"It’s like going to Brooklyn rather than just visiting Manhattan.”
Over the past decade, Sydney's Inner West has witnessed an explosion of small breweries beyond any other urban region of Australia. Grabbing a few mates for a crawl of the breweries found in Marrickville has become something of a rite of passage for beer lovers, a little like venturing to Feral's brewpub in Swan Valley was 15 years ago.
The brewers that call the area home even have their own association, and as of today they have an official Inner West Ale Trail too, complete with schmick website and incentives to lure consumers through the doors of the 18 – yes, EIGHTEEN – independent brewing companies now found across six suburbs: Marrickville, Enmore, Newtown, St Peters, Rozelle and Camperdown.
“It’s about giving people a great reason to come here, whether you’re in Sydney, from regional New South Wales, or visiting from overseas,” Young Henrys co-founder and Inner West Brewers Association (IWBA) president Richard Adamson – whose quote is at the top of the article – told The Crafty Pint.
“After COVID, we thought the economy would come back to life but people got out of the habit of going out and enjoying themselves. We’re encouraging them to get out and about, meet some people and have some fun.”
The new project has been made possible after the IWBA secured two grants – one from the Uptown Grant Program, the other from the Community Development Fund. And Richard says it's all part of an ongoing drive to rebuild Sydney's reputation as somewhere you can go to enjoy a good time after the damage done by the years of lockout laws.
“The New South Wales government has recognised that the late night and going out economy is really important to the entire ecosystem of the state,” he says.
Now, with a 24-Hour Economy Commissioner – or “night mayor” as Michael Rodrigues is often referred to – in place, there is a greater desire to support ventures such as the Ale Trail.
“There’s a real focus on promoting the nighttime and going-out economy, and getting rid of the red tape that’s been stopping people having a good time,” Richard says, explaining that the grants are assisting them in “showcasing what we think is great about our home.”
When it comes to numbers and the practicalities of the trail, they're pushing the diversity on offer – more than 320 beers on offer across the 18 breweries, more than 15 restaurants and food trucks to visit, 100-plus wines, spirits and ciders, more than 60 events each week – as well as the fact many of the venues are welcoming, inclusive, and family and dog friendly too.
Inner West Mayor Darcy Byrne said in a statement announcing the trail: “The Inner West is to brewing and distilling what the Hunter Valley and the Barossa are to Australian wine. The initiatives we’re undertaking on behalf of these local businesses will only increase an ever-growing part of our local economy and encourage visitors to come and experience the unique vitality and vibrancy of the Inner West.”
The aim of the new trail goes beyond driving people to the 18 member breweries too: the area’s restaurants, bars, distilleries, live music venues, and artists are all part of the picture.
“[The Ale Trail] is a small piece of a bigger puzzle which will feature a whole bunch of activations," Richard says, "[inner-west businesses] looking after each other, putting on activations and events.”
As part of the trail, breweries are offering incentives to patrons too, such as two-for-one deals the first time someone makes a visit. At time of writing, you can access more than $200 worth of offers via the website, while there will also be an Inner West Ale Trail pop-up tinnie bar at AFLW games played at Henson Park throughout October.
“Without a doubt, it’s been tough, as it is for breweries around the country," Richard says of the current economic climate, "and the Inner West hasn’t been immune to that; members have been through administration and have had to cut staff and all those horrible things you have to do.
“Working together is going to be critical to dragging ourselves out of that.”
For more information, brewery guides and location details, head to the Inner West Ale Trail website.
James Smith launched The Crafty Pint in 2010, two years after moving to Australia from the UK. He was taken to Mountain Goat within weeks of landing in Melbourne, joined their indoor cricket team, and is still navigating the rabbit hole that is craft beer to this day.
The beers that turned you on to good beer:
- Watching pints of McEwan's 80 Shilling settle when visiting family in Edinburgh.
- Pints of flat Bass from the jug at the Cap & Stocking in Kegworth.
- A first Paulaner Hefeweizen when working in Munich in 1998: “This smells of bananas!”
- Castle Rock Harvest Pale – how could a 3.8 percent ABV beer be so good? (It turns out it was an early example of the three Cs – Cascade, Centennial and Columbus – in an English bitter).
- Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA poured through hops at the Sunset Grill in Cambridge, MA, in the company of a man who turned out to be the Beer Nut (while we were both covering a double murder case at the time).
- Ordering a Mountain Goat Hightail on my first day as an Aussie resident as it was local and I’d never heard of it; “A dark Australian beer; well I never…”
- Murray’s Icon 2IPA at Beer DeLuxe Fed Square, recommended by a guy I’d not long known who's now the main man at Fixation, served by Mik Halse, now head of sales at Hawkers. How could an Australian beer smell as good as that?!?
You've got three beers to turn someone else on to good beer; what are they and why?
- Any really good, fresh and balanced West Coast style IPA. Punchy hop aromatics are the most obvious way to capture someone's attention and these IPAs, done well, present the key components in beer (if you're sticking to just water, malt, hops and yeast) in harmony yet with the volume turned up.
- Saison Dupont. Arguably a selfish choice here as I bloody love the broad saison style and dearly hope it will finally take hold in Australia one day. Given a choice, I'd probably crack one enlivened with Brettanomyces like Molly Rose Matilde for myself but, when it comes to turning on someone new, you've got to go with the classic.
- Rodenbach Caractère Rouge. Because if you don't enjoy or can't appreciate this beer, I'll never win you over. And because Filip, the fruit and wood specialist at Rodenbach that designed it, is a beautiful human.
The last beer you enjoyed:
Fixation IPA at The Incubator.
Three things that represent you:
- The Soft Bulletin by The Flaming Lips
- Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
- Golden Plains
NB All articles written by James in the first eight years of the site appear as By Crafty Pint. Today, that's used for collaborative efforts by the wider team.
