10 Best Breweries in Bacchus Marsh

"Red Duck started brewing in 2005, just as the second wave of craft beer was beginning to make itself known in parts of Australia. Admittedly, it wasn’t operating in Ballarat at the time, instead calling an old dairy building on the Purrumbete Homestead home. Founders Scott and Vanessa Wilson-Browne moved the brewery closer to their Ballarat home in 2011 and have continued to plough their unique journey through the world of beer, combining a pretty traditional core range taking in the likes of pale ale, porter and amber with exploratory voyages to the beer’s outer realms: sour Egyptian bread beers, barrel-aged and blended Belgian styles, hop free gruit beers, braggots and so on."

"Located in Ballarat, Red Duck Micro-Brewery have a proud tradition of being at the forefront of real craft beer innovation and explore history of forgotten styles and tastes. Continually exploring the garden for new and traditional ingredients to add, Red Duck invent new brewing techniques or re-invent long forgotten ones."

"Located in the centre of Ballarat, the Athletic Club Brewery is the region’s leading brewpub experience. With tours, tastings, there is always something worth experiencing at the Athletic Club Brewery. Boasting an eclectic range of craft beers made on site, and brew matched food supplied by the adjoining Freight restaurant, you can take in all the atmosphere that the brewery has to offer from the comfort of the tap room, or even enjoy dinner and a beer from the brewery floor."

"When Peter Parry decided to retire in 2015, he found the days long and somewhat boring, so he made the decision to invest his retirement money in a brewery. Having made the decision, he didn’t mess around. He kitted the place out with new equipment from Australian brewery manufacturer Spark, including a 15hL brewhouse, two double batch and two single batch fermenters, a 50L pilot kit, a couple of kegarators for on the run requirements and a 12 tap setup in the bar area."

"If you're after beers of the sour, funky and wild variety in Ballarat, set a course for Invermay’s Dollar Bill Brewing. The brainchild of husband and wife duo Ed and Fiona Nolle, compromise has never been something they considered when they set out to take the sort of barrel-aged blends Ed and his winemaking buddy "Miguel Sanchez" had been playing with as homebrewers for close to two decades. With wort brewed at Stomping Ground in Collingwood before being transferred to barrels in a shed on their land, the Nolles take pleasure in creating unique flavours through a variety of wild fermentation and blending techniques."

"On the back of many years of hard-working beer research, they developed a method for brewing great beers, true to flavour without compromise. Made using millet and sorghum, malted to our exacting specification. CiderBarrel Fermented Cider, produced from a blend of locally crushed Granny Smith and Pink Lady apples and Packham Pears."

"They make a flat-out, peak service time look pretty calm and smooth. They were definitely put to the test when our team of eight arrived – they already had a huge table of local riders waiting for their Coffex caffeine hit not to mention smaller tables all filled with early risers keen for a fix. See also:Ballarat is spoilt for choice when it comes to great lunch locations"