Drinking some of the finest brews on the Mornington Peninsula while sitting inside the reclaimed stable of a champion racehorse may sound like an odd pairing, but at St Andrews Beach Brewery you can do just that. The brewery has been constructed inside a former racehorse training centre.
In 2017, the 92-acre property became a fully functioning brewery, with the 1200-metre race track replaced by 8000 apple and pear cider trees. The training facility-turned-brewery was previously owned by the Freedman family and ran as the Markdel Thoroughbred Complex, which produced hundreds of winning racehorses.
Now it's owned by Andrew Purchase, who returned home to the Mornington Peninsula after co-founding a successful brewery in France. So far, it has created a slew of award-winning beers — with appropriately equestrian names, such as the Race Day Czech pilsner and 6 Furlongs US pale ale — which are packaged on site with with facility's own kegging and bottling line.
In addition to a variety of beers there is also a diverse menu with pizzas, seafood, salads and desserts with dairy-free, gluten-free, vegetarian and vegan options.
St Andrews Beach has live music every weekend, too. You can walk in and grab a brew or book a stall table for a group of six or more here.