Chris Shanahan: Schultz – almost a Canberra brewer

If you brew beer outside Canberra but offer it through your own Canberra hotel, does that make you a local craft brewer – or an honorary one at least?

If its does, then Sydney’s Jerry Schwarz deserves a place of honour alongside Canberra’s home-grown craft brewers, the Wig and Pen, Zierholz and the BentSpoke.

Schwartz owns the Mercure, Braddon, and with little fanfare offers draft and packaged beer from the two breweries he owns – the Schwartz Brewery Hotel in Surry Hills, Sydney, and the Lovedale Brewery at the Crowne Plaza in the lower Hunter Valley.

The Mercure currently offers on tap Paddo Pale, Newtown Bitter, Darlo Dark and Sydney Cider from the Surry Hills brewery and Lovedale Lager from the Hunter.

The same brews are also available in 1.89-litre refillable, take-away “growlers”. And the bottle shop carries a smaller range of 330ml bottles from Schwartz’s two breweries.