While it's a newer feather in lutruwita/Tasmania’s cap, a reputation for world-class craft beers is nonetheless gaining serious - and justifiable - traction. In a walkable radius of Hobart’s CBD alone, independent brewers are churning out excellent ales, often with fun pub menus and live music to boot. Here’s the rundown of the city’s best breweries and taprooms to visit on a beer-drinking walkabout in Hobart.

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HOBART BREWING CO

Much like many everyday home brewers, Hobart Brewing Co (or HBC to the locals) set up shop in a shed. The difference is their shed - The Red Shed on the city’s waterfront - occupies a footprint vaster than most houses, accommodating enough tanks to push HBC beers into the adjacent beer garden, as well as further afield into plenty of local bottle shops. The Harbour Master is the brewery’s original offering, and has stuck around since 2014 for good reason. Brewed with Tasmanian hops and roasted malt, it’s an amber ale with a crisp and refreshing finish that suits any beer-drinking occasion.

16 Evans Street, Hobart

Monday-Friday from 3pm

Saturday-Sunday from 12pm

MANKY SALLY’S

Long known and loved for its often unorthodox brewing and naming conventions, Moo Brew is one part of the Mona conglomerate, which also includes a winery, restaurants, annual festivals, and that wall of vaginas. Manky Sally’s is the former’s new-ish home on the Salamanca strip, and is equal parts brewery and taphouse for a true tank-to-table experience. Moo Brew’s core range covers the gamut from Session Ale to Dark Ale, and - depending when you visit - limited seasonal offerings might include a run of berry-spiked sours, or a Winter IPA reminiscent of fruit and coffee.

25 Salamanca Place, Battery Point

Monday and Thursday 4pm-late

Friday-Sunday 12pm-late

FOX FRIDAY CRAFT BREWERY

You know you’re onto something good when a Tasmanian-born brand successfully spreads its wings to the big island, and Fox Friday is undeniably onto something very good. Now with taprooms in Melbourne and Perth, the flagship Hobart venue is as much about the brewery’s hops-forward beers as it is about the American diner-style food. The tap list is ever-changing, but it’s always made to complement a menu heaving with wings, hot dogs and burgers. Washed down with the stone fruits and bite found in a glass of the house Hazy Pale, Fox Friday proves that food pairing isn’t just for wine.

105 Murray Street, Hobart

Wednesday-Sunday 12pm-late

Fox Friday Craft Brewery (image: Instagram)

SHAMBLES BREWERY

Shambles claims to “love beer as much as you do”, and - if the quaffs on offer at their North Hobart production brewery are anything to go by - they’re almost definitely telling the truth. Housed in an ex-meat processing facility, the venue is anything but a shambles, with a beer garden at its front, a beer hall at its rear, and a whole lot of taps in between. You’ll always find the Summer Ale, Robust Porter and other mainstays on tap, with limited releases entering more creative territory: think the Springtime IPA, a wheat-heavy Indian Pale with tropical fruit flavours and soft bitterness.

222 Elizabeth Street, Hobart

Wednesday-Thursday 4pm-10pm

Friday-Saturday 12pm-late

Sunday 12pm-9pm

T-BONE BREWING CO.

With up to 16 of its own beers on tap at any one time, T-Bone’s brewing team pump out a core range of five labels along with plenty of seasonal limited runs. Alongside stalwarts like the hoppy Pale Ale and IPA, a hard Ginger Beer and Choc-Milk Stout are also always on. And if you thought that meat tray raffles were a thing of yesteryear, it’s time to think again. At T-Bone, you’ll go in the draw to win a tray of locally-butchered chops, sausages and other BBQ-able bites whenever you buy a boozy drink before 7pm on Thursdays.

308 Elizabeth Street, North Hobart

Wednesday 4pm-8pm

Thursday 2pm-9pm

Friday-Saturday 2pm-late

Sunday 2pm-8pm

DEEP SOUTH BREWING CO.

Beyond spacious lower and upper floor dining spaces, Deep South offers an unobscured glimpse behind-the-scenes of a working brewery. Beloved for its woodfired pizzas (hot tip: they’re two-for-one on Tuesdays), it’s still first and foremost about the beer at this urban brewery. One tap is always reserved for “Uncharted”, a rotating keg that hinges on seasonality and experimentation, while other pours include the aptly named Lion Rock Session which, at 3.8%, is as sessionable as it is tasty, and the comparatively harder Sharksjaw IPA whose 7.2% of resin-y florals should be approached with discretion.

220 Argyle Street, North Hobart

Tuesday-Thursday from 4pm

Friday-Saturday from 12pm

Deep South Brewing Co. (image: Instagram)

OVERLAND BREWERS & DISTILLERS

Fans of the boilermaker must pull up a stool at the Overland bar, where grain is the common denominator that makes a no-brainer of same-site beer and whisky production. Select from a core and small batch range of beers, and pair your pint with a pour of Overland’s own whisky, or ask the team to play cupid and recommend a perfect match. For beer purists, the Draught is a tap MVP, made in the Kolsch style with a soft mouthfeel and malty notes of biscuit and honey. Try it alongside three other in-house varieties - limited release fruited kettle sour, anyone? - on a beer tasting flight.

284 Argyle Street, North Hobart

Wednesday-Friday 4pm-10pm

Saturday 12pm-10pm

Overland Brewers & Distillers (image: Instagram)

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