About Us
AUSTRALIA'S #1 MODERN SOUR BREWERY
Our Story
One Drop Brewing Co. was founded in 2019 by Meg Barbic and Clay Grant in Botany, Sydney - built on vision, conviction and a willingness to risk everything.
It didn’t begin with a polished business plan. It began with an idea that wouldn’t leave us alone born from a dream when the reality did not exist.
One Drop was never just about brewing beer. It was about building something that felt expansive. Creative. Boundary-less. A brand that didn’t hold back and a brand that was limitless with the potential to ripple far and wide… into it’s employees, customers and anywhere else.
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That’s the essence of OD. Going all in with nothing left behind.
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Clay led with vision and intention from day one - setting the tone for what One Drop would stand for. Courage over comfort. Long-term belief over short-term safety. Persistence when things felt impossible. He was creating visions, shaping direction, holding nerve, and backing the risk.
Meg drove the commercial foundation, brand world and operational start up build, turning a leap of faith into something structured, strategic and scalable. Building not just a business framework for a successful brewery to thrive in, but a universe: the voice, the identity and the momentum.
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We sold our family home to fund the venture. There was no Plan B only the OD way: all in.
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With One Drop already flowing in our veins, we took our young family and travelled Europe on a whim - exploring life, beer, culture and possibility. It was there, briefly, in a small brewery in Zagreb, Croatia (where Meg’s family is from), that Clay met Nick Calder. At the time it was a moment - but the OD concept is that small moments aren’t small - and when Clay returned to the hotel later told Meg “I just met our head brewer, he doesn't know it yet, but he is going to be our brewer”
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After returning home and signing a lease on an abandoned warehouse back in Sydney, they got to work - and with no full time brewer locked in - we knew it was time to reach out to Nick to let him in on the OD way, and share what our vision was.​​​
​​At the time, Botany wasn’t known as a brewing hub. In fact, when we signed the lease on an abandoned warehouse, there wasn’t a modern independent brewery in the area. We were among the first to see what it could become - not just industrial space, but a creative community.
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From day one, the local area embraced us.
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Families. Trades. Small business owners. Creatives. Young parents. Long-time locals. People who were proud to see something new rising from a quiet industrial strip.
One Drop became more than a brewery. It became a meeting place. A space for celebration, collaboration and connection. A place where community wasn’t a marketing line but it was the reason the doors opened each week.
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Nick understood the brief from the start. He saw how we wanted to brew, what we wanted to challenge, and the ideas we were building. He took the plunge and flew to Australia when the equipment was finally ready to be installed - as our founding Head Brewer, helping bring the brewing vision to life inside a spirit we were already aligned on - the One Drop spirit: bold, experimental, flavour-first, and unapologetically different with quality as the back bone. OD all the way.
From the beginning, One Drop wasn’t about fitting into the Australian beer scene. It was about expanding it into something that hadn’t been seen before.
No comparisons.
No ceiling.
No “this is how it’s done.”
Just flavour intensity, technical curiosity, and bold design.
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What followed were years of experimentation, refinement and growth - building a Brew Crew and a reputation for pushing boundaries with heavily fruited sours, thiol-driven hazies, and high-impact flavour profiles, all underpinned by a brand that was playful, self-aware and a little mischievous. But most importantly committed to backing the growth of its crew and their creativity.
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And that core never changed. It has expanded into all of us here at OD from brewery, marketing, design, operations, logistics to taproom - this is a team effort!
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One Drop was founded on:
Vision.
Creative freedom.
And the courage to back yourself to go all in when there’s no safety net to cling to.
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Today, One Drop has grown into Australia’s number 1 Modern Sour Brewery with We Jammin’ Fruited Smoothie Sour voted #8 in Australia’s GABS Hottest 100 beers…. and expanding into new creative ventures - but it still remains founder-led.
With a world class Crew oozing with passion, commitment and integrity.
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Our local area now has two more thriving breweries, and local creative businesses now nearby with many more to come.
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One Drop wasn’t a fluke.
It wasn’t inherited.
It was created, self backed and built with vision and perseverance even when the odds were stacked against it.
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One belief, One ripple, One Drop at a time.