A slice of the High Country has landed on Melbourne's doorstep with Bright Brewery taking over the Prince Alfred Hotel in Carlton.
The historic boozer is located right out the front of Melbourne University and has long been a popular spot for students, many of whom call it “P.As”. Bright’s head of national business development and brand manager, Evin Craney, told The Crafty Pint that for the brewery, the pub offered several unique opportunities.
“A two-storey pub with a rooftop beer garden in Carlton isn’t the easiest thing to get,” he says. “So it was a real opportunity.”
Evin says Bright have been looking seriously at further hospitality opportunities for some time.
“We want to extend outside of Victoria’s north-east and have been looking to have a few more home bases, not just in Victoria but anywhere that made sense,” Evin says.
Key to their search was finding a spot that wouldn’t just be a new Bright Brewery location but could instead have its own identity.
“When P.A’s came up, it felt like a really unique opportunity because of its stature in Melbourne; it’s 99 years old,” Evin says.
“For us, we wanted to expand our hospitality beyond just that of a brewpub; we really wanted to create a bit more of a group-based model where we offered hospitality over just beer itself.”
That desire to expand stems from their distance from a major city and the fact that hospitality has long driven the brewery’s success.
“We’ve been running our venue for nearly 20 years; we’re really confident in the offering and the team that we have,” Evin says.
“Over the last 12 months, we’ve really felt it was a good time to double down on what we’re doing; we have the team, the process and the product.”
Over the last couple of years, multiple breweries have created new pubs or venues distinct from their brewery, including Bodriggy, which re-opened the Albion Hotel early last year, and Range Brewing, which has Rays, Patio and an events space in Brisbane.
“It’s becoming a crucial part of the strategic approach in the independent beer scene in Australia, really; to try and double down on your base,” Evin says.
It means the Prince Alfred won’t change too much and will continue to serve pub fare while pouring Bright's beers and drinks from other independent producers. The rooftop beer garden will see the biggest change, with it now called the Bright Rooftop Bar with the plan to really showcase the brewery's brand there.
“The heart and soul of the brand will still be Prince Alfred, or P.A’s,” Evin says.
“We don't want to take away from what it is in the history of it. It’s already beloved, it’s already running really well; we just want to integrate our brand and our beers into it.”
Beyond the pub’s long history, there’s also a lot about the area’s future that appealed to the Bright team. Grattan Street was closed to traffic for some years but is now back open, and there’s an entrance to the Metro Tunnel, which is due to open this year, right near the pub’s front door.
“It’s not just the uni across the road; the hospital is right there too, and there’s a lot of people that live and work in the area,” Evin says.
Plus, Evin adds, university students have long loved drinking pints between class, and ideally, they'll become indie beer drinkers for life.
“I think it’s a really exciting opportunity to get a younger generation into independent beer quite early.”
You'll find the Prince Alfred where it's sat for a century at 191 Grattan Street, Carlton.
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 in 2018 and in 2024; 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
