Mountain Culture Brewery - Katoomba — Restaurant in Sydney

Your beer is great but your online shopping experience...and especially the delivery experience...has been truly awful.

The order I placed on the 25th November was meant to have been packed and "on its way" on the 1st December according to an email I received from you.

When I clicked through your email to check when I could expect delivery on the Sendle website (the courier you use for your deliveries), I was informed that the "delivery estimate" was "2nd December - 7th December". That was my first negative impression. 7 days to deliver a package from Katoomba to Sydney CBD is just ridiculous. According to Google Maps I could have walked up and back 3 times.

Sendle is a truly awful logistics business. It has zero tracking ability on their website beyond that completely useless "2nd - 7th December". The delivery status never changed during that whole time I was waiting...and I have received zero communication from them....not a single email or update.

Then even with 7 days to get that parcel just 100km, that was clearly too much for Sendle and the package still hasn’t arrived, meaning I now have to spend time chasing it to find out what has happened. Sendle has just informed me that it will take them another 5 days to respond about where the parcel might be. What the…??

So I have now been charged almost $200, have waited 14 days since my order, have to wait another 5 days, have no beer which I bought for a specific event that I now won’t have it for, and am wasting my time trying to contact Sendle and their non-existent customer service.

I thought at least Mountain Culture would respond promptly when I emailed you with a subject line “Missing order”…but that was clearly too much to ask as well. I emailed you about all this 2 days ago and am yet to receive any response at all.

I would probably have spent about $600 with you guys over the next 12 months but this experience doesn’t make me want to ever order from you again.

This has turned my initially super positive feeling towards Mountain Culture into a very negative experience.

I can only advise people never to order anything from your...

If the mountain won’t go to Dan…

This fantastic upbeat brewery may have you enacting your own sea change (without the sea) to the sun-drenched mountains, which is glorious this time of year. Cold, and yet toasty warm in full sun, the brewery’s deck has a crisp ambience perfect for family and friends (and doggo’s) to chat whilst they sample the brews on offer.

There is a great selection of older-style music, that had me shazamming, which is a refreshing change from the trashy pop noise and monotonous tik-tok jingles that pass as “music” these days.

And now onto the beers…

Honey Bee: This ‘thick like molasses’ golden syrup imperial stout will have you lickin’ your lips, but it’s so rich and creamy you’ll want one for dessert and then it’s way past your bedtime! A treat that should be indulged in - but in small doses

Morning Yearning: This texan-style smoked BBQ brisket porter is off the chain! If you’re into ribs, sausage links, pickles & coleslaw, then this’ll creep up on ya like a 12-hour slow cooked pulled pork sando with all da trimmings!

Nerves of Steel: Dank memes? it’s just me it seems! With biscuits sans cream this is a really good theme! I think a better name would be rubbery anxiety! A good drop, that might be outdone by overthinking. Perhaps pairing back would help it forge ahead!

Nicki: A beer milkshake? The oats provide a delicious creaminess and the tropical fruitiness on top adds boatloads of hazy hops! This was the last of the day and what a great brew to finish on; my first and hopefull...

Was heading out west a couple of weeks ago for the final week of the school holidays and times the first leg of the run to arrive for lunch at MC Katoomba (this would be the end of my driving leg for the day….winning!!).

Got there on the stroke of midday and she was filling up fast, luckily we managed to snag a table in the corner near the stairs so the kids could entertain themselves while I enjoyed a paddle waiting for lunch.

Being the middle of winter, she was fresh inside, highly recommended rugging up as I didn’t see any heaters inside and it was brass monkeys out on the decked area.

Love a burger at a brewery which is what was on offer. Not a huge selection but enough options to find something for myself and wifey and the three kids in tow. Burgers looked the goods and were not bad, but not amazing.

Plenty of great beers available on tap as you would expect but I was a bit disappointed that there wasn’t any limited release stouts on tap considering it was definitely the weather for it. Had to settle for the core range Moon Dust which is okay but not my favourite dark beer. Luckily the collab beer with Bentspoke was sensational so that made up for it.

Both times I’ve visited I’ve had the family with me and it really impacts the ability to sink a few and enjoy all the brewery has to offer without whinging kids hurrying me up to finish my paddle and get back on the road, so need to rally the boys for a dedicated trip up to give it a real crack.

In the words of the Terminator...