Watts River Brewing

When Lion moved White Rabbit out of Healesville in 2014, two brewing families saw a gap rather than a loss. Watts River opened in 2015 — named for the river that supplies its brewing water and runs just north of the shed — and has been Healesville's only independent brewery since. Aaron Malmborg and Emily Sheppard stepped away in 2022, leaving Ben and Hanna Hamilton to run it as a single-family operation. The brewing philosophy is deliberately unfashionable: old-world Belgian ales crossed with new-world craft, built for drinkability rather than trend-chasing. An annual four-beer Belgian lineup anchors the range alongside the core ale, blonde and IPA, with seasonals, collaborations and barrel-aged releases filling out the taps. You won't find a hazy IPA here simply because everyone else has one. The cellar door is a working brewery first — an open warehouse with the 500-litre system taking up most of it, a small bar and casual seating up front, and more seating in the carpark. Live music Friday evenings. Local wines and gin for the non-beer drinkers. Free delivery across the Yarra Valley, Melbourne and Geelong over $100.