For the first time ever, you can now get your hands on tinnies from extra-crafty Inner West micro-brewer, Sausage Queen Brewing. Before now, you could only sample these special varieties at the Sausage Factory, a humble neighbourhood restaurant in Dulwich Hill. The Factory ordinarily serves up its craft beers alongside hand-twisted, small batch sausages from the other side of the business, Chrissy’s Cuts.
On the last night of trading before all of Sydney's restaurants became unable to host sit-in customers, the Sausage Factory had just tapped the first keg of a 2,500 litre batch of beer. “With two cool rooms rammed full of beer kegs, we had to really escalate the decision to can,” said Chrissie Flanagan, the proverbial Sausage Queen herself.
Now, born from the necessary pivots of the lockdown era, you can get your mitts on two varieties of Sausage Queen beers in rather striking tinnies, the Boss Ale and Costume Drama. Both varieties lean into the house style of championing fragrant, lesser known beer styles and native ingredients.
“The Boss Ale recipe was perfected by Jay Cook, long time Bucket Boys brewer, and deadset legend,” said Flanagan. “She’s a dry hopped farmhouse style pale ale with pilsner malts, coriander, orange and a shedload of Mosaic and Citra [hops]… She’s here for a good time and a long time, gives zero fucks and takes no shit. She’s the Boss.
“Costume Drama started life several evolutions ago in Pete Giugni’s Marrickville backyard brewhouse, answering to ‘Malteaser’. It is my solemn belief that malty beers are severely underrated, underestimated and under-appreciated on these shores, rarely seen without those popular bedfellows – a ton of hops. We want Costume Drama to show Sydney folk a whole new malty world of love.”
You can order your own Sausage Queen beers online starting at $6 a can from Dully Locals in packs of one, four and 24. “Dully Locals is a not-for-profit collective of Dulwich Hill artisan producers, providers and makers, working together to make it easier for locals to buy local during the shutdown,” explained Flanagan. The initiative has attracted a lot of love from the community with its deliveries of hampers and products, and in turn it has kept independent businesses alive.
Of course, times are changing rapidly, and three days after Sausage Queen’s tinnies were launched, the government announced that restaurants could begin re-opening. “Business is so interesting!” said the Sausage Queen. “We’re starting with booze while we figure our longer term shit out.”
From this Friday, you can also enjoy your beer in-house when the Sausage Factory re-opens for bar and retail services as part of its own stage one. But if you like what you taste, you can bring home your own Technicolor takeaway tins.