Mountain Culture Beer Co has found its first home outside of New South Wales, The Backyard, a summer-long pop-up bar launched in collaboration with popular Melbourne pub The Suburban.
Opening on November 18 through to late February 2025 in a heritage-listed laneway in Ringwood, a suburb in Melbourne’s outer east, the venue will bring together Mountain Culture’s award-winning brews and The Suburban’s blend of old-school and modern hospitality.
Speaking about the decision to expand the brewery’s hospitality footprint outside of New South Wales, John Andrews, Head of Independent Sales and Trade Marketing at Mountain Culture, told Beer & Brewer that Victoria’s craft beer community has embraced the brewery over the years, with Melbourne quickly becoming its fastest growing market and the ideal location for its first interstate outpost.
“It’s home to many of our top customers and we’ve always loved coming down here regularly for events and festivals. It will be great to have a home to host punters this summer, and what better place to do it than the outer east with our close friends at the Suburban.
“We’ve been working with Andy [Croucher, Director of The Suburban] and the team for a few years now and have a really strong shared vision for hospitality, we love what they do and jumped at the opportunity to work with them on a larger scale,” he stated.
Alongside Mountain Culture beers, the offering will also include a wider selection of Australian craft beer, local wines, spirits, non-alcs and cocktails, accompanied by food and live music in a street-art-filled laneway at Eastland’s Town Square precinct.
Beer lovers can also look forward to sampling a Mountain Culture beer brewed exclusively for The Backyard.
“We can’t spill the beans just yet, but the beer has been designed in collaboration with the Suburban team with the local beer drinker in mind. Something easy drinking for summer, a delicious lower ABV Pale and definitely smashable,” added Andrews.