New craft beer bar concept 12 Taps is set to open its first venue in the Sydney suburb of Glebe.
Regional breweries The Coastal Brewing Company and Mudgee Brewing Company have partnered with 12 Taps Glebe, and will thus each have two of the 12 taps at the new venue dedicated to their beers.
The 12 Taps Glebe venue is currently being fitted, with a soft opening planned for mid-September. It will offer 12 different independent beers on tap, along with a tapas menu, with food matched to the beers on offer.
“It’s really exciting,” Darren Common, co-founder of 12 Taps, told Beer & Brewer. We wanted to see breweries from outside Sydney that aren’t given a fair go in Sydney. If you don’t have the contacts in Sydney or you don’t know the publican in the pub, it’s very hard to get your beer out.
“The concept we came up with was to help gypsy breweries and independent breweries, especially from outside Sydney, to break into the market, form a partnership and have their beers on tap on a permanent scale.
“I visited Mudgee a while ago and liked their beers. I liked their set-up. Coastal, I think they’re on the brink of breaking through. Their beers are fantastic.”
The Glebe venue’s food matching menu will also be accompanied by pairing events like meet the brewer, meet the distiller and meet the winemaker. The venue holds approximately 70 people and has a balcony.
“It want to mix it up and do events all the time,” says Common. “We’re going to do vegetarian and gluten-free options, and gluten-free beers. We’re going to call it 12 Taps Glebe: a restaurant with a beer problem.”
In addition to the Glebe venue, 12 Taps is also in discussion with the Inner West Council to open another venue in Marrickville, while talks are also ongoing with the landlord of a potential site in Surry Hills. At present, neither have breweries partnering with them yet, but the intention for both is to have 12 taps pouring independent beers.
“Marrickville is going to be a different concept to Glebe,” explains Common. “Marrickville is going to be more of a vintage, eclectic beer nerd bar. We’re toing and froing with the council at the moment. I’m expecting that to be signed off in the next few weeks and then we can start getting the certificate and start building.
“We can do tap takeovers at Marrickville as well. We’ll do small ones at Glebe, but the focus there is around food pairing types of things.
“Surry Hills will require a huge fit out. So if we have brewery partners it’s going to be good. That can be different breweries and they can rotate beers and have more of a cocktail focus in there as well. Every 12 Taps is going to be different concept depending on where it’s located.
“At the moment we want to focus on these three. But other 12 Taps ideas are a big beer hall.”