Local Brewing Co. Taproom & Pizza Kitchen
They rescue surplus bread and brew with it, so part of the grain bill has already been through a bakery once.
Why go
The brewery started in early 2019 as A Local Beer, built around funding food rescue, and by the time the Clifton Hill taproom opened on Saturday 1 April 2023 its partnership with SecondBite had paid for more than two hundred thousand meals, against an internal target of two million (The Crafty Pint). Six founders stand behind it: Sam Harris, Nick Campbell, Claudia Mitchell, Chris Cefala, Hugo Mylecharane and Paddy Muston. The room is a former mechanics' shop on Hilton Street with thirty-two solar panels on the roof and every table salvaged from a pub in Warburton, sanded and repainted to match the mural on the wall, which is the same artwork that goes on the cans. There are a dozen taps and a shipping container that does nothing but pizza. Most of the packaged beer is brewed elsewhere; the kit installed here is small and was meant for community brews, with Harris floating a weekly people's beer where people can vote
. Unusually for a brewery, it opens from seven in the morning and runs the espresso machine.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the Lager or the XPA off the core range, then a pizza out of the container. If you are there early, take the coffee.
- Avoid: arriving expecting a big brewhouse to look at, since most of the beer is made off-site. And check the hours before you go, because the brewery publishes none.
What locals & experts say
- Sam Harris, co-founder, to The Crafty Pint on why the room exists:
We really wanted to bring forward our brand values and the messaging around social good and sustainability.
The same piece is an opening announcement, and is treated as one.1 - Nick Campbell, co-founder, on the fitout:
All the furniture is reclaimed from a pub in Warburton. The new owner wanted to modernise and we really liked the look of the old school tables, on which we've replaced the legs, sanded and painted to match the mural.
1 - The brewery's own description of the beer, carried as its claim:
At Local, surplus bread finds its second rise in beer. We save it, brew it.
2 - No critic, no award, no chef. The only editorial coverage found is the opening piece above, and across 74 picks by 44 working Melbourne chefs and writers, Local appears in none.4
Good to know
- Where: 3 Hilton Street, Clifton Hill, a short walk from Alexandra Parade and on the edge of the Collingwood and Abbotsford brewery cluster.
- Timing: the opening coverage describes trade from 7am most mornings through the evening. The brewery publishes no hours, so confirm before a morning trip.
- Booking: tables through OpenTable. There is a function room on the second floor.
- Neighbours: the Clifton Hill Brewpub is the other brewery in the suburb, and Bodriggy and Molly Rose are a short walk south.
- Diet: no allergen or dietary statement is published, so nothing is flagged.
- Hygiene: Victoria publishes no venue ratings, only Safe Food Victoria's register of convictions under s.53D of the Food Act 1984, and this venue is not on it.5
Verdict
could-visit — The interesting thing here happens before the boil. Local rescue surplus bread and put it into the beer, which is their own line: 'At Local, surplus bread finds its second rise in beer. We save it, brew it.' Bread in a mash tun is old technique with a current reason, and it is the only thing separating this taproom from the several others inside a kilometre. The business started in 2019 as A Local Beer with food-rescue charity SecondBite at the centre of it, more than two hundred thousand meals funded by the time the Clifton Hill room opened on 1 April 2023, and an internal target of two million. The venue is a former mechanics' shop with thirty-two solar panels on the roof, furniture salvaged from a pub in Warburton, a dozen taps and a shipping container that does nothing but pizza. It opens in the morning for coffee, which almost no brewery does. What it does not have is any independent assessment: the only editorial coverage is an opening announcement, no chef names it, and it has won nothing. Worth a stop if you are drinking your way along the Collingwood and Abbotsford line, which is exactly what could-visit means.