If you like your beer served with a side of awesome food, then you're not going to go short in Good Beer Week. Once more, the festival's Foodie stream is one of its biggest, along with Beer Lover, as heaps of Victorian eateries get on board.
Whether you favour BBQ, modern Aussie, dumplings, Japanese cuisine, spit roast, African dishes, British grub, pies – even food from cans – there's plenty to satisfy. Our challenge will be to attend less than the seven beer dinners we managed in 2014 (looking at a mere five this year, albeit three of those within 30 hours...).
Here are a few that caught our eye for being a little different than most. You can check out our other themed previews here.
Click on the event titles to view their full listing on the festival website.
Swing Low, Sweet Chariot: Sweet Degustation
Temple Brewing – May 19
$85pp
One very much for the sweet toothed out there. Temple lines up some of its existing beers and some specials with five courses of dessert style dishes with the chef and brewer on hand to guide you through all that goodness.
Biltong & Beer
Hotel Spencer – May 21
$90pp
Learn how to make your own biltong at home in a free masterclass led by a master then, if you've worked up an appetite, head into the refined restaurant at the rear of the Spencer for a five-course degustation based around fine Angus beef from Gippsland – with an African twist.
Brewing, Breeding and Butchering
Royal Mail on Spencer – May 19
$140pp
Join the Royal Mail crew as they brew a small batch of beer, feast on a whole spit roasted pig fed on malt and hops while learning how to turn a pig into all manner of small goods.
Off Ya Trolley
Merricote – May 24
$150pp
Join the Merricote team as they welcome guests from Rodenback and La Sirene for a lazy Sunday afternoon degustation based around their farmhouse and sour beers and dishes that will all feature something special from Merricote's enviable cheese trolley.
Eat Feral with Feral: A Nieuw Safari
Nieuw Amsterdam – May 19
$120pp
Join WA's Feral as they line up their beers with some feral meats on a safari-cum-degustation. Nieuw Amsterdam's kitchen is promising "bush pig/boar, rabbit, wallaby and crocodile" as well as prizes for the best safari fancy dress and "wild jungle beats all night".
Garage Project and Rockwell & Sons: All The Vegetables
Rockwell & Sons – May 21
$95pp
What about the veggies, hey? So much meat on the GBW lineup, but help is at hand from Rockwell and NZ's Garage Project as they line up an all vegetable lunchtime degustation.
We'll be publishing more of these themed previews every Monday, Wednesday and Friday up until Good Beer Week. In the meantime, you can check out the five event streams below and all regional events here:
You can see where The Crafty Pint will be appearing (as well as see what's sold out) in our Event Diary listing here. We'll also be doing everything we can to ensure you know about all the pop-ups and meet the brewers taking place at the Pint of Origin venues too.
