Good Beer Week 2014 saw craft beer enter new territories once more. Nothing was sacred, not even Victoria’s tourism icons. On the opening weekend, Hargreaves Hill took Oregon’s Deschutes on board Puffing Billy for a moving beer feast through the Dandenongs and the following Friday it was a case of Colonial versus Colonial as the WA brewery invited guests aboard Melbourne’s Colonial Tramcar Restaurant for a hop-themed, early evening treat.
Event: Game of Cones
Venue: Colonial Tramcar Restaurant, around Melbourne
Date: May 23
Good Beer Week Stream: Good Times
The Event:
Ostensibly a chance for the increasingly hirsute brewing team from Colonial Brewery to show off some of their favourite hoppy beers from around the world while taking guests on a sunset rattle around Melbourne’s south on the city’s Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Oriental Express-style restaurant trams, Game of Cones also acted as a showcase for the culinary creations of Mitch “Beersine” Mitchell. And, perhaps most dramatically, it gave the Colonial team a chance to indulge in a spot of fancy dress, with Game of Thrones as their inspiration.
The beer lineup was drawn from both local and international brewers, opening with Colonial’s own Small Ale and taking in ever hoppier and larger drops. The local industry was represented by the likes of True South’s Black India Lager, presented on our tram by its brewer, Renn Blackman, who will soon embark upon his own Surf Coast brewery, and Mountain Goat’s Rare Breed Rye IPA. Internationals came in the form of beers such as the Birra del Borgo / Dogfish Head My Antonia Imperial Pilsner, BridgePort IPA and 8 Wired’s Hopwired IPA.
And if the theme for the beers was rather hop forward so was much of the food offered up by Mitch. Among the idiosyncratic morsels served up to the eager carriages were a hop-infused butter (called, cheekily, I Can’t Believe It’s Hop Butter), pale ale cheddar, hop honey, spent grain bread and intriguing Smoked Wort Jubes, complete with Cascade hop sugar.
The brewers were on hand to talk about why they had chosen the beers and what they loved about each of them, while Mitch was only too eager to expand on his passion for cooking with beer and its ingredients, while also serving up more traditional beer food pairings such as a pork shoulder croquette, plus what we’re told is one of his other specialities: lamb bacon.
With so much going on in the glasses and on the plates in front of us, it took some effort to remember that part of the event was the tram ride itself, heading from the city along the St Kilda Esplanade at sundown and back to South Yarra, where we were shuttled by bus a short distance to one of Colonial’s Melbourne venues, The Botanical, for more beer and Lamingtons to wrap up the day.
Justin “Gary” Fox doling out copious hop bombs
Killer Beers:
Rather than pick one or two out of the lineup, it is easier to say that the choices merely confirmed that the brewers at Colonial have as impeccable taste in beer as they do in nicknames. Isn’t that right, Gary?
For those who have sampled little or none of Colonial’s own beer, the host on our tram (pictured right) confirmed he will be heading to Victoria to head up the brewery’s East Coast operation as soon as it is completed, which means you can expect to see much more of it on tap over this way.
Highlights:
Arriving slightly late at tram stop 125 to be welcomed by a bunch of marauding mediaeval loons. Given that the stop is directly across from one of the main entrances to the Crown Casino, it made a pleasant change from tourists and sad-eyed gamblers bemoaning the loss of yet another month’s pay cheque.
The aforementioned Jubes and a first experience of lamb bacon were pretty special.
As was being sent away with our own supply of pale ale cheddar (which came in pretty handy for post-Good Beer Week day seven late-night munchies upon returning home).
The Event in Three Words:
Innovation. Transportation. Jubilation.
