Shambles Brewery

Shambles Brewery is a brewery, bar and food venue at 222 Elizabeth Street in Hobart, with its beers made and served on site. The tap list covers a broad range of styles, including Summer Ale, Afternoon Delight American IPA, Dances With Hops Session IPA, Baggy Green Amber Ale, Dirty Copper Robust Porter, ginger beer, a Tasmanian mixed-berry hazy mid and Solar Winds Coffee & Doughnut Stout. If choosing feels difficult, the venue offers a tasting paddle with four different tasters. The bar also serves Tasmanian-made wines and spirits, ciders and soft drinks, so non-beer drinkers have plenty to choose from.

There is more to the venue than the bar. The space includes a beer hall, beer garden and table tennis table, giving it a relaxed, social feel suited to catching up with friends or settling in for a casual meal. Food ranges from snacks and loaded fries to wraps, burgers, bowls and larger meals, with vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options identified on the menu. Named choices include the Shamburger, Veggie Burger, Fish & Chips, BA-BA Bowl and Fiesta Bowl. Families are catered for with a kids menu, while groups can book tables for up to 20 people or enquire about larger gatherings and functions. The venue is cashless.

Thursday nights bring a regular trivia session from 7pm to 9pm, with questions that can cover anything from random subjects to folding-paper skills and Chewbacca impressions. It is presented as a night for coming solo or bringing a group, although the venue recommends booking a table. That mix of beer, food, games and trivia makes Shambles a practical option for an informal group outing, while the beer garden and varied drinks list also leave room for a lower-key visit.

The brewery began with Cornel Ianculovici, a former science and maths teacher, and his brewing partner Shane, who spent more than a decade developing beer in a garage. In 2015, Cornel decided to turn that homebrewing experience into a full brewery, with help from friends working across design, architecture, construction, music and other practical skills. The venue was built in a former butchery, which the group found filled with old equipment and assorted belongings. Their first reaction was that it was a complete shambles, and the name stuck. The result is a Hobart brewery with a distinctly local origin story and a venue designed for drinking, eating and spending time together.