Sydney’s distilleries unite on brand-new discovery trail

• The Inner West Distillery Trail unites nine of Sydney’s most reliable craft spirits makers.
• There’s a huge variety of tasting rooms and warehouse bars to discover across Marrickville, Lilyfield and Rozelle.
• The drinking path is a response to the success of the Inner West Ale Trail.

Sydney continues to aggressively respond to tired old calls that we’ve lost our creative spark.

More parties are happening over at White Bay Power Terminal, for example, and now there’s been a brand new distillery trail revealed for Rozelle. That’s the Inner West Distillery Trail, mind you, which was officially launched last night to a crowd of friends and media at the Red Mill Rum warehouse.

Inner West Mayor Darcy Bryne set out to map this new nine-distillery trail to unlock a different side of the Inner West beyond the hotspots of Newtown and Marrickville. It also seems in response to the success of brewery trails in neighbourhoods like Marrickville and Brookvale, skewing towards spirits and cobbled together a path that’ll bring groups of friends behind the scenes of Sydney’s ever-evolving craft spirits scene.

Speaking of Marrickville, some of the distilleries there are part of the trail, as well as makers from the Balmain and Lilyfield Districts. The lineup includes:

• Blackwattle Distilling Co (Rozelle)
• Ester Spirits (Marrickville)
• Eureka Distilling (Marrickville)
• Lily Fields Distilling Co (Lilyfield)
• Moonshiner Distilling Collaboration (Marrickville)
• Otter Craft Distilling (Lilyfield)
• Poor Toms (Marrickville)
• Red Mill Rum (Rozelle)
• Unexpected Guest Distillery (Marrickville)

The Inner West Ale Trail has been such a success for the area that this should help further these pockets of the inner west as some of the coolest spots in Sydney.

“By creating the distillery trail, we’ll make the Inner West a mecca for spirit connoisseurs looking to explore the range of flavours on offer, and get a behind-the-scenes look at the distillers’ art,” said Byrne.

All of these names offer a vastly different experience, which is exactly what you want from a trail like this. You want a variety of drinking spaces and tasting rooms, as well as different drinks on offer.

Blackwattle’s Kieren Doyle is promising just that.

“We’ll all offer something a little bit different, from the drinks we create through to the spaces we’re housed in, from tasting rooms and bottle shops to cellar doors, bars and heritage-listed warehouses.”

The trail is a breath of fresh air for Sydney as a whole. Many of these distilleries have been in standing for years, and producing a lot of quality stuff, but they’ve remained largely unknown to non-locals. Even half of Sydney wouldn’t have heard that there were so many great distillery paces out there, like Red Mill Rum’s awesome antique-laden warehouse.

“We’ve been the Dannii Minogue to the breweries’ Kyle,” joked Felix Clark, who co-founded Ester Spirits in 2020.

“A lot of people don’t know the difference between brewing and distilling, so for us this is about increasing awareness to showcase that we’re also here, and doing great things.”

How do I use the Inner West Distillery Trail?

The Inner West Distillery Trail is free. Guests are able to select their start and finish points from an interactive map on the website that’ll help guide you with the best routes to take and how to tackle the path in the way that best suits you. You don’t need to visit all nine on the one day, so there’s plenty of reasons to do it a few times.

The trail officially launches this weekend and the distillers are throwing up a bunch of specials to celebrate. If you rock up on Saturday and Sunday you’ll find each spot doing $12 cocktails and 20% off bottles.

Download the map and find out more at distillerytrailinnerwest.com.au