Tasmania’s longest-established independent brewery is set to have a new home. Moo Brew have today announced plans to establish a taproom and brewery called Manky Sally's in Salamanca.
General manager Lauren Sheppard told The Crafty Pint that finding the ideal location and space in the Hobart hotspot spurred their decision to open the new haunt, one she hopes will be open by the year's end.
“It’s rare that pubs or venues that are appropriate come up,” Lauren says, adding that the space previously housed a shop that hasn't been open for a couple of years.
“We were just starting to have a search around for the right place and this one popped up. We realised we’d be crazy not to take the opportunity.”
The venue's proximity to the Brooke Street Pier, which is home to the Mona Roma ferry terminals (pictured above), makes it the perfect spot for people returning to Hobart after a day at Mona, the owner of Moo Brew.
“We hope our captured Mona audience will be able to extend the day a little bit when they get back into town,” Lauren says.
For now they’re keeping details of how the pub will look and feel to themselves, but the Salamanca venue will showcase the strong connection between Moo and Mona.
“I don’t think Moo Brew does anything particularly typical and it won’t be a typical taphouse,” Lauren says. “The Mona influence will be there for sure.”
As such, the new home will reinforce that close bond with Mona, its eccentricities and those of founder David Walsh.
“Mona is always going to be home,” Lauren says. “It’s where we were born, I guess it’s where our dad lives and where our beers will always be poured. So we definitely don’t want to dilute or diminish what we have there. But we just feel like there’s room for us to expand that offering.
“The beer is one part of a very large and multifaceted experience at Mona, whereas [at the new venue] the beer will be our primary focus and other layers of Mona will support it.”
The venue will also include a small brewhouse – current plans are for that to be around 300 litres in size. She says the desire to have a smaller system was a big part of what motivated them to find a new home, given their brewery in Hobart’s northern suburb of Bridgewater is geared towards production and scale.
“We already have a substantial brewery – we could go to two million litres a year out of the brewhouse we have,” Lauren says. “But what we haven’t had is the creativity and functionality of being able to brew smaller and riskier brews that don’t involve a 3,000-litre minimum toss of a coin.”
UPDATE (25/10): The new venue is due to open in December. It will be called Manky Sally's and is being fitted out with decor and fittings foraged from Mona’s four warehouses. There will be 14 taps pouring Moo beers, as well as wines, spirits and cocktails. Dinner will be on offer seven days a week, with lunch served Friday to Sunday.
Will Ziebell is a history graduate who knows more about The Wire than he does about beer. He was awarded the AIBA Best Media trophy for 2018; HBO have told him to please send his fan mail elsewhere. He can be found on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok.
The beer(s) or moment(s) that turned you on to good beer:
Spending time living in the UK (and backpacking across Europe) when I was 21 certainly gave me a better understanding of the beer and different styles of the world. But I'd say it was a holiday to the High Country a little while later when lunch and a tasting paddle at Bridge Road Brewers created an obsession with Australian breweries and locally made beer.
You've got three beers to turn someone else on to good beer; what are they and why?
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Boatrocker's Miss Pinky: It's a raspberry-packed Berliner Weisse that neither looks or tastes the way many people conceive of beer.
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Bad Shepherd Hazelnut Brown: A luscious mix of chocolate and hazelnut that can appeal to the sweet tooth within us all.
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Stone & Wood Pacific Ale: As the father of my oldest friend once said to me: "It's the perfect refreshing pint that smells like they've loaded it with the God's herb."
The last beer you enjoyed:
Garage Project's DFA while sitting at the bar at Miss Moses as the sounds of The Rolling Stone drifting in the background.
Three things that represent you:
- Bruce Springsteen
- Ken Burns
- The State Library of Victoria
