Well before they even opened their doors in 2017, St Andrews Beach Brewery always had a close tie with sport. After all, their home on the Mornington Peninsula sits in the former home of Markdel, a horse training facility where many champion thoroughbreds once roamed, including Makybe Diva.
Now that connection runs even deeper with the opening of a brewpub in Melbourne Park’s Garden Square. Sitting inside the Centrepiece building, the beer garden is quite literally in the shadow of Rod Laver Arena, while Margaret Court Arena, John Cain Arena, and AAMI Park all surround the venue. Cross a few tram tracks and you’ll soon find yourself inside the MCG, the home of AFL and one of the largest stadiums in the world.
For St Andrews Beach Brewery's business development manager, Tim Purchase (pictured above), the moment the doors opened, the reality of their location began to really sink in.
"When that tender came through, it feels like ages ago,” he says. “So when we saw people first coming through it was really rewarding.”
It’s certainly been a long journey; they applied for and then secured the site more than two years ago. For some time before that, they'd been considering a second home, although they weren’t sure how it would look until the Melbourne and Olympic Parks Trust (which runs the precinct) asked for expressions of interest for a brewery.
“We'd always considered moving into the city at some point,” Tim says, “whether it was a St Andrews Beach Brewery venue or something else, like a pub. Then this opportunity came up.”
Indeed, opportunity feels like the ideal word: 3.9 million people visited the precinct last year for a variety of events. To take one example, next Friday night at the MCG will feature a packed finals game between the Western Bulldogs and Hawthorn; on the same night, Iron Maiden will be performing at Rod Laver. A day later, the metal veterans will take to the stage again as Tones and I perform at Margaret Court Arena.
“From an awareness perspective, that’s just huge for the brand,” Tim says. “It’s a very captive audience of people within the precinct; they’ve got about 500 events on per year.”
He says the Melbourne and Olympic Parks team has also looked to promote the sports and entertainment district year-round so people don’t just visit when a major act is in town or major matches are taking place.
“It’s about building the experience out from all the stadiums,” Tim says. “They’ve got a vision of transforming the precinct so it’s lively even on days when there aren’t events. This is the first step of that.”
Despite the excitement surrounding such an opening, the brewery team hasn't been immune from the economic impact impacting breweries across Australia. While their home in Fingal remains popular, they've seen per customer spend drop as interest rates bite.
“We’ve definitely felt it for sure,” Tim says. “We made some strategic decisions at the start of last year to scale back and just focus on core business. We knew this venue was coming along, but we we’ve really focused on getting our beer from Portsea up to Melbourne, and on the venue itself.”
As for the new brewpub, it has space for around 350 people and, while they haven't installed stables for booths like those you’ll find in Fingal, visitors to the Mornington Peninsula brewery will recognise similarities beyond the signage and beers.
“Our home is a unique spot given the history and infrastructure there, but we wanted to take architectural elements from there like the concrete floors and tiling," Tim says.
On the beer front, 30 taps will pour the full gamut of the brewery’s core range as well as beers brewed onsite on a 300-litre system. It’s a brewhouse that’s enjoyed quite a life too: originally it was part of Tim's dad Andrew’s brewery in southern France.
“When the brewery in France shut down,” Tim says, “[Dad] brought it back to Australia and it’s been our pilot brewery in Fingal. So it’s had quite a journey.”
Now, surrounded by some of Australia's biggest event venues and with AFL finals about to flood the area around the G, it's possible that brewery's latest home might be its most exciting yet. What's more, with Moon Dog set to open their fourth venue right next door to Marvel Stadium in the coming months, the future looks bright for Victorians who love supporting local brewers as much as their favourite sports teams and big name artists.
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
