Sunshine Coast leads the way for best beer holiday destinations

Craft beer tourism is becoming more common as more sophisticated drinkers seek out local flavours, but one sunny destination is leading the pack. See where.

There’s something extra satisfying about finding a super-tasty, unique local beer while on holidays. But what if that beer was the reason for the holiday itself?

With the proliferation of craft breweries all around the country in the past decade, some savvy operators are taking advantage of insatiable thirst for new beers by marrying holiday destinations with tasting tours.

While Sydney and Melbourne have led the craft beer charge in Australia, increasingly the regions are getting in on the act, with clusters of breweries in picturesque places such as Byron Bay and the Blue Mountains in NSW, the high country around Bright, and the Mornington Peninsula, in Victoria, around Port Adelaide and the Fleurieu Peninsula in South Australia, the Gold Coast in Queensland and the Margaret River in Western Australia.

But nowhere has this been more apparent than the Sunshine Coast. With help from the local tourism board, the region is leveraging the explosion of craft breweries – from just one six years ago to 21 in 2022 – to position itself as the craft beer capital of Australia.

Josh Donohoe, who moved from Sydney’s craft brewery mecca of the Inner West to the Sunshine Coast, was one of the first to see the potential in the region and helped convince Visit Sunshine Coast to come on board. As someone who had always sought out local beer and local food while holidaying, he thought there was a market for increasingly educated beer drinkers to do the same and set up the Sunshine Coast Craft Beer Tours, which now runs three separate trails in the regions.

Sunshine Coast Craft Beer Tours is taking advantage of the regions explosion in craft breweries.

“We often get people from Sydney and Melbourne, where for a long time they have had that huge choice of craft beer and breweries and venues and tap rooms as being a fun, family-friendly place to go,” Donohoe says. “So when people are used to that from big cities they often look to see if that same experience is available here and they source that out.”

Donohoe, whose company runs Coastal Hop, Noosa Brewery Trail and Hinterland Farm To Fork Experience tours, says the key to putting together good beer trail is proximity and variety. When he first started the tours in 2016, they were overwhelmingly older and male – now it’s a much more even gender split and age range and a lot more educated clientele.

“There are more people who have tried beers and been to breweries and have an idea of what they like, they are a lot more adventurous,” he says. “Part of the fun is getting a paddle of beer with four different looking, smelling and tasting drinks and trying them.”

Breweries and taprooms have become fun, family-friendly destinations for holidays.

BEER TOURS FOR YOUR NEXT HOLIDAY

● Sunshine Coast Craft Beer Tours – visit sunshinecoastcraftbeertours.com.au

● For The Love of Beer Tours (Morningtown Peninsula, Geelong and the Bellarine, Yarra Valley) – fortheloveofbeertours.com.au

● Dave’s Tours (Sydney, Canberra, Hunter Valley, Newcastle, Melbourne, Brisbane, Cairns) – daves.com.au

● Craft Brewery Trail – fleurieupeninsula.com.au/blog-craft-brewery-trail?searchby=craft+beer

A TASTE OF PARADISE

NSW – Jervis Bay Brewing 11 Days Pale Ale

A great story behind the name of this beer. When the crew on board the cutter Nancy in 1805 were stranded in Jervis Bay, it took 11 days to walk back to Sydney. This is the beer you’d have spent a lot of those 11 days dreaming about! A refreshing pale ale this is not as happy or tropical as most modern pale ales can be. It delivers a fresh, dry and crisp finish, perfect for an Australian summer in Sydney, Jervis Bay or anywhere else.

Jervis Bay Brewing 11 Days Pale Ale

Bright Brewery Pumpkin Pie Halloween Ale

VIC – Bright Brewery Pumpkin Pie Halloween Ale

A combination of flavours you wouldn’t normally associate with beer – roasted pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove – but oh so delicious! A rich amber ale, it pours a vibrant orange colour, so make sure to have a glass on standby for an after-dinner nightcap treat.

SA – Loophole Brewing’s Slippery Fish Mid

Surrounded by wineries and approximately halfway between Melbourne and Adelaide (Lobster territory for those who know!) Loophole Brewing is a great road trip stopover. The Slippery Fish Mid (3.5%) is sessionable and very approachable for those who gravitate naturally to lagers. The hop profile does give it moderate tropical fruit characters, making it a perfect shellfish lunch accompaniment.

Loophole Brewing’s Slippery Fish Mid

Heads of Noosa’s Japanese Style Lager

QLD – Heads of Noosa’s Japanese Style Lager

When you imagine drinking a cold beer in the Australian sun, you are probably imagining a lager on the beach on the Sunshine Coast. A gold medal winner in the 2022 Australian International Beer Awards, number 21 in the GABS Hottest 100 Aussie Craft Beers of 2021, this is one beer you should be adding to your summer rotation. A distinctive malt blend lifts the profile but still delivers the clean and crisp mouthfeel you’re after when you’re mowing the lawn and not on that holiday you want to be on.

Visit smartcraftbeer.com.au and access the following offers.

● Offer 1: $10 off your first order when you spend $75 with promo code BeerDestinations10 on checkout

● Offer 2: Best Bargain Beer Box – Get a case of Jervis Bay Brewing 11 Days Pale Ale for $49.95 + Shipping (40% off RRP)

● Offer 3: 10 unique craft beers delivered every month for $59 per month + shipping

Originally published as Sunshine Coast leads the way for best beer holiday destinations