Well, this is fun! We’ve been a little busy here at Crafty Towers for the past couple of days and it seems we’re far from alone. Monday night saw the launch of The People’s Pint at Temple Brewery & Brasserie, with Leo Hede, the inventor of the Double Hoptendre from Brisbane, guest of honour at the brewery as the richly malty, spicy and earthy beer was poured for the first time. A worthy addition to Temple’s already impressive roster (even if it’s only brewed this once) it is a beer to conjure memories of warm British pubs – ideal for the current Melbourne weather.
It wasn’t the only launch at Temple that night; ElbowSkin debuted their new craft beer song (and brought their original one out of hibernation) while Steve Grossman from Sierra Nevada announced to a packed house that they were the international partner for the Temple / Good Beer Week scholarship. Full details of how to apply will be announced after Good Beer Week but, in essence, one young Aussie brewer will be sent all expenses paid to work at Sierra Nevada for two weeks with a work program tailored to their particular interests – nice work if you can get it!
Monday was a busy night around Melbourne. Not only did it see the “Pub Crawl of Doom” head to several of the Pint of Origin venues (or POO pubs as they’ve been tagged on Twitter) but Hendo unveiled five IPAs inspired by the Prickly Moses Raconteur at a packed Royal Standard Hotel, the Station Hotel treated 120 guests to a Best of Europe dinner, 85 home brewers mingled with brewing stars at the Great Britain, the Local Bottle Store & Provisions was fit to burst for its sold out Beer & Cheese Experience, Brad Rogers from Stone & Wood held court at Transport, there was no space at the Matilda Bay Beer & Food Masterclass or at the beer cocktail masterclass at the Black Pearl while Cavalier kicked off a week long showcase at the Woodlands Hotel with two new beer releases. Half a dozen sold out beer events on a Monday night…
Tuesday started early as we collected a cameraman to film the Masterclass of Champions at Hargreaves Hill (pictured above – better pics to come when we’ve retrieved our camera…). We’ll report back in more detail later, but let’s just say it seems the nine months of preparation was worth it. In Simon and Glenn from Hargreaves Hill, Brendan and Denise from Moylan’s and Kjetil from Nøgne Ø we had five very passionate, articulate and different characters entertaining guests on a day of talks, tank samplings, brewhouse tours, Q&As, an incredible Eastern European-themed feast (complete with the brewery filled with the sounds of gypsy punk and epic folk songs) and, of course, the first Good Beer Week brew. Kjetil and Denise were still debating the hopping regime while the brew was bubbling away (they had 16kg of Aussie hops to play with, including the as-yet-unreleased Victoria’s Secret); the beer will be a very dark one at around 8.7 per cent that should have huge pineapple aromas. And it seems there may be more than one brew – there is talk of all three breweries brewing it again at their own places on the same day and releasing it into their native markets. Thanks to all three breweries, but also to Hop Products Australia and Cryer Malt for the ingredients, The 36 Collective for the incredible feast of “Fish. Meat. Cheese.” and to Beers by the Bay for helping with set up.
As the day progressed, we received word that the NSW Beergustation Dinner at the Rainbow Hotel and the Colonial Beer Dinner at The Botanical had sold out, the Wayside Inn had reached 100 guests for its Beer Lovers Nite (and added a fifth beer and dish to celebrate), the Ale Stars crowd as going to be the biggest in Taphouse history, Dinner with Chuck had only four tickets left, both Beer & Chocolate sessions at Sabroso had sold out, good beer had made the cover of the paper on the Mornington Peninsula, and the hosts of the Evening with Cantillon (long sold out) were adding more beers to the lineup. That we were able to pop into Beer DeLuxe to find every tap turned over to an array of incredible Italian craft beers was merely the icing on the cake.
The first Good Beer Week was a happy accident that took off and exceeded all expectations; already this second one is making it look like a mere blip on the beer landscape. Thanks to everyone involved in running events, the bloggers and photographers covering them and especially to those of you who are turning out in such huge numbers. When Mikkel from Mikkeller was in Melbourne in March, his parting words to The Crafty Pint were to “Be loud!” and we’re certainly doing that. With events in cocktail bars and high class restaurants selling out, beer is succeeding in new places and it’s a wonderful thing to see.
Anyway, time to get ready for another lunchtime feast…
And Time Out’s take on Lageritas, Hopsmopolitans and Amberettos.
Green Fields on Facebook: “what an absolutley farkn awesome day at Good Beer Week masterclass of champions. lunch with kjetl from Nogne o, a real hero – inspiring, creative, passionate, knowledgeable, humble and an amazing brewer, food by The 36 collective not only great food and great pairings but really intelligent systems and logistics. The crew from Moylan’s Brewing are friendly, very smart brewers and know a thing or two about bourbon and rye too. Beer DeLuxe has a bunch of new, fresh italian stuff from Birra del Borgo and others and they’re right on – oyster stout, xxx ipa, spiced ale and in lost count after that. finally home smashing minh xuong roast pork and Hargreaves Hill Brewing Company abbey dubbel. thanks The Crafty Pint, Miro Bellini, Boatrocker Brewery and everyone one else. i love good beer week :)”
@Happiest_Hour: Struggling out of bed, I hate @GoodBeerWeek, but by 2pm I’m wondering “why not good beer month?”
@samthebrewer: Why am I awake at this hour in the mornin?? Mmm… Possibly cause #goodbeerweek properly starts for me today!! YAY!! See you'all soon. BEER
@mattbrick1: Even on my way home from an event I can’t get away from the awesomeness of @GoodBeerWeek http://yfrog.com/nv8nngmj
@greasylightbulb: Loving the small things about #goodbeerweek popped to a bottle store and get given unlimited cheese & mountain goat beer by the brewer :–)
@shark4chipdrink: That’s it. Had such a good evening @Wayside__Inn for @GoodBeerWeek I am planning to go back ASAP! Really worth while.
@6foot6brewer: needs 2 invest in a portable iPhone charger! Can’t keep up with the daily texting tweeting finding directions in #Melbourne 4 @GoodBeerWeek
@AustinDoherty: I’ve had a good idea @Wayside__Inn they should rename it #GreatBeerWeek
@beergirlbites: “@williamdelmont: The pulled pork is pullin' me off! @wayside__inn @tomdelmont” this. is. @GoodBeerWeek.
@Garage_Project: #1 Rated Beer of the @gabsfestival AND #1 Checked In on @untappd was Gunnamatta – huge CONGRATS to @yeastieboys !! #gabs2012
@polarouse: Following @GoodBeerWeek may have been a mistake. I’m getting progressively more depressed that I couldn’t be there in Melbourne this year.
@WHMYcraftbeer: @GoodBeerWeek Not since 1987 when Scott married Charlene on Neighbours has Australia seen a bigger union. Masterclass of Champions today!
@matthewtaylor76: @Station__Hotel Another superb evening – brilliant food matched perfectly with outstanding beers #goodbeerweek #footscrayrocks
@Andrew_Bullen: What a night! Taste buds are going to need a day off to recover from Trappist beers and sumptuous Waygu steak. #goodbeerweek
@The_0ther_Dave: So great to see all these innovative beertails at black pearl comp tonight. Awesome ideas. @GoodBeerWeek is in full force
From barrel-aged stouts for breakfast in Bendigo to Japanese delights in North Fitzroy, Sunday was the day Good Beer Week really started to spread its wings for 2012. Add in Mother’s Day bonuses for mums visiting Red Hill, Thunder Road and the Great Australasian Beer Spectapular plus beer and cider sorbet classes and an event for the ladies in Newport and you have pretty solid evidence that beer is finding favour well beyond its traditional haunts.
For The Crafty Pint, Sunday saw us pop into the Thunder Road Open House where there was entertainment for the family, a curry competition and the launch of their first “extreme” beer – as well as the first appearance outside GABS of the Richmond Pilsner. We called in early (as in before midday) and already the benches and tables were filling up; there must have been more than 50 people there before we departed for a slot on 3RRR’s Eat It. Having sampled the Richmond Pilsner on Friday night, we headed straight for the XXX IPA, a dark, 7.8% hopped up number that had some nice choc orange aromas and a marmalade like bitterness amid the malts, albeit one held in check, as you’d expect from the Thunder Road team. Blended from a couple of brews on the pilot brewery as a Good Beer Week special, it showed that even when going “extreme” they maintain balance and control.
Over at the RRR studios, there was time for a quick spruik for the festival, a year on from Good Beer Week’s first appearance on Cam Smith’s show. We left the hosts with a Nøgne Ø / Bridge Road India Saison and Moylna’s Tipperary Pale in honour of some of the guests who had landed in Melbourne yesterday and headed straight into the action at GABS and the Junction Beer Hall, via the Great Northern, with Steve Grossman from Sierra Nevada also flying in for the first ever tapping of Sierra Nevada beers in Australia at Beer DeLuxe. With Eric Ottaway from Brooklyn already in town along with a host of Kiwi brewers, there is quite an international flavour to the week already.
We made a pit stop at the Great Northern to sample beers from some of the oldest (Last Drop and Bootleg) and the newest (Cheeky Monkey) breweries from WA. We also discovered that the Pint of Origin concept has an acronym now – PoO – so don’t be surprised if you hear an otherwise sensible seeming beer lover announce they’re off to a “Poo pub” this week.
As for those taking part in events, a tired and emotional Josh Uljans from Moon Dog reported back from his trip to Bendigo for The New Bohemia with: “The beers (Billy Ray Citrus, Freaks and Geeks, Black Lung and a hoppy Barley Wine) were matched with three delicious courses. In particular the smokey sausage, pork belly, crispy bacon and eggs were the perfect accompaniment to the Black Lung. A damn fine way to dust off the chronic hangover from two consecutive days at GABS.”
As for the Brew Day Feast at the Portland Hotel – like The New Bohemia, a sell out – host Dave Langlands said: “Yesterday was a great success! It was relaxing afternoon of shared food, conversation and a celebration of beer. Everyone sat back and saw [Portland brewer] Dan [Dainton] knock out a fresh batch of Highwayman while enjoying the sweet malty smell and the beer and food matches we had on offer.
“The best thing was the few dramatic beer epiphanies that occurred throughout the day. People going from ‘I don’t really like beer’ to ‘Oh my god, that is @#$%ing with my brain. I shouldn’t like this, but I love it!’. I love being there when people discover good beer for the first time.”
If that sounds like your thing, we believe there are still a few tickets left for the Portland’s other event, Dinner with Chuck – an evening with Aussie brewing legend, Dr Chuck Hahn.
Over at St Peter’s, the Beer Diva hosted a sellout Beer & Cider Sorbet Masterclass. She said: “We hosted the event at St Peter’s Bar & Restaurant in Melbourne Place, a very cool little venue. We had a really great bunch of people coming along, with only three out of the 30-plus being what I would call ‘beer geeks’… not a familiar face in sight which is what I really wanted with this event. There was probably a 50:50 split of men and women, some coming for their love of cider, others because they saw the program and the event sparked their interest.
“Som from Ricketts Point was incredible, taking half of the group at a time through the process of creating a stout ice-cream. He then finished off the event with three trays of tasting delights, the
first a scoop of Natural Blonde sorbet, sprinkled with grated lemon zest, next mini-cones piped with butterscotch and topped with stout ice-cream and scattered with caramel pieces and the
finale was Napoleon Apple Cider sorbet mini-ice cream sticks. Each guest then left with a goody bag with four beers / ciders donated by Grand Ridge and Napoleone & Co cider, four ice-cream tubs (packed with dry ice into mini-eskies!) and an apron. I think the value was exceptional and everyone really genuinely had a great time… there was very positive feedback from the class.”
It’s another big night tonight, especially for us here at Crafty Towers as it’s the launch of the first ever People’s Pint, the Double Hoptendre chosen in the nationwide competition we ran earlier in the year. We’ve got 100 people coming to Temple Brewery & Brasserie for an evening of new beers, tasty nibbles, giveaways and musical comedy. We will also announce which awesome international craft brewery has agreed to partner with Temple and Good Beer Week for the inaugural Young Brewer Scholarship that will see one young Aussie sent to work overseas for two weeks, all expenses paid. Which one will it be….?
Four of the 17 WA taps at the Great Northern this week
Elsewhere, Boatrocker hosts a host of top Aussie and international brewers at the GB in Richmond for Home Brewer to Pro Brewer, Hendo taps his love story to hops – Raconteur – alongside five other single hop IPAs at the Royal Standard Hotel (tickets still available), while Cavalier launches two new beers at the Woodlands with free nibbles and free beers after changing its Good Beer Week offering from the originally planned dinner, the Station Hotel in Footscray welcomes more than 100 people for a European beer-flavoured dinner, Matilda Bay talks beer and food, Little Creatures shout everyone a Little Rabbit, Ange teaches people the basics at The Local Taphouse St Kilda, the Black Pearl hosts a cocktail comp and masterclass, Donini’s serves up pizzas matched to Boatrocker beers, Stone & Wood’s Brad Rogers talks beer at Transport and guests tuck into awesome beers and cheeses at Local Bottle Store & Provisions.
And if you can’t find something to keep you happy among that offering, there’s no hope! Have a great Good Beer Monday!!
BEST OF THE WEB
@MISHKAPANTS: Sobering up on the train, I can definitely say I’ve never before had a brewer try to pash me before to try to sell their merch. #GABS2012
@beerbarband: Random Brunswick St post @gabsfestival after party moment with strangers! Special moment of MORE good beer. #gabs2012 #GBW #whatthe
@beerbarband: It was the DEFINITION of a @goodbeerweek moment! People just wanting to share more good beer times! Long live #GBW
@xpanner: #MICE2012 Coffee expo one weekend, #GABS2012 beer festival the next. This is what a week in heaven must be like.
@fi_bird: Beautiful beer at the sorbet/ice cream @GoodBeerWeek masterclass. Hatlifter Stout from Grand Ridge brewery… Ah-maze-ing. @beer_diva
@NakedNed: All mashed in for @NogneO Bridge Road Brewers second collab brew, a belgian strong ale, aiming for 12%alc.
@ericottaway: @GoodBeerWeek Spectapular happening right now! Impressive hall, impressive beers.
@rodsherwin: Awesome afternoon savouring specialist brews combined with food and great company at @JSBrewhouse as part of @GoodBeerWeek
@PiaPoynton: I think being on twitter during #GoodBeerWeek is just beer torture if you’re not there!
@jackmcintyre: Heading home after an excellent #gabs2012. I think a week of #GBW leave is required next year :–)
@TwoMetreTall: A “Cask-Off”! In Australia! I LOVE it!! Well done @holgatebeer & @3RAVENS
You having fun yet? From the buzz in the air and online, it would seem you are. Yesterday was the first official day of Good Beer Week after GABS kicked off on Friday, with the Brooklyn Brewery Degustation Dinner offering punters some great – and very rare – beers and Holgate and 3 Ravens serving up a variety of new real ales straight from the cask in the former’s Woodend brewery as the festival spread outside the city.
Also yesterday, punters began sampling the beers gathered from all over the country for the Pint of Origin series – five Melbourne pubs showcasing beers from Queensland, WA, SA, Tasmania and New South Wales. Many of the beers have never been seen in Victoria before – a few have never been seen outside their respective breweries. The Kiwis have taken over the taps at the Royston and The Terminus while the Intimate Beer and Chocolate Pairing classes running all week are now underway too.
The Royal Exhibition Building was packed for both GABS sessions yesterday as the hordes descended for another day of unique beers and great tunes in a jaw-dropping environment. The big crowds meant the Friday night queues returned but even longer yet it seems that those who took umbrage with the waits for paddles were outnumbered by those who took it with good humour and instead tucked into the 57 beers with relish. With more than 3,000 tickets available and two queues for four bars (other than the VIP area), there was always a chance there would be queues but having achieved so much at their first attempt, one can only assume that the organisers will be able to rectify the situation in the future. On the beer front, in addition to the beers that were highlighted by many for praise yesterday, there was a lot of buzz for 8 Wired’s C4, Temple’s Smoked Weizen and beers from Red Hill, HopDog, Illawarra and Holgate.
The last of these hosted their sellout Bull and Raven Cask Off in the afternoon, with punters tucking into six casks, including a Galaxy dry-hopped version of Holgate’s ESB, a coffee’d-up version of their Temptress and a delicious Prussian Porter from 3 Ravens that will be appearing in bottles soon. As for the Brooklyn dinner, the menu and beer offerings looked fantastic – we’ll link to the report when it’s available later in the day. For Crafty, it’s now time for a quick taste of Thunder Road’s XXX IPA, a chat on Eat It on 3RRR then time to be nice to the missus for Mother’s Day before hitting up some Pint of Origin venues. No one said it was going to be easy!!!!
BEST OF THE WEB
@TrentRice: “You know it’s @GoodBeerWeek when you blast through the hangover from last nights beer festival, so you can get up and go to a beer festival.”
@roystonhotel: “Great start to @GoodBeerWeek The kiwi beers are tasting amazing, as expected. @EpicBeer @8wiredbrewing @TuataraNZ @EmersonsBrewery”
@DaveElbowSkin: “Just a pot of draught. You don’t have draught? Just a vodka raspberry then.” #provincial @GoodBeerWeek"
@tbricey: “My husband has a hangover. My husband never gets a hangover. #goodbeerweek”
@vicbeeroclock: “All done and dusted @gabsfestival Awesome crew on tonight in Bar 02 #teamangrocks #gabs2012 Catch ya all tomorrow. 8^)”
@Jesse_Wray: “Just got started at the Great Australasian Beer SpecTAPular. THIS. IS. AMAZING. #GABS #gabs2012”
@atl2oz: “@NakedNed Barry Cranston’s Brown Ale is now to be called Breaking Bad Brown Ale. It will be so. #gabs2012”
@jezfletcher: “Woohoo! Just hit 1000 unique beers on @untappd! With @DRsOrdersBrewin Plasma, no less! #gabs2012 #GBW”
Photo at top shows Adrian (3 Ravens), Nick and Ian (Holgate) at yesterday’s Cask Off
Yes! Good Beer Week 2012 is underway. And the nation knows about it after The Project dropped in to the second session of the Great Australasian Beer Spectapular yesterday evening to announce the opening of the festival. It was featured in the Metro Roundup section of the show, with presenter Em Rusciano keen to highlight the beery Mother’s Day offerings coming up tomorrow, which includes free entry for mums to GABS, free tasting paddles at Red Hill’s event and freebies for mums at the Thunder Road Open House too. It was a great, high profile bonus for the festival, one that was only confirmed at the last minute, but which, along with The Age acting as media partner for GABS is ensuring that craft beer is getting greater coverage than at any time before in Australia. That Em had a particularly gorgeous beer wench on hand to show off one of the tasting paddles will no doubt have given the industry an additional boost…
As for GABS, the Royal Exhibition Building looked, well, spectacular. The shipping containers were dressed impressively, lights were strung between the mezzanines overhead, sharply suited bands entertained inside and out and, of course, there were plenty of beers to choose from. After a relatively quiet session in the afternoon, which allowed the organisers to iron out some kinks in the operation of the day, there was a big crowd for the evening. This did for a period lead to some rather gnarly queues for the bar that looked like a successful game of Snake from above but which has dissipated by the end of the evening. Perhaps advice for the busier sessions would be to get in early and stock up with a couple of paddles to ride out the hump?
On the beer front, there was much online love for a host of different beers. Those getting the most tweets of approval included the Bright Brewery Resistance Red Ale, Feral’s Berliner Weisse, the Yeastie Boys' Gunnamatta, Bridge Road’s God Save The Lager and Renaissance Brewing’s Oak-Aged Stonecutter Ale, all of which Crafty heartily endorses. Most divisive was Moon Dog’s Mr Mistoffelees, a beer that is hugely strange even by their standards, refreshing tart up front then leaving a distinctly distinct aftertaste. Some loved it, others certainly didn’t, which is exactly how the brewers wanted it.
With GABS launched, today is the day Good Beer Week officially kicks off. The Crafty Pint will be continuing its week at Holgate’s sold out Bull and Raven Cask Off this afternoon, while the Good Beer Week Team will be calling into other events, with many of the beers being featured for the weeklong showcases already tapped. We’ll be bringing you as much coverage as we can here and via the Good Beer Week Twitter and Facebook pages – make sure you share your tales and photos there too – while you can look out for live coverage online from the Royal Exhibition Building today on Brews News.
As we said in yesterday’s newsletter: “Have a great time, drink some incredible beers, eat amazing food, meet wonderful people and remember – Good Beer Week is a marathon not a sprint!”
Good Beer Week – it just sounds right.
BEST OF THE WEB
Check out the Great Northern promo vid for their Pint of Origin WA tap takeover!
@Chris_McBeer: “Right then, here we go. May the beer gods bless this @GoodBeerWeek and all who drink within her.”
@OllyNoonan: “@Danny__Bishop how had I not heard about @goodbeerweek? Clearly I talk to the wrong people.”
First to announce they had completed all 57 GABS beers was @SirKieranAllen on Twitter. Three of the 60 have been scratched.
@vozoto: “#40 Moon Dog Mr Mistresses (sic) Avoid like the plague. #puke #gabs2012”
@Ale_of_a_time: “I want to congratulate individual brewers for their #gabs2012 … but so many were great that it’s far too much work. So good work everyone!”
@bamos161: “Things realised at #gabs2012 so far: 2 paddles at a time, @thesausologist makes damn fine food, and beer is great, obviously.”
@TrentRice: “You know you have a problem when you forget how it’s usually pronounced, & praise the hard work of your staff as "Spectapular” #GABS2012"
Don’t forget to keep up to date with events selling out – there is a handy guide to events with remaining tickets here.
The embed code for the slot on The Project isn’t working but you can watch their slot from GABS by clicking the link here – Good Beer Week is about two minutes in.
A man described as “one of the grandfathers of Australian craft beer” and “one of the original real characters in brewing in Australia” has passed away overnight. Geoff Scharer, founder of Scharer’s Little Brewery in Picton, NSW, was a pioneer who was looking into setting up a microbrewery as early as the 1970s before gaining his brewing license in 1981 – the first ever on premise license granted in Australia. A few years later, he opened his brewery at the George IV Inn in 1987, the country’s first pub brewery.
“It was the first brewery I walked into with my boots on,” says Brad Rogers, co-owner of Stone & Wood. “He let me work there for two weeks while I was studying wine making back in the late 1980s. I wrote him a letter in one of my holiday breaks and he wrote back saying ‘No worries at all. But I’m not bloody paying you.’
“[A large number of Aussie brewers] have just come back from the US and the last time we were over there, Geoff was with us as we always dragged him along when we went on tour. A lot of people worked at his brewery and he certainly touched a lot of people in the craft beer industry.”
Among them was Dave Edney, currently head brewer at Mountain Goat. When he was a home brewer back in the 1980s and early 1990s he used to spend time with the home brewing group at the George IV, becoming inspired to become a commercial brewer. When he completed his course, his first post was with Geoff at Scharer’s.
“I was there from May 1996 until the end of 2000,” says Dave. “He could be a difficult man to work with but he was a good laugh too. He had very set ideas on how beer was meant to be brewed as he had worked with a brewing consultant, Otto Binding, who instilled ideas about keeping to the Reinheitsgebot in him. We used open fermenters to brew, producing a lager and a bock.
“He was looking at setting up breweries back in 1976 – almost ahead of the Americans. His ideas were way ahead of everyone.
“As a boss he was a funny guy. He was gruff, loud and opinionated but had a heart of gold and always had brewers work with him for a long, long time. He was a real laugh and one of the original characters in brewing in Australia – one of the real characters.”
For an insight into Geoff’s life in brewing and beyond, check out this tribute piece on Brews News.
Photo above shows Geoff on a past trip to the States with fellow brewers. From left to right: Richard Watkins (Wig & Pen), Brendan Varis (Feral), Geoff Scharer, Dermot O'Donnell (Bluetongue), Dave Bonighton (Mountain Goat), Brad Rogers.
Australian brewers have tasted success at the World Beer Cup, collecting two golds and two silvers at the event described as “The Olympics of Beer Competition”. Golds went to Queensland’s Burleigh Brewing for its HEF in the South German-Style Hefeweizen/Hefeweissbier category and Sydney’s Redoak in the Ordinary or Special Bitter category. The silvers were picked up by brewing company Endeavour, for its Pale Ale in the Australasian-Style Pale Ale or International-Style Pale Ale category, and Stone & Wood, whose Pacific Ale collected the medal in the English Style Summer Ale category, continuing a remarkable success story for the Byron Bay brewed beer.
In total, 95 categories are judged for the World Beer Cup, which is run every two years by the US Brewers Association. A single gold, silver and bronze are awarded in each category with five trophies awarded to the champion small, mid-size and large brewing company and small and large brewpub. While the vast majority of medals were awarded to American brewers, the success of the four locals made it a worthwhile trip for the Aussie contingent.
Jamie Cook, from Stone & Wood, says: “Despite [head brewer] Brad’s on and off stage excitement it is a little humbling for us as we put our toe into the water of the awards world with Pacific Ale, based on there being a class that it sort of fitted into – English Summer Ale. It wasn’t a neat fit, but we gave it a go to see how the judges would view it. We’ve had lots of comments from Pacific Ale fans who are happy that their love of our beer has been validated; that’s a great thing in itself.
“It was also great for Tim Lord from Hop Products Australia to be there to share the result with us, given the role Galaxy hops play in that beer and the importance of the hop for HPA.”
Stone & Wood don’t enter the beer into the Australian International Beer Awards, which announces its results for 2012 on May 17, because the brewers don’t feel there is an appropriate category. However, with the awards' structure evolving since the appointment of an Industry Advisory Group last year, they may reassess.
For Burleigh, it’s merely the latest success Stateside, with the HEF and other beers in its range, including their 28 Pale Ale, My Wife’s Bitter and Black Giraffe, having picked up golds at the World Beer Championships in recent years. The Redoak Bitter is no stranger to medals either, while the winemakers behind Endeavour will be delighted with their silver.
The HEF will be one of the beers on tap at the Baden Powell during Good Beer Week as part of the Queensland arm of the Pint of Origin interstate showcase. Meanwhile, there is a chance for home brewers to win a guernsey with Stone & Wood’s side project, The Mash Collective, at The Pitch on May 15. The organisers of the biannual World Beer Cup, the US Brewers Association, will also be in Melbourne, bringing their Export Development Program with them to showcase beers from a number of US brewers who have never sent their beers to Australia. They will have a stand at the AIBA World of Beer Showcase on May 18.
It should prove a welcome break for the Brewers Association after presiding over the largest World Beer Cup to date. The ninth running of the event ninth received entries from 799 breweries from 54 countries and 45 US states – in total, there were 3,921 beers.
“It’s called ‘The Olympics of Beer Competition’ for good reason,” said Charlie Papazian, president of the Brewers Association. “The event brings together great brewers from all corners of the globe. Plus, the awards are highly regarded. A brewer who wins a World Beer Cup gold award knows that their winning beer represents the best of that beer style in the world. Congratulations to all the winners of the 2012 World Beer Cup. The Brewers Association and the proud sponsors of our event thank all participating brewers for their involvement.”
Pictured above (left to right): Peta and Brennan Fielding (Burleigh), David Hollyoak (Redoak), Brad Rogers and Ross Jurisich (Stone & Wood)
Major Trophy Winners
Brewers Association World Beer Cup 2012 Champion Brewery and Brewmaster
Small Brewing Company
Brauerei Michael Plank, Kelheim, Germany
Michael Plank
Brewers Association World Beer Cup 2012 Champion Brewery and Brewmaster
Mid-size Brewing Company
Firestone Walker Brewing Company
Paso Robles, CA
Matthew Brynildson
Brewers Association World Beer Cup 2012 Champion Brewery and Brewmaster
Large Brewing Company
AB InBev, New York, New York
Claudio Ferro
Brewers Association World Beer Cup 2012 Champion Brewery and Brewmaster
Small Brewpub
Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant – Media, Media, PA
Iron Hill Brewery Team
Brewers Association World Beer Cup 2012 Champion Brewery and Brewmaster
Large Brewpub
Pelican Pub & Brewery, Pacific City, OR
Darron R S Welch
Given thousands of you have visited the Good Beer Week website more than 100,000 times in the past month alone, it probably doesn’t need asking, but just in case: “Are you ready?” We’re raring to go here at Crafty Towers where, as part of the Good Beer Week Team, we’ve been fielding requests from media and punters alike, watching as more events pull down the shutters and announce “No more room at the inn!”, and feeling the buzz build. If 2011 was a blast, goodness knows how 2012 is going to go down, given the excitement already in the air…
When we sat down after the inaugural festival to plan for 2012, we agreed the following aims for Good Beer Week:
to promote and encourage the appreciation of Good Beer to a wider audience;
to educate the public about Good Beer;
to increase the market for Good Beer; and
to support local and regional producers of Good Beer and promote their products and venues to a wider audience.
The attention already garnered by the festival’s 100 events and the very nature of the events themselves suggests we’re on track. Already, plenty of people who wouldn’t have even known about the first festival have booked up heavy schedules for the week as the events highlight how far good beer is spreading from the traditional craft beer bars. Hopefully, this is the sort of week where a few more decide to dip their toes into the good beer world for the first time; certainly, there’s never been a better time for you to encourage your non-beer drinking friends to give it a go.
As for our plans here at The Crafty Pint, errr… we’re still working things out. We’ll be saying a few words at the Friday night session of GABS, hosting the launch of The People’s Pint (the beer that won the competition we ran earlier this year) then heading to Hargreaves Hill to host the Masterclass of Champions. It’s nearly nine months since we first asked Ben Kraus from Bridge Road to ask Kjetil from Nøgne Ø if he could time his return brew in Beechworth with Good Beer Week so it’s an event that’s been a long time coming; what with Moylan’s brewing their first ever collaboration on the day and these guys bringing Uncle Vlad’s Best Beer and Cigar Emporium to the Yarra Valley, here’s hoping we can control our excitement and carry ourselves as an event host should!
Beyond that, we’ll be flitting around all over the place, keeping an eye on things, taking photos and – all being well – filing daily reports. Who knows, we might even drain a beer or two at some point. Our Sydney writer Nick O is down for the week, while the Good Beer Week Team has appointed a number of bloggers, media types and photographers to cover many of the events too. Look out for links to their reports on the festival’s Facebook and Twitter throughout the week.
If you’re still undecided as to where you’re going to spend the week, there is a growing number of mini-guides to the program here plus a list of sold out events here. There’s also a guide in today’s Saturday Age as well as tasting booklets for GABS at Dan Murphy’s stores all over Victoria. Of course, wherever you end up, whatever you end up drinking and whoever you meet, it’s going to be epic.
Melbourne’s Chapel Street is like the city itself in microcosm. Start at the Toorak Road end and it’s high end boutiques, higher heels, sleek convertibles and sleeker hairdos. Head towards the Bay and it gets grungier and – to the residents of Crafty Towers at least – more interesting. Imagine making the journey from south of the river to the inner north, just in reverse and far less paces. It’s home to a bottleshop and bar that could act as a litmus test for the street. Move Chapel St Cellars a kilometre or two closer to the Yarra and its off kilter, Santa’s grotto for boozehounds setup would stick out like a sore thumb. Yet sat where it is – in the heart of Windsor – it fits like a glove, its quirkiness encapsulating the spirit of the suburb itself.
This month it celebrates five years of bringing some of the world’s quirkiest drinks – sakes, beers, bitters, cordials, you name it – to the people. Owners Joanne and Rob are celebrating by offering in store specials – and by telling The Crafty Pint about their five year ride, one they describe as “a mixture of great delight and sheer tiredness”.
“I think we can give a big tick to our time here,” says Rob. “But it is not the place we had imagined. We started with a plan for an online business with a small wine bar / bottleshop run under management. However, given we could not find a suitable manager, we decided to come down from Sydney to run it ourselves. Once here, we found ourselves adapting to our customers' requests for all types of alcoholic beverages. The place has been evolving ever since and it is still… Craft beer and cider has been the major driver for the past three years. For example, Joanne is a trained wine educator but she has only ever taught or facilitated beer related classes and tastings.”
Since making the move, they have fitted out the shop themselves, creating a venue that demands exploration thanks to the many unique products and surprises found throughout and which was named best small bottleshop in Victoria in 2011. It turns out that the five years has been something of a voyage of discovery for the couple too.
“Joanne and I taught ourselves about craft beer, artisan ciders and spirits to the level that we can offer advice to our customers,” he says. “We can now both make a great coffee, we can craft the odd cocktail – my quadruple espresso martini is amazing if I say so myself! The shop has allowed us both to become fairly complete ‘drinks’ people.
“We provide personal service, have great product knowledge, are interested in our customers, are passionate about what we do and have a great little menu but also let customers BYO food.
We are lucky in that Joanne and I both had a great wine knowledge so we initially stocked the shop with amazing value for money wines and that helped to retain new customers. We carried that philosophy into all of the other products we have subsequently introduced.
“I think that ‘Drink Different’ sums up [our approach] from the point of view of the stock we carry. We look for products that have a great look as well as flavor. And again, we listen to our customers; they have shaped the way this place runs as much as we have. We also taste 80 to 90 per cent of the stock we carry. For example, we don’t just roll over from one vintage of wine to the next, we taste to make sure that the wine has all of the attributes that we expect. We try to favour smaller producers too. We lose sales by not stocking mainstream brands from the big guys but we are happy to do so because in most cases, we are giving people a better product at the same or similar price.”
Looking ahead, Rob says they are looking to place more emphasis on their online business and are keen to move into more of a management role (to deal with the “sheer tiredness” we imagine). Beyond that?
“A week or two on a tropical island,” says Rob. “Then maybe a few more Chapel St Cellars?”
To celebrate their milestone, from Sunday to Thursday throughout May they are offering punters their first 500ml tap beer or cider for just $5.
One is the world’s oldest existing brewery, a place of legend that has created beers that are the very definition of their style. It is known by drinkers in every corner of the globe and in its thousand years has only ever made one beer with another brewery. The other opened its doors to the public for the first time on December 18.
Even in a climate that has seen some unexpected collaborations, the coming together of Weihenstephan’s head brewer Frank Peifer and the team at Temple Brewery & Brasserie takes some beating. Yet Friday sees the unveiling of the Unifikator, a weizenbock (strong wheat beer) brewed by the two earlier this year when Frank was in Melbourne. It’s quite a coup for Temple’s owners Ron and Renata Feruglio who, prior to opening their venue in East Brunswick (above) late last year, had been operating as gypsy brewers on other brewery’s systems around Victoria.
“Initially we struck up a relationship with Marcus Englet from Weihenstephan at the Infinium launch in Melbourne where we discussed our plans and ambitions and invited him to our brewery that had not yet been built,” says Renata. “Now that our distribution is with Phoenix Beers, the importers of Weihenstephan, the concept of an actual collaboration was raised and we jumped at the opportunity.”
Apparently the decision making process went a little like this:
Phoenix: “Would you be interested in a collaboration with the head brewer from Weihenstephan?”
Renata: “Let me think about it [and without taking a breath] YES!”
Ron: “ .” In other words, speechless.
“Naturally we wanted it to be a wheat beer,” says Renata. “Frank and Ron both independently suggested a weizenbock and from then the emails flowed thick and fast with technical details as well as ideas. Frank was very excited about introducing various forms of rye, as well as the more intimate experience of brewing on a smaller scale.”
Frank was also able to impart invaluable advice to his hosts, which is launched over two days this weekend. The beer will be tapped at midday on Friday, when a special dish will be added to the menu in its honour. Chef Raymond Chang has created a traditional German Schweinhaxe, a slow roasted pork hock (cooked in the weizenbock, caraway seeds and garlic brine before being roasted until the skin is perfectly crisp). It comes served with rotkohl (braised red cabbage and apple) and heiss kartoffle salat (a warm potato and bacon salad).
As for the beer, the brewery tells us it’s “ruby brown in colour, seven per cent ABV and wonderfully complex with a seductive aroma of dark fruit that blends beautifully with light banana esters and spicy phenolics, courtesy of Weihenstephan’s iconic yeast strain. We used premium German wheat and Munich malts to provide rich melanoidin and bready malt flavours, but the judicious use of both malted and chocolate rye adds a spicy dryness to the palate, with gently warming alcohol balancing the finish. Extended cold maturing has provided a smooth and distinctive mouth feel. But more importantly the beer embodies the unifying of the old and new world of brewing and lives up to its name – UNIFIKATOR.”
Sounds rather tempting, no? If you can’t make it to Temple, kegs will be heading to selected venues late next week with individually numbered bottles following shortly after. And if that’s not enough Temple-related new beer action, don’t forget the launch of The People’s Pint takes place there for Good Beer Week on May 14. Full details of the beer plus the lineup for the night can be found here. Tickets are on sale here.
During last year’s Good Beer Week, The Crafty Pint ran a couple of events during the week aimed at getting people to check out as many craft beer venues as possible – The Crafty Crawl – and showing off as much of the spectrum of beer styles as we could using beers sourced from all over Australia – Crafty Curates. Given the extra attention being garnered by the festival this year, we weren’t sure that bringing back the Crawl, an event which, despite being innocent in intention and outcome, could be misconstrued by the rather un-beer-friendly Victorian Government as encouraging people (dressed as pirates in some cases) to drink more than they would otherwise. And following a couple of mutterings from interstate about last year’s festival favouring Victorian brewers (naming no names, New South Wales!) we wondered what we could do to keep everyone happy.
The result? Good Beer Week 2012’s Pint of Origin series. This sees five top Melbourne craft beer-supporting venues turning over their taps for the week to interstate brewers to turn the city into a weeklong showcase of Australian craft beer. In some cases, this will be the first time brewers have sent their beers interstate, including Cowaramup, a tiny Margaret River brewery run by one of the nicest guys in the industry, whose Pilsner surprised everyone – not least its brewer – by taking home the hotly contested Champion Lager trophy at last year’s Australian International Beer Awards. What’s more, the Cheeky Monkey beers have never appeared outside the brewery before – hardly surprising as it has only secured a license to sell beer this week!
The five venues are the Baden Powell in Collingwood (Queensland), the Rainbow Hotel in Fitzroy (NSW), the Courthouse Hotel in North Melbourne (Tasmania), the Great Northern in Carlton North (WA) and the Tramway in North Fitzroy (SA), a recent convert to good beer after it was taken over by new owners last year. All are giving up all or the vast majority of their taps and are looking to invite some of the visiting brewers in at some point in the week. In the case of the Rainbow, they’ve lined up an epic eight course Beergustation on the Tuesday night featuring beers from many of the breweries on the taps, guest brewers and tasty dishes from their kitchen.
Entry to all of the Pint of Origin venues is free (you’ll still have to pay for the beers though!) so if you’re planning a trip interstate and want to see which breweries are worth calling in on, are an interstater missing home,are just keen to sample the best of Oz or have a few hours spare time before your next ticketed event, you know where to go.
The Beers By Venue
Great Northern
Feral
Barrel Fermented Hop Hog
Hop Hog IPA
Smokey Porter
Karma Citra American Black IPA
Watermelon (GABS beer)
Little Creatures
Little Creatures Pale
Little Creatures Rogers
Little Creatures Single Batch – Quiet American
Cheeky Monkey
Hat Seller Kiwi Pilsner
Old Reliable Classic Pale
Hagenbeck Belgian IPA
Great Northern owner Al Carragher has asked that we publish a special thanks for Little Creatures, who have covered the cost of freight for the smaller breweries and even supplied kegs for Last Drop to brew into. So “Thanks!”
Tramway
Beard & Brau – Golden Paw
Brewboys – King Brown Ale
Campus Brewery – Hoppy Lager (as yet unnamed)
Lobethal Bierhaus – Double Hopped IPA
MV Beer – Vale/IPA
Steam Exchange Brewery – Milk Chocolate Stout
Woolshed Brewery – Judas the Dark
Natural Selection Theory – Farmhouse Cider
Rainbow
The Governor Golden Ale – Rocks Brewing
Kellerbier – Stone & Wood
The Hangman Pale Ale – Rocks Brewing
The Boxer Red Ale – Rocks Brewing
4 Pines ESB – 4 Pines
Horns Up, Rye IPA – HopDog Beer Works
The Butcher Porter – Rocks Brewing
Vanilla Milk Stout – Thirsty Crow
Please note the final lineups are subject to change.
And if that’s not enough, you could head to the Royston or The Terminus for their weeklong showcases of Kiwi beers. Or take a trip through the Yarra Valley to Kelly’s Bar & Kitchen for their weeklong Yarra Valley Brewers Showcase
