Just Open: The Grifter Brewing Co, Marrickville

The local beer heart of Sydney that is the inner west keeps pumping with Marrickville's Grifter Brewing Co opening a taproom to the public. The Grifter brewery site - complete with pool table, Australiana prints and classic pub carpet - can be found on Enmore Road, next to the Vic on the Park hotel.

"If you're out the back of the Vic, you can actually see into our brewery," says The Grifter co-owner Matt King. "There's a 'Fresh and Clean' sign on the building from when it used to be a drycleaners. We actually just made an India Pale Lager called Fresh and Clean as tribute that we'll probably keep on for a while."

King and fellow Grifters Trent Evans and Glenn Wignall launched their brewing company in 2012, making beer after hours at the Young Henrys site in Newtown. "We would brew there at night and on the weekend while we still had full-time jobs," says King. "As Young Henrys got bigger, we got bigger and outgrew the site. We gypsy brewed at a few sites around Sydney and eventually found ourselves in a position where we could afford to buy the Young Henrys' brewing gear when they upgraded."

The brewing kit sat in storage until the trio moved into their Enmore Road brewery about nine months ago. "It was the kit that we learned on and knew back to front, so it was full steam ahead as soon as we installed it," explains King.

The Grifter's attractive tap room has ample tables and stools for quaffing any of the eight house brews on tap, such as The Omen oatmeal stout, Serpent's Kiss watermelon pilsner, and fan favourite, the Big Sur West Coast IPA. There's also a smoked porter called Demon Lungs made in collaboration with Luke Powell of LP's Quality Meats for a one-off dinner in November with the Pinbone team and acclaimed Nordic chef Magnus Nilsson.

Beer is available on tap or to take away in 946ml squealers. "I find two-litre growlers too big for the home fridge and go flat if you drink one over a couple of days," says King. "A squealer is a comfortable size to drink in one sitting, but still big enough to be shared around."

There's no food on the menu at the brewery just yet, but King hopes to work with local businesses to change that. In the meantime, The Grifter is promoting itself as "food friendly" as well as kid and dog friendly.

Unit 1/391 Enmore Road, Marrickville. Fri-Sat noon-9pm; Sun noon-7pm. thegrifter.com.au