew at Rocks Brewing has turned out a Coffee Ale sub-categorised as a white stout. The basic premise of the “style” is to gamble on a consumer having being conditioned to relate to stout as a delicious black noun rather than an adjective representing strength, thus leaving the brewer free to present a strong pale beer with similar… Read more
Style
White Stout
ABV
5.0%

Rocks Brewing Conviction IPA – RETIRED

Published May 30, 2018
The third of three recent releases to make its way to us from Rocks Brewing is one that's been around, on and off, tweaked here and there, for a number of years. This time around, it comes in black and purple tins as part of the Conviction Series of releases, like stablemate Conviction Pale Ale. While the Pale looks to squeeze plenty of flavour into a mid-strength body, here the Rocks brewers have a full 7.2 percent ABV to play with. Like the Pale, it allows hops to take centre stage but, whereas… Read more
Style
IPA
ABV
7.2%

Rocks Brewing Sauv Blanc Berliner Weisse

Published May 25, 2018
Given the speed with which new releases hit the market these days – we know we're not close to writing about all of them yet still tend to post between ten and 20 each week – it shouldn't be that surprising when uncommon ingredients crop up more than once. Yet it still amuses us when you spy a two or more brewers opting to add something to their beer that you wouldn't normally find in beer at pretty much the same time. Case in point here: Hunter Valley wine juice making it into three beers within… Read more
Style
Berliner Weisse with Grape Juice
ABV
3.8%

Rocks Brewing Russian Imperial Stout 2017 – RETIRED

Published August 1, 2017
In what's proving to be a turbulent year for the local beer industry, few have been riding the roller coaster with quite the same gusto as Rocks Brewing. In recent weeks, it was announced their brewery is up for sale while last week their Conviction collected the trophy for Champion Specialty Beer at the Craft Beer Awards, where flagship Hangman pale ale grabbed a gold too. At the other end of the flavour spectrum is a beer for which they won a gold at last year’s competition: a Russian Imperial… Read more
Style
Russian Imperial Stout
ABV
10.5%

Rocks Brewing Nectarine Witbier – RETIRED

Published February 22, 2017
It seems they’ve gone at little bit fruity at Rocks. For their second new release of 2017 the Alexandria brewery has decided make use of the abundance of summer’s gorgeous stone fruit by bastardising a witbier with nectarines. The wit, or wheat, style of beer is something their brewhouse happens to be well suited to. Without getting into technical details of efficiency, extractions, conversions and all sorts of other things that get brewers particularly excited, the Rocks brewhouse has something… Read more
Style
Fruit Witbier
ABV
4.4%
Bitterness
20 IBU

Rocks Brewing Zoigl Bier – RETIRED

Published January 17, 2017
For their first release of 2017 the team at Rocks has dived about 500 years into the history books and emerged with Zoigl. So the (slightly truncated) story goes, when the citizens of medieval Franconia – now southern Germany – wanted to let thirsty passers-by know that they had beer ready for drinking, they’d hang a six pointed star outside their home. This symbol, similar in appearance to the Star of David, with two interlocking triangles representing the elements (water, fire and air) and… Read more
Style
Zoigl
ABV
4.8%
Stockists

Rocks Brewery Bar

Rocks Brewing Conviction Series Pale Ale – RETIRED

Published November 21, 2016
It may just be selective memory but, based on snippets of conversations with the Rocks brewing team over the past couple of years, it seemed like they’ve long been looking to add some sort of a highly hopped but low ABV session beer to their range. For example, going back a couple of years, they packaged an India Session Ale but even that, at 4.7 percent ABV, still felt like it was at the relatively high end of the spectrum and didn't quite nail the idea in full. But, just a couple of months ago,… Read more
Style
Mid Strength Pale Ale
ABV
3.5%

Rocks Brewing Dunkelweizen & Belgian Pale – RETIRED

Published August 19, 2016
On the back of the winter release of their (now CBIA gold medal winning) Russian Imperial Stout, the brewing team at Rocks has wasted no time in launching into a new project: a trio of Euro-centric ales. And, despite not having a properly coherent set of label artwork, this is a properly linked artistic triptych as all three beers have been propagated from more or less the same Belgian strong golden ale yeast. The first in the set is a dunkelweizen, the dark wheat beer of German origins. Theirs… Read more
Style
Dunkelweizen & Belgian Pale
ABV
5.1% & 6.5%
Stockists

Rocks Brewery

Rocks Brewing Russian Imperial Stout 2016 – RETIRED

Published July 15, 2016
Mark Fethers, the CEO of Rocks Brewing, has been banging on at his brewers for a few years about doing an annual release of Russian imperial stout, with the grand ambition of having a back catalogue of vintages which can then be blended into some sort of master beer made from a portion of each of its younger siblings. With the release of Rocks’ second RIS, he might just be on his way. The first in the series, in 2015, was overseen by head brewer Scotty Morgan and Nick Downs from Reformation Brewing,… Read more
Style
Russian Imperial Stout
ABV
10.8%
Stockists

Rocks Brewery

Oldfield Cellars

And select bottleshops across NSW

More stockists...

Rocks Brewing Brown Ale – RETIRED

Published May 15, 2016
You often hear about how welcoming, inclusive and open to new opportunity the craft beer world is, and the latest release from the Rocks Brewing Company fits nicely within that narrative. It concerns Amanda Howkins, a British ex-pat who moved to Australia with bags full of impressive qualifications, certifications and around 20 years experience working with big overseas breweries and food manufacturers. After being alerted to her CV by a fellow Sydney brewer, Rocks invited her along to the brewery… Read more
Style
Brown Ale
ABV
5.2%
Stockists

Rocks Brewing

Rocks Brewing White IPA – RETIRED

Published February 9, 2016
Rocks Brewing’s second release of 2016 is the result of a meeting of minds. Apparently inspired by one brewer’s trip to the hop lover’s paradise that is the West Coast of the USA and another brewer’s trip to the holy land of beer, Belgium, their ideas met in the middle and settled on a white IPA. The style (and some will argue it isn't one) is fairly uncommon in Australia and sits in the area where the hoppiness of an American IPA gets crossed with the wheat and spice characters of a Belgian… Read more
Style
White IPA
ABV
6.9%
Bitterness
60 IBU
Stockists

Rocks Brewing

Others TBC

Rocks Brewing Blueberry Wheat Beer – RETIRED

Published January 24, 2016
It seems that 2015 was the year the team at Rocks Brewing really started stretching its brewing muscles in earnest. Its core range, from pale through porter, has been well and truly nailed down, so they started playing around with fruit beers, barrel-aged beers and sour beers (sometimes all three within the same vessel), releasing brews made with cherry, lychee, pomegranate, passionfruit and more. That’s something they’ve carried on to 2016, with the first limited release of the year being a… Read more
Style
Fruit Witbier
ABV
4.4%
Bitterness
20 IBU
Stockists

Rocks Brewing

Select venues around Sydney

Rocks Brewing Exiled Brews: Passionfruit Sour – RETIRED

Published July 18, 2015
Amidst all the hustle and bustle of the rapidly growing Rocks brewery is a rack of wine barrels, full of beer, which had been sitting for 12 months in the middle of the brewery floor just quietly taking everything in. The contents of said barrels are now starting to appear in bottles under a limited edition Exiled Brews series with the first (and technically second) to be released being Carol and Beryl, a pair of passionfruit witbiers named for the barrels in which they were raised. But these twins,… Read more
Style
Barrel Aged Passionfruit Sour
ABV
4.5%
Stockists

Rocks Brewery

Brewski

Tipplers Tap

Bowen Hills Cellarbrations

Hawthorne Cellars

Acland Cellars

Wine Republic

Prince of Wales

More stockists...

Rocks Brewing Wet Hop Amber Rye Ale – RETIRED

Published April 20, 2015
Unusually for a fresh hop beer, the story of Rocks’ Wet Hop Amber Rye Ale starts a year ago. Ben Landsberry, brewing BFF of Rocks head brewer Scotty Morgan for 10 years and current brewer at The Kernel in London (one of the driving forces in the British craft beer renaissance), had scored the promise of 50kg of fresh hops and pestered Scotty to get them for the just-opened Alexandria brewery. Scotty not only got the hops but went one better, giving them to Ben to create the brewery’s first specialty… Read more
Style
Fresh Hop Amber Rye Ale
ABV
5.5%
Stockists

Rocks Brewing

Other good beer venues along the East Coast

Keg only

More stockists...

Rocks Brewing Conviction ESB

Published March 2, 2015
To mark the first year of having their own brewery (with splendid accompanying venue) in Alexandria, Rocks held a party. And they brewed a new beer too. That beer was the Conviction ESB, the abbreviation standing for the British beer style Extra Special Bitter. According to the brewers, it was very much with the UK tradition of knock off pints in mind that this beer was designed, to wit: "The knockoff bell chimes; it’s time to head down to your local watering hole for a pint of ale. The eclectic… Read more
Style
ESB
ABV
5.0%
Stockists

Rocks Brewing

Various Sydney venues

On handpump at Alehouse, Royston & Great Northern

More stockists...

Rocks Brewing Governor Golden Ale - RETIRED

Golden ales are all the range for craft brewers in Australia these days, with many seeing them as a way to try to lure drinkers of more commercial beers into the fold. The Governor is pretty much the archetypal take on the modern Aussie golden ale: a little bit of sweet malt character, a touch of fruity hop aroma and a dry, lightly bitter finish; in other words, enough to differentiate from macro lagers but not too much to scare people away. Rocks create theirs with Australian ale, Munich and Crystal… Read more
Style
Golden Ale
ABV
4.5%
Bitterness
25 IBU

Rocks Brewing Boxer Red Ale - RETIRED

The beer where it all started back in 2008 – and not the most typical beer you'd expect a new brewing company to kick off with. The Boxer is based on the Irish red ale style that uses a blend of British chocolate and crystal malts to gain its deep red hue and layers of caramel and chocolate. As with most of head brewer Scotty Morgan's beers, it's a tight and lean affair with a touch of toffee and coffee on the nose too.… Read more
Style
Irish Red
ABV
4.2%
Bitterness
24 IBU

Rocks Brewing The Butcher Porter - RETIRED

The used of flaked oats give Rocks' take on the traditional British robust porter a little twist, adding some extra body and smoothness to the nigh on black beer. Chocolate malt lends the beer some dark chocolate and cocoa aromas that sit atop layers of toffee and coffee in the darkest offering from the brewery's core range.… Read more
Style
Robust Porter
ABV
5.0%
Bitterness
26 IBU

Rocks Brewing Convict Lager - RETIRED

While many Aussie micros will only countenance releasing a lager if it's of the pilsner ilk, some highly hopped IPA like affair, dark in colour or high in ABV, Rocks decided to stick pretty close to the most commonly accepted image of a "lager". They just turned all the elements up a little bit. Munich and Vienna malts lend a bit of colour, body and richer caramel flavour while a combo of Aussie Ella and Czech Saaz hops used late in the brewing process for aroma and flavour add some grassy… Read more
Style
Lager
ABV
5.1%
Bitterness
30 IBU

Rocks Brewing Co Pickpocket Cider - RETIRED

It’s hard not to have a begrudging respect for pickpockets. They don’t rob you in your sleep, or threaten you with a weapon. They sidle up and bump right into you, give a polite but brief apology, and move on. It isn’t until later you realise that little encounter cost you all the money in your pocket. That’s the cheekiness captured in Rocks Brewing’s core range cider. It’s unobtrusive, light in colour and clear as a winter’s morning. It has a pleasant sparkle to it, but isn’t over… Read more
Style
Apple Cider
ABV
5.5%