Whisky & Alement

The Numbers Behind the Bar

Whisky and Alement opened on Russell Street in 2013 with a specific brief: stock more whisky and more craft beer than anyone else in Melbourne, and do it in a room where both categories feel at home. Over a decade later the menu stands at more than 700 whisky expressions — Scotch, Irish, Japanese, American, Australasian, and categories that do not fit neatly into any of those — and the craft beer list covers over 150 options across tap and bottle.

The whisky menu is the more remarkable of the two achievements. Getting to 700 expressions is a curation exercise as much as a procurement one — which 700, and in what proportion? W&A lands on a mix that covers the serious collector end (old Karuizawa, vintage Port Ellen, independent Scotch bottlings from the 1970s) without forgetting that most people arrive wanting a well-chosen dram rather than a bottle they will read about and never buy. The approachable end of the menu — Springbank 10, Hakushu 12, Redbreast 12, a handful of rye and bourbon selections — is deliberately generous.

Two Floors, One Philosophy

The ground floor runs as the main bar: high stools along the windows onto Russell Street, bar seating facing the whisky wall, a central island where the beer taps are arranged. The upstairs room is quieter, suited to the kind of conversation that a serious whisky tasting requires. On Friday evenings both floors operate at capacity and the energy is entirely different from a Tuesday at 6pm — but the quality of what comes out of the bar does not change.

The craft beer operation runs alongside the whisky without hierarchy. The tap list rotates to reflect what Australian and international craft brewers are doing well right now, with consistent representation from Victorian producers — Mountain Goat, Boatrocker, Stomping Ground, Molly Rose — alongside international arrivals. The bottle and can list goes deeper, with a cellar of aged and wild fermentation beers that the staff can talk about with the same confidence they bring to whisky.

Getting the Most from the Visit

The bar's staff are among the best-informed on either category in Melbourne, and the menu is written to support exploration rather than overwhelm it. For first-time visitors, asking for a whisky flight — three expressions chosen around a theme — is a sensible way to get oriented before committing to a longer pour. The beer side offers a similar entry point through tasting trays of four draught options.

Whisky and Alement sits comfortably alongside Cookie and Black Pearl as part of the core Melbourne CBD and inner-suburb circuit that serious drinkers use as their rotation. For anyone wanting to compare Melbourne's approach to the same categories, The Baxter Inn in Sydney covers the whisky side with different strengths. Melbourne's craft beer scene remains one of the strongest in the southern hemisphere, and this bar is where it is taken most seriously.