It was a pretty great Good Beer Week for the breweries operating out of Theobald Street in Thornbury. The brewery’s original inhabitants, 3 Ravens, were named Champion Small Australian Brewery and picked up Best British Ale at the Australian International Beer Awards while WA’s Mash Brewing, who took over the brewery less than 18 months ago and brew some of their beers there for the East Coast market, took out Champion Australian Beer for their American IPA.
They ended the week with a crowd of 200 people in the brewery for a celebration of all-Aussie barrel-aged brews. The Offshoot Creative duo were there to check it out for The Crafty Pint.
Event: Woods of the North
Venue: 3 Ravens, Theobald Street, Thornbury
Date: May 24
Good Beer Week Stream: Beer Lover
The Event:
Thankfully there was no chanting, dancing bare foot or tree hugging at Woods of the North. What initially sounded like an outdoor appreciation of the art of all things barrel aged was undercover at 3 Ravens outpost in Thornbury. Walking towards the door at 2pm in the afternoon, heavy set security and graffiti artist spraying away, there was an air of a 90s warehouse rave. Something illicit and wondrous lay beyond those doors. Beats weren’t the thing to be worshipped here. Barrel was the draw as we packed into the brewery.
Makeshift tables lined with malt bags, bars from hosts 3 Ravens, Feral, Moon Dog and Boatrocker, the Pleasure Palace serving as a boilermaker bar, all spelled out that this could get messy. The essential booze rules of such a Good Beer Week event kick in and there’s a rush to hydrate and get in an early for a serve of Fancy Hanks fine BBQ brisket.
Suitably watered and stomach lined, it begins. Hopping from bar to bar, steadily working through everything on offer, heading towards the tipping point from beer to boilermaker. In the darkened âPleasure Palaceâ, bottles that spanned the whisky spectrum are lined up on the bar, to be matched against your beer in hand. Old friends like the big Bruichladdich peat monster to newer acquaintances Koval (Chicago) and Victoria’s own Starward, put a spin on the event that pushes it out beyond other barrel events.
Killer Beers:
With a lineup as stellar as this it’s easy to say they’re all killer beers, but special mention to 3 Ravens for Black Mass, and Boatrocker’s Imperial Stout: a beer to educate non believers as to why barrel ageing is so damn good. Barrel sweetness chased with a punch of Islay peat courtesy of a Bruichladdich boilermaker.
Highlights:
An event that showed the appeal of good beer to a crowd that wasn’t just your stereotypical beer geek. Yes, there was a fair share but an everyman feel with brewers talking about their beers in the simplest to the most complex terms.
The Event in Three Words:
Barrel, Boilermalker, BBQ
All photos copyright Offshoot Creative
