Close to six years after launching their first beer, Bondi Brewing Co have a home to call their own. And they’re marking the milestone by inviting locals to come together to do good.
Their new brewery sits inside the South East Asian restaurant Easy Tiger, a joint venture between Bondi Brewing and the hospo group House Made Hospitality. Brewery founder Paul Parks says they’d been working with the group and searching for a home for some time, and felt the corner site was the perfect place to install their brewhouse.
“It’s great,” he says. “It’s right on Campbell Parade so people will be stopping in the morning and staring in while we brew.”
Although it’s a small system – Paul has just a thousand litres of fermentation space – it’s a big moment for the brewing company: previously, Bondi Brewing’s R&D has taken place in Paul’s garage; now, the ten taps inside Easy Tiger pour his full range of beers and seltzers.
Call in and you'll be able to enjoy them alongside a food offering designed to be distinct.
“It stood out as pairing well with beer and being quite healthy too," Paul says of Easy Tiger's cuisine. "Bondi’s pretty health conscious.
“It’s great to now have this proper home and flag in the ground in Bondi."
To mark the brewery’s arrival, Paul kicked off the Good Tank series. This sees him invite local community members and celebrities into the brewhouse to make a beer.
“The idea was to connect with the community," he says. “That’s the reason we’re here; that’s what got us through COVID and made us popular.”
One dollar from each beer the series they sell will go to a charity of the collaborators' choosing, with the first brew on the new system created with the founder of Bondi Salties, a community swimming group.
“Henry chose Pledge For The Planet as his charity for the proceeds to go to,” he says. “That’s a charity that was founded by one of the members of his group.”
Other brews days include collabs with former Wallaby Drew Mitchell, who has picked Starlight Children's Foundation as his charity, and champion swimmer (and Paul’s neighbour) Bronte Campbell, who will be brewing a pale ale.
Beyond supporting worthy causes, moving brewing out of his garage and into the heart of Bondi, he says the series also makes days on the kit a whole lot more fun.
“They’re long brew days and brewing can get monotonous,” he says. “So it’s good to have some banter there and the chance to walk them through brewing.”
Photos are by Jonathan Buttery, whose work you can find here.
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
