NB: Forester's is closing for two weeks in Feb 2017 for renovationsFor a number of years, Melbourne has been acknowledged as the craft beer capital of Australia, home to the greatest number of quality beer venues in the state with the most breweries. Sure, WA can lay claim to the first craft brewery and the bar scenes have exploded in Sydney and Brisbane, but Melbourne has led the way.
Yet, if anything, it lacked one thing that Sydney (with Frankie’s) and Brisbane (with Leftie’s) could offer: a late night bar / club where those with a penchant for quality beer could sup to their heart’s content, long after normal pubs had closed, while listening, whenever possible, to live music. Then along came Forester’s Hall and Melbourne had that too.
Better still, Forester’s Hall is rather more than just a late night hangout offering good beer. For a start, it has a phenomenal amount of good beer: 32 lines of it, in fact, pouring through 50 taps, and all of it from independent Australian and international craft brewers.
The venue comes with an impeccable pedigree too. Its owners helped pioneer craft beer on tap in Melbourne at one of their other venues, the Royston in Richmond, across the road from Mountain Goat. They also own The Terminus in Fitzroy North, which they first established as one of Melbourne’s top gastropubs, then added a craft bar and beer garden, increased the number of beers on offer, became the first ever Good Beer Week Festival Hub, then began scooping every “Best Pub in Melbourne” gong going.
Attention then turned to the site of the former A Bar Called Barry nightclub, a notoriously shabby venue on the corner of Smith and Gertrude Streets that had been through a number of guises but was in need of a new one. Thus it was gutted, given a major overhaul and became Forester’s, complete with an overhead stage where bands play under a glamorous clam shell: a relic from the 1920s.
Aside from the beer and music, the main room, which somehow manages to avoid feeling as cavernous as it is thanks to a carefully design layout, features a long bar where 40 of the taps are found, behind which sits a gleaming wall of spirits and wines. Overhead, at the opposite end to the clam shell stage, is a mezzanine, home to the most impressive of the venue’s multiple graffiti-style artworks. Food, meanwhile, comes in the shape of top notch pizzas served until 2am. And for all you crafty homebodies, they offer takeaway too.
“What of the other 10 taps?” you may ask. Well, just like Frankie’s and Leftie’s, Forester’s comes with a bonus room. Woody’s Fine Liquor is found upstairs behind the mezzanine floor and is the in-house dive bar, home to Picklebacks 'n' pool 'n' Rock 'n' Roll. And, of course, more craft beer.
It’s the piece de resistance for a venue of real ambition, albeit ambition that seems based upon sound reasoning. With the biggest selection of tap beer in Melbourne – in the city’s craft beer heartland – and regular casual beer and brewer events, it’s got the beer crowd sown up. Live music, usually of the rockabilly and blues ilk, pulls in others, while its late license, quality staff and welcoming ambience are an overdue addition to Smith Street’s late night weekend offering. The only bad part, really, is deciding which beer to have first. Well, that, and trying to leave.
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