Collingwood is home to an impressive number of small breweries, pubs and craft beer bars, but even with no shortage of delicious beer to be found, The Mill Brewery truly stands out. That’s largely thanks to the brewery's location inside The Bendigo Hotel, a castle-like pub on Johnston Street that has long held a reputation as one of Melbourne's finest live music venues for up-and-coming and underground bands.
For many years, The Mill and The Bendi stories were separate. The former was housed inside an old mechanic's garage just off Smith Street, and the latter was frequently filled with metal and hardcore fans eager to sweat the night away. That said, The Mill always had an air of metal about it, thanks to their logo, some of their beers (including a house favourite at The Crafty Pint: The Dark Lord black IPA), and the fact they did host the occasional gig inside their original taproom.
So maybe what came in 2024 was always destined to be…
But to begin at the beginning, we need to go back to 2016 when founder Mirek Aldridge started work on The Mill’s first home. Go back even further and Mirek was a cameraman who had fallen madly for craft beer and soon turned an interest in brewing into an obsession and a career he knew he wanted to pursue.
After securing a warehouse on Sackville Street, Mirek, his mates and family bootstrapped themselves into building The Mill Brewery, which was rapidly embraced by the Collingwood community once its roller doors opened in 2017.
Regardless of a small footprint and having just a 600-litre brewhouse to produce beers, The Mill Brewery found fans easily. Whether it was thanks to the beers, the lively atmosphere brought by a street-facing beer garden, or the fact they had teamed up with Melbourne's cult favourite taco slingers, Dingo Ate My Taco, The Mill always managed to stand tall.
As demand grew, in late 2021, one became two as they commissioned a 30-hectolitre production brewery in Thomastown. They chose the new brewery’s opening as the moment to introduce a core range of Cracking Lager, Daydream Session Ale, Mosaic Pale, and El Toro IPA, and ramped up distribution significantly.
Which brings us more or less to the present day and two potentially sad stories that became a wonderful one.
In early 2024, The Bendigo Hotel closed its doors suddenly and, as luck would have it, Mirek had been searching for a new home for The Mill; the founder was unsure about the future of his beloved warehouse in a part of Melbourne where high rises seemed to be rising every other day.
And so, two became one: The Mill Brewery took over The Bendi and made the pub their home.
Many of the favourites that always made The Mill Brewery what it was joined them down the road too, including Dingo, who brought an expanded food menu, their popular trivia, and Altered Beast for those interested in playing one of the hardest arcade games ever unleashed to the public.
Key to the grand old boozer is the front bar, which effectively serves as The Mill taproom — a place you can pop into at any time to enjoy a taco and an IPA.
Step foot inside any part of the venue and you’ll discover that much has been done to ensure The Bendi remains a pub-lover’s pub. Moody lights and exposed brick greet you wherever you turn, a pool table fills one corner, and a lush and sensational beer garden is tucked towards the pub’s rear.
Beside it sits a garage that, at the time of writing, will become home to The Mill’s faithful 600-litre brewery to help further fill the taps with limited-release beers. Add in a function room upstairs and you have the kind of pub, brewery, taproom and band room that, well, is one of a kind.
It all makes for a brewpub that’s like little else in the land. Where else can you try a day-old fresh IPA as you tuck into a taco before walking into a band room to mosh the night away?
Nowhere, and while it might have taken some years to reach this point, The Mill Brewery is now unlike any other place to enjoy a drink. Whether that's in Collingwood, or any other ‘hood.
Will Ziebell
