The hops are flowing this time of year, andCoogee Bay Hotelis celebrating in its glorious beer garden with a weekend-long festival of craft beer, cider, live music and food. The venue will host 20 stalls from Australia’s best brewers this Saturday and Sunday, and we picked five of our favourites to find out more.

1. Batlow Cider

Batlow

Your story: Batlow Cider was started in 2011, but we have been growing apples in Batlow since the late 1800s! Batlow is a town in the Snowy Mountains region – it’s actually the coldest climate, highest altitude apple growing region in Australia, which results in a crisp and crunchy apple. I (Rich) started it with my brother Sam, probably a result of our misspent youth and passion for drinking good quality booze. We teamed up with the apple growers of Batlow – we knew nothing about growing apples and they are the experts, so a partnership made sense. We distribute it around Australia and export a bit too.

Your speciality: We make fresh and fruit-driven ciders that are on the drier end of the spectrum. When we started there were hardly any drier styles, so we wanted to focus on that. That’s what we like to drink. Our OPA (Oaked Pear & Apple) is our most interesting and different. It’s made with a blend of 30 per cent pears and 70 per cent apples and has a little more complexity and interesting flavours. We work with a talented team of winemakers that oversee our production and the fruit that goes into it has been hand-picked. We also add no sugars, additives, concentrates – just fresh fruit crushed and turned into cider!

Best drunk with: A plate of nice cheese goes really well with our OPA, although it’s best enjoyed amongst good company.

Where to get it: Our ciders are available at most good independent bottle shops – try Coogee Bay Hotel, Corkscrew Cellars, Best Cellars, Kemenys, Bottega Del Vino or Oak Barrel in the city.

Website: batlowcider.com.au

Phone: 0434 020 653

2. Bilpin Cider Co.

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Your story: Founded in 2011 by Sean Prendergast, Bilpin Cider Co. is located in the heart of the World Heritage listed Blue Mountains. Our ten-acre farm includes the cellar door, apple orchard, sheep, lambs, alpacas and gardens. We are open to visitors seven days a week and being only a 90-minute drive from Sydney’s CBD, we offer visitors the chance to try our product and experience our farm environment.

Your specialty: Our flagship product is Bilpin Original. This is made from freshly crushed Granny Smiths, Pink Lady and Red Delicious apples sourced from Bilpin and the Central Tablelands region. This is our balanced style, neither too sweet nor too dry. This balanced flavour is the result of the combination of fruit – the tartness of the Granny Smiths combined with the sweetness of the Pink Lady and Red Delicious apples.

Bilpin Blush is our sweeter style, made from 100 per cent Pink Lady apples and fermented to 3.5 per cent. The finished product retains the natural sweetness of the fruit. It is sweet up front and crisp and clean at the finish.

Bilpin Archibald is our cloudy style and slightly drier. The juice has been dry fermented and then we added back unfiltered and unfermented juice to deliver a complex full-bodied cider with a slightly drier finish.

Best drunk with: Bilpin Original is a superb drink with roast pork.

Where to get it: Bilpin Original is found in many independent hotels, bottle shops and restaurants around Sydney as well as Dan Murphy’s and selected BWS stores.

Website: bilpincider.com

3. The Lord Nelson Brewery Hotel

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Your story: The Lord Nelson Brewery is Sydney’s oldest continually licensed hotel and Australia’s oldest pub brewery. Housed in a stunning heritage building, upgraded in 1836, the Lord Nelson was originally a private residence owned by pardoned convict-made-liquor baron, William Wells.

The current custodians, including managing director Blair Hayden, acquired the freehold in 1986. They took a beautiful old pub and completed the restoration to its former colonial glory with the aid of an 1852 photograph. A stunning sandstone facade was reflected in exposed internal walls, along with many convict-made chisel marks on the locally quarried stone. In keeping with the ambience of the architecture, the custodians were inspired to create beers in the style of traditional British ale – natural with no added sugar and extremely full-flavoured – instead of lager as made by the big brewers dominating the market at the time. A microbrewery was built in the back area of the bar and cellar, ‘Brewery’ added to the facade and the rest is history.

Your speciality: Our choice brew is our first born and house favourite Three Sheets Australian Pale Ale, distributed nationally and recently voted #23 in Australia’s Hottest 100 Craft Beers poll. It is our dedication to the art of craft brewing and staying true to the ethos of 100 per cent natural ale with no added sugars or preservatives that help us deliver an outstanding product.

Best drunk with: Best enjoyed with any of the pub classics served over the bar at the Lord Nelson Brewery Hotel in The Rocks, such as the beef pie with mash, gravy and peas, fish and chips or Nepalese chicken curry. All best enjoyed with great company.

Where to get it: The Lord Nelson Brewery has over 70 venues around Australia at which you can order one of our beers on tap. In addition to this we distribute nationally in the bottle (and shortly in cans too) through both on-premise and retail avenues, most notably at Vintage Cellars.

Website: lordnelsonbrewery.com

Phone: (02) 9251 4044

4. Stone & Wood Brewing Co.

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Stone & Wood

Your story: Born and raised in Byron Bay, we take a fresh approach to brewing handcrafted beer in the Northern Rivers of New South Wales, one of the greatest places on Earth. We established Stone & Wood Brewing Company in 2008. The three boys – Brad, Jamie and Ross – had spent many years working in the beer business. The dream was to quit ‘working for the man’, shed the corporate garbage and get back to basics.

As the original brewers of the Northern Rivers, we built our first brewery here at the eastern tip of Australia, in a part of the world where people enjoy having a beer when relaxing after catching a wave, catching a band at the pub or just catching up with friends. It’s that sort of place. We brew beer for times like these – beers that the locals, those passing through the town and the growing number of drinkers who appreciate good beer, and of course ourselves, would find simply good to drink.

Your speciality: Big Scrub – Beers From Our Backyard Range (Limited Release). With only one per cent left of the largest subtropical rainforest on the east coast, the remnants of Big Scrub serve as a reminder to preserve the natural beauty of our backyard and have inspired our latest limited release from the Beers From Our Backyard Range.

A new-age lager that balances the subtle malt foundation with a firm bitterness and dry finish, Big Scrub is different to traditional lagers by being dry hopped, using new world hops and left unfiltered (like all of our beers). It pours golden with a slight haze from extended cold maturation and no filtration (five weeks), with a luscious white creamy head.

Best drunk with: Sunshine on a relaxing arvo with an epic view, good food and good company.

Where to get it: Find a venue listing of where it’s being tapped and hitting shelves on our website (blog section).

Website: stoneandwood.com.au

Phone: (02) 6685 5173

5. Young Henrys Brewery and Distillery

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Your story: Like most good stories, ours started over a beer. Meeting on opposite sides of the bar, Richard Adamson and Oscar McMahon got talking over their love of beer and music, also discovering they shared a view that the Australian beer scene was behind the times – that it should be more adventurous, innovative and fun. With Richard’s brewer experience, and Oscar’s hospitality expertise, they decided they should do more than talk.

In 2012, after a long search for a permanent home, Young Henrys Brewery was officially born in Newtown. With a few friends and a small brew kit, they set about ensuring no local would ever go thirsty again! Now in 2016, the brewery is growing at breakneck speed, with a bustling tasting bar and servicing hundreds of local and national watering holes. Young Henrys has most recently incorporated a distillery into the family, with its gold-medal-winning Noble Cut gin and more handcrafted spirits to be released soon.

Your speciality: Our Newtowner Australian Pale Ale was first brewed in response to an invitation to help celebrate the 150-year anniversary of our home suburb in Sydney. It’s a well balanced and refreshing beer with three Australian hops (Galaxy, Cascade and Victoria Secret). It’s now being enjoyed in bars and backyards around the country and has become one of our most popular beers. It’s also now available in 300ml stubbies.

Best drunk with: We brew a range of different styles for different tastes. We believe beer is always best served with your best mates and a side of live music or art.

Where to get it: Find us in good independent bottle shops and nationally in Vintage Cellars and Dan Murphy’s.

Website: younghenrys.com

Coogee Bay Hotel’s Craft Beer and Cider Festival takes place at Coogee Bay Hotel,Saturday October 22 – Sunday October 23.

$20 entry pack gives you 3 tasting tokens, a CBHCraftBeerand Cider Festivalmug, tote bag and admission to the Meet the Makers sessions.

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