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If you’re wondering where the humans are in Brookvale, they’re all throwing back pints at Bucketty’s.
Arrive any hour of the weekend and the brewery is thrumming, even rolling out a red-rope barrier when it starts to spill over. When you’re struggling past car dealerships and abandoned warehouses along Pittwater Road, Bucketty’s unfolds from a desolate backstreet.
It's like an unexpected (and welcome) mirage
Husband-and-wife team Nick and Lexi McDonald moved into the sprawling warehouse space in 2021, joining nearly a dozen other craft breweries in the unsuspecting Northern Beaches suburb.
Having upped sticks from its original site in the Hunter Valley (a 200-person town named, you guessed it, Bucketty), the taproom has muscled in beside beer-brewing rivals 4 Pines, Broken Bay, Dad and Dave’s, 7th Day and Freshwater Brewing Company.
The place is vast but every square inch accounted for. Dozens of ‘World Beer Cup’ awards are proudly exhibited as you enter, next to a display cabinet of Bucketty’s branded hats, socks and, yes, dog bandanas. Small crowds clump at pinball machines, dart boards and foosball tables. Inside, there’s a stage for live bands, and out back, beneath a giant mural of ‘Old Man Bucketty’ (Lexi’s father), there’s a VIP children’s zone.
The beers don’t come in schooners – only pints and half-pints. They flow from the colossal silver drums lined up behind an ironbark timber bar, which carves through the centre of the space.
But the best of the bunch isn’t a beer at all
Bucketty’s Bush Cider is worth the trip alone: using Granny Smith apple juice, the brewmasters blend honey and lemon myrtle for a blissful floral flavour.
For the hot days, there’s the Watermelon Wheat, one of Bucketty’s newer concoctions. The American wheat beer is delivered with a slab of ripe watermelon, wedged onto the rim of the glass, making like a tropical-tinged shandy. Then there’s the Cerveza de Brookvale, a Mexican-style lager, clean, crisp and with a citrus streak.
The strongest beer on the menu is the one called Dank AF IPA. At 6.8 per cent, it’s a tougher task than the previous three, with an earthy, hop-heavy complexion. It actually uses particular hops aimed at achieving a marijuana-esque aromas. Who knew?
Elsewhere, using hops flown 17,000-odd kilometres from Kent in the UK, there’s a malty amber ale and a hearty Sunday Bitter, for a couple of full-flavoured, slower-moving brews.
With around 15 beers on tap – including a flagship lager, pale ale, XPA, IPA, hazy, stout and ginger beer – Bucketty’s bar staff also give out free tasters to help you make up your own mind.
On one end of the bar you’ll find the cocktail pick-up station, where you can snap up something a little fruitier. There are two house Margaritas – one with watermelon, another with jalapeño – as well as a Pink Grapefruit Sour, a Salted Caramel Espresso Martini and a Smoky Whisky Mocktail. But it’s hard to see past the venue’s signature Centennial Hops Daiquiri, with a distinctive, mellow hoppiness bubbling through the sweet, elderflower-based cocktail.
The food comes fast and it comes out big. It’s classic pub grub – burgers, wings and loaded fries – but slings out some surprises too. For one, the burger list features a whopping tempura eggplant edition, spilling with grilled capsicum, halloumi and caramelised onion. The share plates include half a kilo of lemon pepper spice-rubbed chicken wings with Bloody Mary dipping sauce, as well as “Bucketty’s Board” of Med-style bites like house-made hummus, spicy chorizo and dolmades. Oh, and there are late-night ‘after kitchen closes noodles’ for 10 bucks, to stifle those after-drink cravings.
Hosting a slate of live music acts, weekly Texas ribs nights, and the city’s premier dachshund racing event, Bucketty’s hasn’t entered the Brookvale brewery scene with its tail between its legs (even if those sausage dogs have).
And having just this month signed the lease on a new 600-person-capacity venue down the street — adding a pool hall, karaoke room and cocktail bar to its growing empire — this might only be the beginning.
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