Mountain Goat Beer
In May 2026 this Richmond warehouse won Champion Australian Beer for Bract To The Future, an IPA built on an experimental New Zealand hop that only sixty breweries in the world were given to work with.
Why go
The trophy is the second, after a Lark barrel-aged barleywine took the same title in 2015, and several of the brewers who made that beer still work here (The Crafty Pint). The winning beer belongs to brewer Kenny Doyle and is the latest version of an IPA he has been tweaking for years. What makes the room worth a trip rather than a bottle shop is where the brewing happens. Asahi bought the business in 2015 and moved the core range to a plant at Laverton, so this warehouse now brews one-offs, limited editions and barrel-aged beers. Cam Hines and Dave Bonighton started it in 1997 with a bank loan secured against three surfboards, two mountain bikes and an old EH Holden, at a point when Australian microbreweries had nearly vanished.
Order this / avoid
- Order: Bract To The Future if any is left, then whatever brewery-only batch is chalked up. Steam Ale is the house calling card and was one of the first organic beers made in Australia. Pizza is the food, and it covers vegetarian, vegan and gluten free.
- Avoid: turning up outside Wednesday, Friday or Sunday, when the team is brewing rather than pouring. Broadsheet also sends you up the road to the Royston Hotel if you want a proper feed.
What locals & experts say
- James Smith, The Crafty Pint (May 2026):
It's the second time Mountain Goat have won the Champion Australian Beer trophy, following success with a barrel-aged barleywine back in 2015. Eleven years on, several members of the brewing team at Goat HQ in Richmond are still in place too.
1 - Australian International Beer Awards 2026 (Melbourne Royal): Champion Australian Beer and Best Modern IPA, both for Bract To The Future IPA. Asahi's other Australian brand, Pirate Life, took Champion Large Australian Brewery the same night.1
- Broadsheet on the room: step
past the goat's-head roller door to find convivial groups of drinkers scattered around the dramatically lit fermentation tanks. Cyclists who ride in get their first pot for free.
3 - A note on the beer press. The Crafty Pint's brewery page for Mountain Goat is a paid directory listing that the business signs off, per the site's own How We Operate page. The award reporting above is their independent editorial. Both are cited here and neither is dressed as the other.
Good to know
- Where: North Street, Richmond, in the back streets. The street number is 80 across several directory listings, and neither the brewery's own site nor any published guide confirms it, so treat it as likely rather than checked.
- Timing: Wednesday and Friday from 5pm, Sunday afternoons. Closed otherwise.
- Booking: walk-in. Free brewery tours at 6.30pm on Wednesdays, sign up at the bar.
- Sites: this page is the Richmond brewery. There is a Mountain Goat brewpub in Newtown, Sydney, and none of its evidence is used here.
- Owner: Asahi, since 2015.
- Food safety: no entry for this business on Safe Food Victoria's register of convictions as at its 21 July 2026 update.5
- Near MCEC: no. Richmond, about 4km from South Wharf.
Verdict
should-visit — Worth building a Wednesday evening around, and the reason is current. In May 2026 Mountain Goat took Champion Australian Beer at the Australian International Beer Awards for Bract To The Future IPA, which also won Best Modern IPA. It is their second champion trophy after a Lark barrel-aged barleywine in 2015, and The Crafty Pint notes that several of the Richmond brewing team have been there through both. The geography is the useful part: Asahi bought the business in 2015 and moved Steam Ale and the rest of the core range to a plant at Laverton, which left this warehouse free to brew one-offs, barrel-aged beers and big IPAs. So the taps here pour things that never leave the building. It opens three days a week, the tour is free at 6.30 on Wednesdays, the food is pizza, and if you ride in they hand you your first pot. It stops short of must-visit because the owner is an international brewing group rather than a small independent, and because three trading days and a pizza oven is a taproom rather than a destination room.