Mountain Goat was one of the first craft breweries in Australia and remains one of the longest standing to this day. With over 500 independent craft breweries now dotted across the country it's hard to imagine/remember a time when the only beers available on tap or in bottle shops were bland, fizzy lagers, primarily thanks to Lion & CUB's buying up and consolidating of the Australian beer market down into primarily a single bland style of beer.

Mountain Goat founders Cam Hines and Dave Bonighton had both sampled what beer could taste like whilst overseas in the US & Canada respectively. Cam sent Dave a postcard from Canada with the message ‘We’ve gotta talk… let’s open a brewery’. They both wanted beers of the quality they had tasted overseas to be made and available in Australia and were determined to do something about it. 

Mountain Goat founders Dave Bonighton (left) and Cam Hines.

Mountain Goat started out back in 1997.The first commercial batches of Mountain Goat beer were brewed, kegged and bottled in the basement of The Scottish Chiefs Hotel in Geelong. It wasn't long before production moved to the long established Grand Ridge Brewery in Gippsland, where Dave later took on the Head Brewer role, as well as brewing Mountain Goat's beers. Cam would drive his old Falcon wagon down the freeway each week, jam pack it with kegs and cases and drive the two hours back to a tiny office space to hand label every bottle.This happened for two years until they were able to find our own brewery space.

Cam and Dave knew they were on to something but didn't have the money to build a brewery. They approached every bank but didn't have enough security for a loan. They rallied the support of family, friends and eventually a bank manager, likely tired of their persistent visits. The required funds were secured and the first Mountain Goat brewery was finally realised in 1999 in a warehouse on Crown Street in Richmond. To help pay the bills, Cam & Dave opened the brewery bar once a month and quickly hundreds of people were lining up to come in.

Cam & Dave in the Crown St brewery.

To house the growing brewery & team and provide more seats in the bar, in 2004 Mountain Goat relocated to a warehouse one street over on North Street in Richmond. The cellar door used to only open to the public once a month at Crown St but following the move to North St it became Wednesday & Friday evenings.

Mountain Goat saw great success with the launch of their Organic Steam Ale in 2009. The fact that it was the first certified organic beer in Australia in conjunction with the choice in style, a light and easy drinking ??? not generally seen in the Australian beer market was very successful. The Organic Steam Ale remains a part of the core range to this day and is now in cans as well as bottles.

Mountain Goat's Organic Steam Ale packaging.

In what was seen as a somewhat contentious move at the time, in 2011 Mountain Goat started having all their packaged beers brewed by Asahi at their brewery in Laverton. It wasn't something Mountain Goat went out of their way to tell people about as it didn't play well with the brewery's branding as small and independent. It allowed Mountain Goat to reduce their costs, expand their distribution whilst being able to brew more experimental and specialty beers at their brewery in Richmond. Whilst still a contentious practice, more breweries these days are "outsourcing" production of the best selling core range beers to reduce costs and free up tank space for more experimental and specialty beers. Most breweries are still generally pretty quiet about the practice as it still doesn't play particularly well with their small and independent branding/image.

Mountain Goat was one of the first breweries in the country to start canning their beers. A bold move as at the time cans carried very negative connotations, a result of their association and use in packaging cheap, bland, fizzy lagers. In 2013 Mountain Goat released their first beer in a can, Summer Ale. The trifecta of trending style, great branding and the cost, space, weight, etc savings of cans saw Mountain Goat's Summer Ale get as yet unseen reach in the beer market.

Mountain Goat's original Summer Ale cans.

2015 was the start of an award winning run for Mountain Goat at the Australian International Beer Awards. In 2015 Mountain Goat took out the Trophy for Champion Beer at the Australian International Beer Awards for our Barrel Breed Barley Wine, their first ever barrel aged beer. It was highly sought after but never able to be reproduced as the recipe was lost.

Mountain Goat was bought by Asahi in 2015. Having worked alongside Asahi in brewing and packaging 

Mountain Goat opened a brewpub in Sydney in the Inner West suburb of Newtown in October 2020. Unfortunately it wasn't the best timing due to covid-19 and recurring lockdowns and there were some issues with the roof leaking in the early days. There are a number of subtle nods to the original brewery cellar door, a Randall allowing chosen beers to be infused with fresh ingredients on their way to the taps and of course pizzas to go with the beers. There's a 1200 litre brewery on site which will eventually churn out brewpub exclusive beers. If beer isn't your thing or you're bringing a friend who isn't a beer fan, they also do cocktails and wine.

Mountain Goat's Newtown Brewpub.

Mountain Goat's cellar door in Richmond is one of the original meccas of craft beer in Australia. These days it's open to the public Thursday through Sunday  as opposed to Wednesday & Friday evenings, making it much easier to fit into a trip to Melbourne. The Newtown Brewpub is open 7 days (when not in lockdown).

Have any questions in regards to the above? Have we missed something? Let us know if the comments.

Cheers 🍻