It’s been a big few days for craft beer in Sydney. On Saturday, the third Sydney Craft Beer Week kicked off while, preceding it by a day (or six years depending on how you look at it) was the 9th Australian Hotel Beer Festival in The Rocks. The Crafty Pint was invited to the latter to run a few sessions for punters, which we did in the form of combined blind tasting / meet the brewer sessions, and found time to sample some of the wares too.
What was it all about?
To the uninitiated, The Australian Hotel was a trailblazer for craft beer in Australia. To this day, it still pours Scharer’s Lager, the first beer from the late Geoff Scharer, who actually got a license through for his former venue in Picton before Phil Sexton had his for the Sail & Anchor in Fremantle but was beaten to the “first craft beer in Australia” punch by the guys in WA. And, while a number of its taps are contracted, it has a few that rotate and several fridges packed with 100 Australian craft beers of all denominations.
They’ve been running their annual Beer Festival for nine years: a traditional setup of brewer and food stalls, live entertainment and tokens for beer. This year was their biggest yet, with a Friday evening session added to the usual Saturday and Sunday, a couple of extra stalls, more of the roads around the iconic pub closed off, a smattering of cider stalls, food from several of the hotel chain’s pubs and a first appearance from The Crafty Pint. Around 10,000 people were expected to attend over the three sessions.
While the brewers, cider makers and food stalls lined the street outside the venue, we were given control of the Wine Emporium, a wood-panelled, wine and beer-lined room near to the main stage. There, we set up tasting paddles for guests and invited them to sample three styles of beer. There were two beers of each style – one from New South Wales, one from another state – all presented blind with a show of hands to see which was the preferred one of each pairing and thus to see if NSW could topple the rest of the country over the six sessions (and 36 beers). We also invited three brewers to each session to talk about their breweries, tell people about the beer styles they were tasting and answer questions before sending them back out, enlightened, into the main festival.
Which breweries were there?
Plenty, mostly from New South Wales, including the established, such as Scharer’s – now brewed at Illawarra Brewing Company – and Murray’s, and newcomers such as Six String Brewing, Riverside Brewery and Wayward.
They were joined by a good collection of interstate brewers and brewing companies, including Little Creatures, Moo Brew, McLaren Vale, Two Birds and Hawthorn. Add in about a dozen more and half a dozen cider producers and there was plenty to exchange your tokens for.
Who was there?
Given its location, history, reputation and come one, come all approach, this was as mainstream a crowd as you’ll find at a craft beer festival. It was one that encompassed all ages and all walks of life from locals to tourists to groups of girls for whom it is an annual adventure.
This was reflected in the make up of the audience for our sessions, at which no more than a quarter at any time would come anywhere near beer geek classifications, which made it all the more satisfying that there was such a level of interest and, from what we’re told, a desire from those who attended to hunt down the brewers whose beers they’d tried to find out more.
It was also reflected in the beers. While there were a few more out there or higher ABV beers, from the likes of Vale, Wayward, Illawarra, Gage Roads and Riverside, for the most part there was a selection of hefes, pales, IPAs, pilsners and summery ales.
Highlights:
4 Pines owner Jaron Mitchell cavorting with crowds in front of the stage, providing coasters and ashtrays to those in need and encouraging people to dip inside the mystery tent showcasing Brookvale Union drinks all while dressed as Batman and rarely letting his Christian Bale-esque growl subside.
The delight on Wayward Brewing’s Peter Phillip’s face when he picked up best Single Batch for his Saizen. And then the double delight when he was called back up to receive the overall Best Beer for his Charmer India Red Ale (a beer we’d been instructing people to check out all weekend). It was perhaps only matched by the reaction as another NSW brewer, who we’d been touting as one of the best in the country, saw all four of his match ups in our Blind Tasting sessions lose their vote (we did put them up against absolute classics though…).
The amazing interest and interaction from the audience at our tasting sessions right from the first one at 1pm on Saturday when we assumed people would be half asleep. By the end of the last one, the passion for drinking locally brewed Aussie beer reached a crescendo in the room that Nick O (aka Crafty Pint NSW) likened to the end of a cheesy Hollywood sports movie, stopping just short of us all running around the room high-fiving each other. For those interested, NSW took two sessions, the rest of Oz four.
Kane from the Lord Nelson lugging kegs around on his shoulders all weekend.
Should also mention the great atmosphere throughout, helped no doubt by the weather, but never showing any signs of turning dark even after several hours of sampling. Down in no small part to the great organisation of the hotel team but also further proof that you just don’t get trouble at craft beer events.
Killer beers
The classics all stood up when put to the taste test – Alpha Pale Ale, Hop Hog, Goat IPA – while Wayward impressed across the board, especially with a new Tiny IPA midstrength. Everything from Illawarra, from Pale to Smashing Rumkin, was tasty, it was great to sample Six String at last, Hawthorn’s IPA was great and Vale even introduced at touch of sour to the weekend with a keg of barrel-aged Hoppy Brown. Oh, and Riverside’s 44 Amber seems to be developing cult status – everyone seemed to be drinking it wherever we went.
Summarise the event in three words:
We’ll be back.
