The Stomping Ground Beer Hall team know the way to an event enthusiast’s heart. Founder Steve Jeffares is on a mission to ‘share our love of craft beer with as many people as possible through exceptional experiences’. The team dreams big. They are behind The Local Taphouse craft beer bars and run GABS – a beer, cider, and food festival that features hundreds of never-before-seen experimental beers. (Along with a Ferris wheel inside the Royal Exhibition building.)
Now they’ve opened Stomping Ground — a spacious beer hall and brewery. Vines climb the walls and the décor features vintage stylings. Jeffares spoke about their attempt to ‘Melbourne proof’ the venue. There is a retractable roof over half of the converted warehouse along with outdoor heating, industrial fireplaces, and a misting system plan. Inside, a wall of windows allows a peek into the onsite brewery that creates the beers served at the bar.
Happily, patrons don’t have to content themselves with just gazing through the window. The venue now offers free brewery tours every Saturday and Sunday with private tours available by appointment. The tours serve as a quick introduction to the brewing process, and help visitors form a personal connection to the beer they are imbibing. Bonus: if the timing is right, it might also include a tasting straight from the tank. Although it’s intended as an easy intro, Certified Cicerones guide the tours (Cicerones are a bit like genius sommeliers of the beer world), so the staff can offer a wealth of knowledge.
While Stomping Ground beers can be found on taps across Melbourne, a majority of the beers brewed onsite are exclusively for the beer hall. Many of these brews are one-off batches, so there is always something new to try. The first Stomping Ground beer appeared in March last year and the crew estimates they’ve created between 25-32 distinct beers since then. This experimentation allows for a wide variety of flavours and complexity at the taps. For those that might find this level of choice overwhelming, don’t worry. Stomping Ground is designed to break down the barriers and welcome those that are new to the beer world.
The drinks are labelled like a traffic light, with green being ‘easy drinking’ and red ‘adventurous’. The tasting notes use simple, easy to understand language. (The Bearbrass stout stood out as a particularly ‘Melbourne’ beer with the description, ‘espresso, chocolate, and silky’). Plus they offer one of my favourite menu items — tasting paddles. I sampled an eclectic mix of six different beers and — true to Jeffares’ aim — discovered something new and exciting.
Jeffares embraces the motto ‘have fun!’ when it comes to drinking beer. I couldn’t agree more.
– Jenny
Jenny S loves the magic of fermentation and supports local craft beer alchemy.
Brewery Tours are available at Stomping Ground (100 Gipps Street, Collingwood. The Beer Hall entrance is on Islington Street), at 12pm Saturdays and Sundays.
