Sydney Brewery, Surry Hills

Sydney Brewery Surry Hills is the new venue attached to the Rydges Hotel on Albion Street. It’s part brewpub, part hotel bar.

Disclosure: I was invited to a launch event at Sydney Brewery Surry Hills.

Sydney Brewery has a long and storied history as far as their place in the local beer scene is concerned. Formerly Schwartz Brewery, and now brewing in the Hunter Valley, they’ve long had a presence in World Square and at Rydges hotels.

Now they have a home attached to the Rydges on Albion Street in Surry Hills. This move is in keeping with recent trend we’ve seen of breweries opening tap room or hospitality spaces.

A Mainstream Audience

The venue is part brewpub, part hotel bar. The connection with Rydges means Sydney Brewery can capture a transient market.

We’ve seen this happen more and more with breweries opening hospitality spaces in busy areas, such as at The Rocks where you’ll find Endeavour Tap Rooms and The Squire’s Landing. These brewpubs target a more mainstream audience rather than the typical craft beer punter. It’s the same with Sydney Brewery Surry Hills.

The bar is attached to the Rydges hotel lobby. Guests at the hotel may well be inclined to try a local beer, while the hotel also hosts corporate events which the bar space is well set up for.

The decor is as you’d expect from what is a brewpub in the place of a hotel bar. There’s plenty of wooden surfaces, exposed brickwork, dim lighting and corner booth seating.

The Brewhouse

In terms of the equipment, at the time of the launch there’s a small brewhouse, assembled via Brewtique, featuring four fermenters and a bright tank.

It’s all visible from the outside of the venue and through a large glass screen inside the space. It adds a point of interest and conversation for all visitors regardless of their attitudes towards small batch beer.

Local Beers

For a long time the brewery has connected with Sydneysiders by capturing a sense of regionality in their beers. They do this in a very literal way by naming beers after suburbs. Their Surry Hills Pils obviously fits in at the new Surry Hills venue.

A lot of the beer served at the bar will be brewed on-site but there will still be some coming down from Sydney Brewery’s large facility in Lovedale.

One of the beers that will be produced on-site will be Albion Ale, which is intended to be something of a house beer.

Interestingly, there’s also a line up of Lion taps alongside Sydney Brewery’s own beers. These provide familiar names for customers who might not be familiar with the brewery’s lineup.

It seems like this is intended to keep beer and therefore revenue flowing but it also provides an easy fallback option for customers. The downside is that it potentially loses the opportunity to hand-sell their own beers.

Have you visited Sydney Brewery Surry Hills? Leave a comment and share your thoughts on the space and the beers.