After completing many varied collaborations together, Mountain Culture and Wildflower are taking their friendship to the next level with the launch of a joint taproom called Village.
The two-time GABS Hottest 100 winners based in the Blue Mountains are becoming housemates at Wildflower’s Marrickville HQ on Brompton Street. In turn, Mountain Culture will sell Wildflower’s famed mixed-culture beers at their Katoomba and Emu Plains venues.
“We’re calling it ‘friends with benefits’,” Wildflower co-founder Topher Boehm says about the partnership. “We’re really excited. It’s going to be an awesome place to share with people.”
Mountain Culture co-founder DJ McCready adds: “Doing something together has always been on our radar. Topher and I have known each other for over ten years. We’ve gone back home to the US and travelled around together. Our families hang out and the two of us just really like drinking each other's beer.”
The new venture shouldn’t come as a total surprise to visitors to Brompton Street: Mountain Culture beers have been on tap and in the fridge at Wildflower since March. It’s just taken the brewing BFFs a little longer than expected to officially hard-launch their relationship.
“It’s always a whirlwind when you meet up with your buddy and have like 20 beers and you're like, ‘This plan is going to be really easy and super fun and literally require no work at all’,” DJ says. “It's amazing how that just doesn't happen.
“It's been a lot of work, but it's looking sick.”
And while they’re now shacking up together, the breweries and brands will remain distinctly separate. They are quick to clarify there’s no buy-out or merger and Wildflower definitely won’t be marketing new beers with rocket launches (as Mountain Culture have been known to in the past).
“I have bought a ukulele though,” Topher jokes.
Strategically, the move also gives Mountain Culture a presence within the busy inner-west Sydney brewery scene and an outpost closer to the Sydney CBD.
“Having our brand in the Blue Mountains is amazing – we love the area and we're really proud when we get to bring people up here, but it is a trek and people can't make it every other weekend,” DJ says. “Being in the heart of Marrickville is super cool because, like, there’s so much interest in craft beer and it's really nice to have a hub right there in the city, so folks can find our beer all the time.”
In addition to new signage, Village now boasts an impressive new tap system serving ten Mountain Culture beers alongside ten of Wildflower's, giving patrons a taste of both worlds, from heady hazies to rustic lagers and barrel-aged honey ales.
“We’ve doubled our tap capacity and installed proper taps for colder beer with glycol, as Wildflower beers are usually served between four to six degrees,” Topher explains excitedly. “We also have five Lukr side-pour taps for lagers, which are served a little warmer too.
“So there’s multiple temperature zones and CO2-pushing zones to handle all the different styles of beer on offer.”
Throw in a new gourmet kitchen menu and the Goldstreet micro-cheesery on site (serving the best grilled cheese I’ve ever had) and Village is quickly becoming the unique drinking experience Topher and DJ have always talked about.
“Beer service across Australia is often so generic,” Topher says. “If you go to a major pub, usually at least eight out of ten taps are owned by the same company. So you have this mirage of variety and all of the beers are served at the same temperature, the same carbonation level, in the same glass, and they're coming from the same brewery.
“We were like, 'Fuck this… why wouldn't you focus on what your brand does best?' which is good beer.”
Speaking of good beer, the launch of Village the venue coincides with the latest release of Village the beer, their long-running gueuze-inspired series, which starts life in a coolship left outside overnight on Mountain Culture’s Katoomba back deck each year.
“This Village features the wort brewed in 2020, 2021 and 2022, so it’s the first year that it's a 1-2-3 year blend, which is in the tradition of a gueuze,” Topher says.
“When we put this one in a bottle, we were like, ‘Oh, this is going to be pretty good.’”
Village: A Taproom by Mountain Culture & Wildflower launches today (July 26). The third edition of the Village collab is on sale now.
Photo at top of article: Topher and Bernadette Boehm with DJ and Harriet McCready outside their new joint venture in Marrickville.
Jason Treuen is an avid writer who's previously worked with the Sydney Morning Herald, Rolling Stone, Triple J Magazine and more. He loves craft beer, homebrewing, AFL, butter chicken and playing with his cats. He positively hates hangovers, and can be found enjoying adventures in beer here.
