One Drop Brewing Co

Brewer

Name
One Drop Brewing Co
Address

5 Erith Street
Botany
NSW 2019

Open Hours

Wed & Thurs: midday to 9pm
Fri & Sat: midday to 10pm
Sunday: midday to 8pm

Regular events

Happy Hour(ish): $5 core range schooners every Friday throughout summer, 4.30pm to 6pm
First Thursday Of Each Month: The Excuse To Have A Beer Run Club

2019 is the postcode for Botany, in Sydney. It’s fitting it’s also the year Botany landed its first brewery: One Drop Brewing Co.

Until then, Botany locals - such as owners Clay and Meg - had often needed to look outside of the sleepy suburb for a good time.

“There wasn't much to do in Botany,” says Meg with a laugh. She’d know, having grown up just a few blocks from where their brewery now sits.

So, after years spent watching the good beer scene grow around them in Sydney, Clay and Meg decided Botany needed its own watering hole. It needed a chilled out community hangout. It needed its own brewery bar. And it needed its own beers, which arrived with flagship Botany Bay Lager leading the way.

One Drop is unassuming from the front - all that distinguishes it from other warehouses is the One Drop logo on the doors and a small neon sign that reads “BEER”. But passing through the entrance hallway into the brewery is like stepping into a beer lover’s paradise. Instead of a dark warehouse, the space is open and airy, with gleaming stainless steel tanks and smiling staff inviting you to grab a beer and take a seat.

Botany Bay Lager was the first release and pours as clear as the expanse of glass on the far wall, designed to let sunlight shine into the brewery. It picked up gold at the prestigious Australian International Beer Awards within months of the brewery opening too, evidence that, for all the chilled out vibes, this is an operation that's serious about quality too.

The rotating IPAs are fresh and lively as the potted palm trees scattered throughout the bar. The fruited sours stun people with their vivid colours, matched only by the purple and orange mural of a Caribbean sunset.

Between the sunlight, the artistic ocean view and indoor greenery - not to mention the beer garden out the back - the whole place has an island atmosphere. And the undercurrent of reggae providing the soundtrack for every sip shows this is no accident.

“I’ve been a massive reggae head forever,” says Clay. “Sitting around listening to it. Chilled vibes. Our brand is part of that reggae feel. The beers are awesome… but the vibe completes it.”

As well as influencing the background music, the decor and the general vibe, reggae provided the inspiration for the brewery’s name - “one drop” is the drum beat that lays the foundation of reggae music. But the name One Drop also points to the idea of creating a positive vibration that reaches those around you, in the way a single drop can cause ripples. It's manifested in their efforts to design environmentally-friendly cartons for their beers, which you can read about in our Going Green series here

The owners see the brewery as a way for them to give something back to Botany.

“We wanted to create something by the community, for the community. A local product you can be proud of.”

The community has indeed jumped on board from day one, with locals quickly becoming regulars, dogs sniffing around the beer garden, and kids playing Street Fighter or giant Jenga.

One Drop isn’t a neighbourhood secret, though. Their beers quickly gained a reputation further afield with early awards - as well as the AIBA success for Botany Bay Lager, there were golds for their XPA and a Blueberry Sour too.

Despite this, their target audience isn’t beer judges - One Drop brews beers to please themselves and their community.

Brewer Nick Calder-Scholes loves delicate lagers. Since he already builds the water profile for every beer, he replicates those of different cities in Europe for different styles of lager. He tries to have two lagers on tap at all times, and is happy to educate punters about the difference.

Meg loves sour beers, and One Drop are arguably already best known for their brightly-hued, fruited sours, which contain up to 200g of fruit per litre. (Yes, that is a ridiculously large amount of fruit. Yes, the sours are always bursting with flavour.)

Clay loves hoppy beers, so the core range XPA is punchy but sessionable, and the IPAs are constantly being tweaked and rotated, with customer feedback influencing the hop bill of each brew.

One Drop is certainly a place where beer nerds can fawn over the technical details. And gin nerds, for that matter - head upstairs to One Drop's cozy gin bar and you can sip on their very own Side Piece Gin, made with native Aussie botanicals. Because if you're going to be in Botany, why not take an interest in botanicals while you're there?

But downstairs in the brewery, with that rhythmic reggae bass in your ears and a beer in your hand, it’s mighty tempting to just sit back and let the chilled out ambience wash over you. With a little imagination, the mural of a purple and orange sunset can take you from Botany to the Caribbean in an instant.

“You can sit at the bar and look off the island, over the ocean,” says Clay. “It’s like having a brewery with you on a deserted island.”

And isn’t that the dream?

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

Stories featuring One Drop Brewing Co

Core Range

One Drop Hazy Pale Ale
Hazy Pale Ale
4.5%
One Drop Brewing Alcoholic Ginger Beer
Ginger Beer
4.0%
One Drop Brewing Oatmeal Stout
Stout
4.5%
One Drop Brewing XPA
XPA
4.3%
One Drop Brewing Botany Bay Lager
Lager
4.3%

Limited Releases

One Drop's Fifth Birthday Beers
Various Styles As Indicated
6.5% & 6.5% & 5.1% & 8.0%
One Drop Nego Što, Island Time, Hoo Bangin' & Super Freak

One Drop Yo Yo Yo, Cooked, Stacked & Electric Eyes
Various Styles As Indicated
8.5% & 5.3% & 5.8% & 6.4%
One Drop We Jammin', Call It Out, Combi Nation & Hard Raspberry
Various Styles As Indicated
6.2% & 5.8% & 6.0% & 6.0%
One Drop x Slow Lane Drop It Slow
Barrel-Aged Fruited Sour Ale
6.2%
One Drop Cali Dream, Dark Lager & Dark Cherry
Cali Pilsner & Dark Lager & Imperial Cherry Sour
5.8% & 5.2% & 8.0%
One Drop Prohibition, Mango Sour, Monte Grande & Double Vanilla Custard Pancake
Various Styles As Indicated
4.5% & 5.3% & 6.9% & 10.1%
One Drop Yujo, Ethereal Wave, Skankin' Mallard & Bougie
Various "Styles" As Indicated
6.5% & 7.9% & 8.0% & 10.5%
One Drop Vienna Lager, High Grade (with Dogma) & We Jammin'
Vienna Lager, IPA & Smoothie Sour
5.1% & 7.0% & 6.2%
Working Title Prime Time, Gremlins & Ripe
Cali IPA, Hazy IPA & Berry Sour
6.5% & 7.0% & 7.0%
One Drop With & Without Clean Fusion Hazy IPAs
Hazy IPAs
Both 7.6%
One Drop Rainbow Country, Swamp Funk, Pie Head & Triple Take
Various Sours As Indicated
6.2% & 8.2% & 9.0% & 12.1%
One Drop Whero, Wonderland By Day & Liquid Motueka
Various IPAs
6.2% & 7.4% & 8.4%
One Drop Fairy Floss II, Vibration Positive & Three Cubed
Fairy Floss Sour, Fruited Sour & West Coast IPA
8.5% & 8.1% & 6.9%
One Drop The Fiddler & T-3022 Synthetic IPA
IPA & Synthetic IPA
5.9% & 6.5%
One Drop x Duckpond Chase The Crazy & Duck For Cover plus Roads of Creation
Imperial Berry Sour, Triple IPA & DDH DIPA
10.1% & 10.8% & 8.3%
One Drop Alcoholic Lemonade, Onskiis & Fairy Floss Sour
Various Styles As Indicated
6.0% & 4.7% & 10.4%
One Drop Lucky Old You & It's All Gravy
NZ IPA & Imperial Pastry Stout
6.9% & 10.0%
Lost Palms The Way It Is, Paper Trails & Vibe (with One Drop)
Session IPA, Italian Pilsner & Double IPA
3.5% & 4.6% & 8.4% ABV
One Drop Blackcurrant Imperial Slushy Sour
Imperial Slushie Sour
10.4%
One Drop Slow It Down & Cali Bud
DDH Pale Ale & California IPA
5.4% & 6.7%
One Drop Flipside & Tropical Super Highway
NEIPA & Smoothie Sour
6.2% & 8.1%
One Drop On Your Feet & Keep Up
DDH DIPA & DDH IPA
8.0% & 5.9%
One Drop Double Take Boysenberry
Imperial Boysenberry Sour
10.1%
One Drop Broader Than Broadway, Southern Hospitality & Splice Up Your Life
Various Styles As Indicated
6.5% & 8.0% & 7.0%
One Drop Wake Up & Triggered
Fruited Imperial Gose & Imperial Pastry Sour
7.4% & 7.6%
One Drop Double Take Blackcurrant
Imperial Fruit Sour
10.5%
One Drop & Duncan's Haze Talk & Cake Walk
German Oat Cream IPA & Imperial Pastry Gose
8.1% & 7.0%
One Drop Red Plum Sour & Melloe Yellow
Plum Berliner Weisse & Tropical Sour
3.5% & 7.5%
One Drop & Bracket DIPA
Hazy DIPA
8.0%
One Drop Funky Enuff, Wonderland By Night & Chocolate & Vanilla Porter
New World IPA, DIPA & Chocolate & Vanilla Porter
7.9% & 8.1% & 6.3%
One Drop Cross Flow, Belgian Cherry Sour & Double Take Raspberry
Various Sour Styles
5.8% & 6.3% & 10.1%
One Drop Welcome To The Nectaron Experience
Single Hop Double IPA
8.3%
One Drop The Big Bad Wolf & Dark Cherry 2022
Nitro Imperial Pastry Stout & Imperial Cherry Sour
10.0% & 8.0%
One Drop Nobody Move, Twisted Fate & Mørkt Lys
Hazy Double IPA & West Coast IIPA & Fruited Norwegian Gose
7.3% & 8.2% & 9.0%
One Drop Monster Beers
Various styles
ABV as indicated
One Drop Slip Dart, Body Count & Pineapple Imperial Slushy Sour
Czech Pils, Hazy IPA & Slushy Sour
5.5% & 6.1% & 8.5%
One Drop Imperial, Double & Smoothie Sours
Imperial, Double & Smoothie Sours
7.7% & 8.3% & 8.4% & 7.8%
One Drop Clean Fusion Hazy IPAs
Hazy IPAs
7.2% & 8.3% & 6.9% & 7.4%
One Drop December '21 Triple Drop
Imperial Fruit Sour, Hazy IPA & Raspberry Sherbet Sour
10.1% & 5.8% & 9.8%
One Drop November Quartet ft The Garden & Funky Fluid
Imperial Gose, Triple Hazy IPA, Imperial Gelato Sour & Imperial Smoothie Sour
7.2% & 10.1% & 8.0% & 8.3%
One Drop Luponus Maximus
Hazy Low ABV IPA
2.9%
One Drop FUUUUU & Hearty (with Deep Creek)
Hazy IPA & DDH DIPA
6.5% & 8.7%
One Drop Brewing VOID
Who knows?
6.66%
One Drop Liquid Lactose Nitro Milkshake Ale
Nitro Milkshake Ale
8.5%
One Drop Brewing Fresh Off The Boat
West Coast IPA
6.9%
One Drop Brewing Peach & Elderflower, Feijoa & Manuka Flower & Blueberry & Lavender
Fruit & Flower Sours
3.5% & 6.1% & 5.5%
One Drop West Coast IPA & Liquid Citra IPA & Oni Citrus IPA & DDH Oat Cream DIPA
IPA Variants
7.1% & 6.9% & 7.1% & 6.8%
One Drop Brewing Harvest & Vintage 2020 & Cabernet Funk 2020
Beer-Wine Hybrids
7.0% & 9.5%
One Drop Brewing Strawberries Milkshake IPA & Cream & Twisted Fate IIPA
Milkshake IPA & IIPA
6.2% & 8.0%
One Drop Brewing Watermelon & Rose Sour & Lemondrop Double IPA
Fruit Sour & Double IPA
6.8 & 7.6%
One Drop Brewing Double Take Double Blueberry Imperial Sour & Blueberry & Choc Muffin Nitro Imperial Pastry Stout
Imperial Fruit Sour & Imperial Pastry Stout
10.8% & 10.9%
One Drop Brewing Peach Sour & Tropical Smoothie Sour
Fruit Sours
4.9% & 5.5%
One Drop Brewing The Hop King & Stratascope
West Coast IPA & DDH NEIPA
6.2% & 6.6%
One Drop Brewing Big Bad Wolf
Nitro Imperial Pastry Stout
10.0%
One Drop Brewing Dark Cherry Imperial Sour
Imperial Fruit Sour
7.5%
One Drop Brewing Hazy IPA & Castaway IPA
Hazy IPA & West Coast IPA
7.2% & 6.0%
One Drop Brewing Passionfruit Sour
Fruit Sour
5.9%
One Drop Brewing Mango Milkshake IPA
Mango Milkshake IPA
6.5%
One Drop Brewing 5 Brett Saison
Brett Saison
8.2%
One Drop Brewing Strawberry Honeydew Sour & Guava White Grape Gose & New World IPA
Fruit Sours & IPA
6.2% / 5.7% / 6.5%
One Drop Kellogg's Cornflakes Nitro Milkshake IPA
Nitro Milkshake IPA
6.4%
One Drop Brewing Blueberry Sour
Blueberry Sour
5.5%
One Drop Brewing Saison
Saison
7.3%
One Drop Brewing Pilsner
Pilsner
4.7%
One Drop Brewing Juicy & Enigma IPAs
IPAs
Both 6.9%
One Drop Brewing Apricot Sour & Redcurrant, Raspberry & Rosella Sour
Fruit Sours
6.1% & 5.9%
One Drop Brewing Grisette
Grisette
3.1%