Liquor Emporium, St. Peters

Liquor Emporium in St. Peters is exactly as the name describes. It’s a huge treasure chest of independent beer.

It’s an emporium in the truest sense of the word. Walking through the doorway, past the signage for local breweries like Philter, Young Henrys and Willie The Boatman, and you’ll be faced with an enormous row of shelves stacked high with four packs and six packs of craft beer from across Australia and New Zealand.

More local names like Sauce, Wayward, and Akasha are present alongside the very best of Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia.

Beers By The Shed Load

Most of the beer space is ambient temperature but there are a few fridges towards the back of the warehouse. These house the few large format beers, as well the more volatile and short-life styles.

One of the big things about Liquor Emporium is the conspicuous absence of single tinnies. They will probably sell them to you but they’d prefer if you buy four packs or six packs. While this might put off the customer who is in the early days of exploring craft beer, it’s probably a reality for the future of the industry.

Selling individual cans or bottles can pose stock issues for bottle shops. There’s an argument to say it encourages the behaviour of always looking for the next new and shiny thing. It’s the concept that drives Untappd check ins and ticking beers off a list. If that pattern of consumerism continues then it could potentially threaten the sustainability of independent beer.

The counterpoint to that is that Liquor Emporium has a ridiculous variety of beer. There’s definitely something for everyone and you could easily spend half an hour just browsing the shelves if you didn’t know what you were looking for.

A Specialist Beer Warehouse

While it’s a hop, skip and a jump form Sydenham station, within view of the CBD, and close to the Willie The Boatman tap room and other breweries on the inner west trial, it doesn’t feel like a modern inner city specialist bottle shop. Aesthetically speaking, it’s more like Strathpine Dan Murphy’s than Bucket Boys or Oak Barrel but it more than does a job.

For the large residential areas nearby, or the commuters zipping in and out of the city, it’s a convenient place to swing by and pick up a case.

Cases are where they pitch the beer exploration. Instead of mixed six packs they offer mixed case deals. Combining different four packs and six packs earns a discount on the total price.

It’s testament to how far the beer scene has come that there’s an enormous warehouse-like bottle shop with one of the widest ranges of independent Australian craft beer imaginable.

Are you local to Liquor Emporium, St. Peters? Comment below with what you like about it.