There is something very reassuring about the simplicity of a brewery bar. They make the beer, and then they roll the kegs as far as the cool room to pour the beer. We're talking industrial spaces with yeast in the air that are kind enough to let you down an impossibly fresh, unfiltered Australian pale ale and bask in your locavore credentials while they work.
We also like how much thought breweries put into the perfect beer snack. At Young Henrys and Batch food trucks sort the munchies; Grifter Brewing Co opt for bowls of salty nibbles and Modus Operandi has a full kitchen pumping out a double bacon burger, but at 4 Pines' Brookvale Brewery it’s all about the pizza pie – a hot, hand-sized savoury that has no lid but isn’t really pizza, pie or quiche – it’s its own thing.
You take your pizza dough made with pale ale yeast and shape into a bowl, then fill it with pulled pork, sour cream, coleslaw and chilli sauce, cap it with cheese and wedge pieces of cracking in on top. Or maybe you’ve done pulled pork to death? In that case the vego option is a good shout - tender black beans, corn, guac, sour cream and cheese.
Order up a snack and settle in for beer o’clock. The bar here is made from a lovely old truck that’s had its tray split to encase the bar. Surprisingly there’s no tasting paddles here – just pints and half pints – and frankly this is pretty sensible, as beer never got better being left to sit.
Standard practice is to start pale and end dark, so kick things off with the Indian summer pale ale that is as close as it gets to a Frosty Fruit in beer form. From there it’s a big step up to the Imperial red ale, which is weighty, rich and fruity – we get something akin to rockmelon from this boozy number that clocks in at 9.4%.
Like breweries, not beer? The Brookvale Union ginger beer, cider and wine on tap will sort you out while you watch the AFL on the projector or go for a round of pinball upstairs on the mezzanine.
But of all the things to like about the Brookvale Brewery Truckbar, perhaps our favourite is that fact that you can hire it out on a Saturday Yep, on the one night no other bar will host a private function you can rent the space for the big birthday you couldn’t fit inside your tiny Sydney apartment. What a bunch of legends.