Dainton Brewery & Taphouse

Brewer

Name
Dainton Brewery & Taphouse
Address

560 Frankston Dandenong Rd
Carrum Downs
VIC 3201

Phone
For sales, call 03 9775 0334
Open Hours

Thursday: 3pm to 10pm
Fri & Sat: midday to 11pm
Sunday: midday to 8pm

The very nature of craft beer ensures the industry is awash with personalities, quirky characters and unusual ideas. Sure, there are very sensible people working in it too, people who spotted a business opportunity in beer and bring a suitably businesslike approach to their operations.

But even among the colourful breweries that make up Australia’s beer industry, Dainton Beer manages to stand out. Launched in the middle of 2013 by Dan Dainton and his old man Kev, after the former spent time brewing at the James Squire Brewhouse in Melbourne’s CBD (now The Crafty Squire) and at Holgate Brewhouse, their first beer was Red Eye Rye, a hoppy, spicy red ale of eye-catching quality that proved a good sighter for the sort of creativity was to follow.

For the first few years, theirs was a roving operation, with Dan making beer out of breweries all over Victoria, but the father and son duo were constantly on the lookout for a place they could call home. That came along in the middle of 2016, when they became owners of their very own brewery – albeit rather later than they'd hoped.

Following a search for premises that stretched from Milawa in the north to Castlemaine and Warburton, they found a 2,000 square metre site in Carrum Downs, two minutes off the Monash Freeway. With a brewery in place, the crew around Dan and Kev quickly started to grow and so too did the number and range of beers released.

The Dainton core range includes basically every hop-forward style you could consider, while a separate, Imperial Range is dedicated to the boozier side of beer. To many beer drinkers, however, they might be best known for the speed with which they fire out limited releases. It’s a roster that regular includes dessert beers, big Belgians, hazies galore, sours, whopping IPAs and, well … it’s probably almost quicker to list the styles of beers the Dainton brewers haven’t brewed rather than try to list them all.

It’s not just limited release beers that are a focus for the brewery, but ensuring they brew them well too. That consistency-focused approach has seen them pick up many medals at the nation’s beer awards and an impressive haul of trophies at The Indies, including the Champion Australian Beer in both 2017 and 2019 and Champion Large Independent Brewery in 2020. That awards success has led to substantial growth for the brewery: a 50-hectolitre, fully-automated brewhouse was installed in 2021 with the aim of getting Dainton beers further across Australia and into export markets, while also allowing them to offer contract brewing to others.

It’s not just award-winning beer that features in Carrum Downs, however. The Dainton Taphouse is open four days a week and as well as 18 taps of beer you can pick from an American-inspired food menu almost as varied as the beers and including pizza, loaded fries, fried chicken and hoagies. Live music has also become an important part of the taproom, while support for local music doesn’t just occur within the venue: the Dainton name has become a regular sight at Americana and country gigs across Victoria.

It means the brewery has fans in many places, from the residents of Melbourne’s southeast who call the taproom their local to those across the country who beat down the doors of their local bottleshop to try the latest honeycomb and toffee stout or finely-tuned IPA. As with the original Red Eye Rye, which has spawned a number of spin-offs, often the beers their fans are chasing impress, sometimes they surprise or shock, and, on occasion, they do both at once.

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

Stories featuring Dainton Brewery & Taphouse

Core Range

Dainton Beer New Age
Non-Alc XPA
>0.5%
Dainton Beer Major Tom
New World IPA
2.5%
Dainton Brewery Equalizer
Hazy Pale
4.7%
Dainton Brewery Overdrive West Coast IPA
West Coast IPA
7.0%
Dainton Brewing Supertrooper Imperial NEIPA
Imperial NEIPA
10.0%
Dainton Brewing Darklord Imperial Stout
Imperial Stout
10.0%
Dainton Brewing Jungle Juice Hazy IPA
Hazy IPA
6.5%
Dainton Family Brewery Blood Orange Rye NEIPA
Bloody Orange Rye NEIPA
6.0%

Limited Releases

Dainton Beer A Dark, Dark Lager (With Seeker) & Whisky Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout
Dark Lager & Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout
5.5% & 11.3%
Dainton Beer Blackwork
Double Black IPA
7.5%
Dainton Beer Choc Berry Bomb
Nitro Berliner Weisse
7.3%
Dainton Beer Red Dragon
Red IPA
6.5%
Dainton Beer Apple Brandy Barrel-Aged Barley Wine
Barrel-Aged Barley Wine
14.1%
Dainton Beer Fudgement Day
Double Choc-Fudge Porter
7.5%
Dainton Beer Machine Mind
AI-Generated IPA
6.5%
Dainton Beer Apocalypso III
NEIPA
7.5%
Dainton Beer Island Jam
Tropicana Milshake NEIPA
6.7%
Dainton Beer Tropical Trooper
NEIPA
6.5%
Dainton Beer Cherry Cola & Barrel-Aged Choctail
Cola Sour & Barrel-Aged Stout
4.3% & 11.4%
Dainton Beer Refreshing Alcoholic Ginger Beer
Ginger Beer
3.0%
Dainton Beer MegaDrive
West Coast IIIPA
10.0%
Dainton Beer D6
NEIPA
7.5%
Dainton Beer Idaho 7
Single Hop Hazy IPA
6.0%
Dainton Beer Straight Outta Carrum Downs
Rye IPA
6.0%
Dainton Beer Sweet Party, Eh!
Brown Ale
7.0%
Dainton Beer Hop Rising & Choctail
IPA & Specialty Stout
6.8% & 9.0%
Dainton Beer Chipmunk
Choc-Hazelnut Porter
6.0%
Dainton Beer Burnout & RRAWWWGGR
Black IPA & Red DIPA
6.5% & 10.0%
Dainton Hopf'n Juicy
Blood Orange Hoppy Weiss
5.5%
Dainton Beer Cherrywood Barrel-Aged Smoked Rye Baltic Porter
Barrel-Aged Baltic Porter
12.0%
Dainton Beer Juicetice Squad
Juicy IPA
6.5%
Dainton Beer Rogue Triiipa
Triple Hazy IPA
10.0%
Dainton Lupe de Lupe & The Associates (ft CoConspirators)
NEIPA & Double NEIPA
6.5% & 8.0%
Dainton Beer Hyperdrive
West Coast IIPA
8.5%
Dainton Beer Jiggy Juice
NEIPA
6.0%
Dainton Beer Hip Hip Purée
Peach & Mango Sour
6.0%
Dainton Beer D5
NEIPA
8.5%
Dainton Beer Free S'Peach
Salted Peach Sour
4.5%
Dainton Beer Insane Uncle IPA
IPA
6.0%
Dainton Beer Amplifier
Hazy IPA
8.0%
GABS Festival Pack 2021
Various Styles
Various ABV
Dainton Beer Crumblicious
Honeycomb & Toffee Stout
7.5%
Dainton Beer Plum Pie
Imperial Pastry Sour
8.4%
Dainton Beer Twist & Stout
Choc Pretzel Stout
6.8%
Dainton Beer All Saaz
Czech Pilsner
5.2%
Dainton Beer Bright-er Daze
Wet-Hop Hazy IPA
6%
Dainton Brewing Red Eye Rye 2021
Red IPA
5.5%
Dainton Beer B'Easter Egg
Imperial Choc Ale
9.0%
Dainton Brewing Vienneipa
Fancy Ice Cream Cake IPA
6.5%
Dainton Beer Kong Juice
Double Hazy IPA
8.0%
Dainton Beer Peaches & S'Cream
Oatscream IPA
7.5%
Dainton Brewing Flamingo
Pink Lemonade Sour
4.5%
Dainton Brewing Shark-Punch-Nado
Tropical-er IPA
7.5%
Dainton Brewery Lupalin Daze III
DDH Double IPA
8.0%
Dainton Brewing Apocalypso II
Second Wave NEIPA
8.0%
Dainton Brewing Bloodzilla
Blood Orange Double NEIPA
8.0%
Dainton Brewing Fruity Freeze Tropical NEIPA
NEIPA
6.2%
Dainton Brewing Black Forest
Russian Imperial Stout
10.0%
Dainton Brewing Pandemic Punch & Rye-Solation
Blended NEIPAs & Rye Ales
6.6% & 5.8%
Dainton Brewing Sir Spritzalot, Mimosa & Stratasphere
Cocktail Beer / Brut IPA / Single Hop NEIPA
5.6% / 5.5% / 6.0%
Dainton Brewing The Raider NEIPA
Single Hop NEIPA
6.0%
Dainton Kinky Cola & Nutters & 3D & The Hybrid
Various styles
5.2% & 6.0% & 8.1% & 6.4%
Dainton Brewing Cranny Sour & Smoked Sour
Cranberry Gose & Apricot Lichtenhainer
5.0% & 4.5%
Dainton Brewing Raspberry Rye Milk Porter
Raspberry Porter
6.0%
Dainton Brewing Rock Toffee Belgian Dubbel
Belgian Dubbel
6.3%
Dainton Brewing Sav Brute
Brut IPA
6.9%
Dainton Brewing Big Bad Bourbon & DIPA
Barrel Aged Belgian Barley Wine & Double IPA
14% & 8.3%
Dainton Brewing Hop Harvest IPL & The Cold Brew
Harvest IPL & Imperial Coffee Porter
5.5% & 10.0%
Dainton Family Brewery Tropicana Session Saison
Kettle Soured Fruit Saison
5.7%
Dainton & Ballistic Fruit Punch IPA
Fruit IPA
6.3%
Dainton Family Brewery Passionfruit Belgian Pale Ale
Passionfruit Belgian Pale Ale
4.3%
Dainton Family Brewery Black Forest & Rum-Soaked Raisin Belgian Quad & Saffron In My Rye
Imperial Stout & Belgian Quad & Freaky Belgian IPA
11.0% & 11.2% & 5.9%
Dainton Family Brewery Cherrywood Smoked Rye Baltic Porter
Smoked Baltic Porter
8.8%
Dainton Family Brewing Classic Draught
Lager
4.5%
Dainton Family Brewing ESB / Double Red / Oatmeal Stout
ESB / Imperial Red Ale / Oatmeal Stout
Dainton Family Brewery XSA (RETIRED)
Mid Strength Pale Ale
3.5%
Dainton Family Brewery All Black & Blood Orange
Black IPA & Berliner Weisse
6.4% & 3.5%
Dainton Family Brewery Pale Ale (RETIRED)
American Pale Ale
5.2%
Dainton Family Brewery Black Sheep Brunch Stout
Oatmeal Stout
5.5%
Dainton Family Brewery Bad Daughter Choc Orange Porter
Chocolate Orange Porter
5.7%
Dainton Family Brewery Twisted Twin
Double IPA
8.0%
Dainton Family Brewery Manhattan Ale 2016
Barrel Aged Belgian Rye Ale
9.7%
Dainton Family Brewery Santa's Cherry Sack Attack
Cherry Sour
5.8%
Dainton Family Brewery Red Eye Rye 2015
Rye Red Ale
4.8%
Dainton Family Brewery Skeletor's Stout
Barrel Aged Stout
6.4%
Dainton Family Brewery Samurye Lager
Rice Lager
4.5%
Dainton Family Brewery Sneaky Son Smoking Stout
Smoky Stout
7.5%
Dainton Family Brewery Bastard Brother
Belgian Rye IPA
8.0%
Dainton Family Brewery IPA (formerly Insane Uncle IPA)
West Coast IPA
6.0%