The Teeny Sydney Brewery with Weird Beers That I Love
When Katie and I first started doing our brewery reviews series, Reviewery of a Brewery, I was not a fan of breweries. I found them crowded, alienating and full of people taking beer to seriously. However, after Sydney lockdown number 1 in 2020 I decided to give them a go again and put the camera Katie got me to good use.
We walked 30 minutes from our old place to Small Batch behind the Petersham Public House. As the name implies, it’s a little venue that makes Small Batch beers with ingredients that defy explanation and even after tasting can’t quite be believed.
Image via Crafty Pint
A passion project of Batch Brewing, Small Batch was a place for the already experimental Sydney institution to get even weirder, almost offensively so. How weird? Once my buddy Nat once ordered a pint of Christmas Ham Ale at Small Batch. He let me have a taste and yeah, it was hammy. He let a lot of people have a taste, he was trying to get rid of it, it’s beer that tastes like ham ffs.
Small Batch mostly do amazing beers (and meads) however, like the Lemon Meringue Sour that got me saying “I can really taste pastry!”
After we filmed this video it was very common for Katie and I to pop down for a $15 tasting crate on a weekend arvo or public holiday. When Covid became a memory shuffleboard started again meaning we’d often meet up with friends there for a game and glass of the occasionally hammy shit. To my delight, Lemon Meringue Sour would often return as a seasonal sour and I’d be the first one waltzing home with a four pack of tall boys.
In 2022, Batch Brewing was purchased by Wayward Brewing Co and now I see Wayward core range beers popping up on the taps and tasting crates at Small Batch which isn’t “bad”, it’s just taking up a spot that would otherwise feature a choc orange stout, coconut IPA or bathwater sour (OK, that one I made up). I hope that under the new ownership Small Batch continues to get the support, attention and love it deserves.
