Not everyone gets the chance to take an iconic venue and do it all over again. But that’s the reality for the Stomping Ground team, headed up by Steve Jeffares, Guy Greenstone and Justin Joiner.

The original location, on Gipps Street in Collingwood, is absolutely the template for their new warehouse-size brewery and beer hall in Moorabbin (the site operated as a pop-up over summer). It’s in the old Phillip Morris cigarette factory, part of the six-hectare Morris Moor precinct on Cochranes Road.

And while Jeffares calls it “reassuringly familiar” – particularly the sky-high ceilings, centre-of-the-room bar and communal seating – it’s not exactly the same. “We didn’t want a cookie-cutter approach, [but] we certainly wanted to have some shared DNA,” he says. This is the third venue in the Stomping Ground stable; in 2020 the brewery opened an airport outpost like few others in the world.

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In Moorabbin you’ll find the same breadth of beer styles as in Collingwood, pouring from 25-plus taps, by a brewery positioning itself as a producer for the people. “We believe there’s a beer for everybody,” says Jeffares. That’s reflected in the traffic-light system by which each beer is categorised: green means easy-drinking, amber is for intermediate brews and red signifies a more out-there style. From the crisp, smashable Laneway Lager to the Into the ’Wood Rye Whiskey Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout (with a potent ABV of 10.5 per cent), the idea is to bring more beer-drinkers into the fold – as opposed to any gatekeeping.

There’ll also be some Morris Moor exclusives – to start you can try the Uncle Phil’s Pils (a pilsner named for Phillip Morris) and the juicy Moor Pale. But beyond the glut of fruity sours, malty brown ales and hopped-up IPAs, find tap wines from Noisy Ritual, cider by Willie Smith and gluten-free beer from Two Bays (run by Jeffares’s brother Richard).

Food-wise, the menu is also much the same as in Collingwood. Executive chef Ben Isaacs hasn’t had to reinvent the wheel, and is serving cheesy baked pretzels with mustard; parmesan-crumbed chicken schnitties with Waldorf slaw; and a 300-gram porterhouse with bacon-and-ale jam. And, of course, his crowd-pleasing pizzas.

And if you thought the Collingwood location was big, get this: while the former can hold 250, the latter’s capacity is a whopping 460 (in non-restrictive times). The main beer hall is an indoor-outdoor conversion – an old alleyway between two buildings has been enclosed – but there are retractable sections of roofing, so the space can be opened up when weather permits. There’s also a shuffleboard and a three-level cubbyhouse for the kids.

Outdoors is a deck with plenty of sunny seating, and the tiny park just outside the front door is part of the general liquor licence – so you can grab a few takeaway tinnies and sink them on the grass.

Stomping Ground Morris Moor reopens on Tuesday October 26.

Stomping Ground Morris Moor
9 Cochranes Road, Moorabbin

Hours:
Mon to Thu 11.30am–11.30pm
Fri & Sat 11.30am–1am
Sun 11.30am–11.30pm

stompingground.beer/morrismoor
@stompinggroundmm