Good Beer Week Needs U!

November 13, 2012, by Crafty Pint

Good Beer Week Needs U!

There’s less than three weeks to go until event registrations close for Good Beer Week 2013. And to mark the all important 18 days to go mark, the team behind the festival has prepared a couple of videos reminding people what Australia’s leading celebration of beer is all about. The first, released today, is a quick reminder of events past – and a prompt to get people to submit their event ideas before registrations close on November 30. The second, which will be posted on the Good Beer Week website in the coming days, is a more detailed explanation of how the festival began, how it has grown and how people who’ve yet to experience it can get involved.

“We’re continuing to bang the drum for good beer,” says festival co-founder Miro Bellini. “The purpose of the videos is to show everyone that this isn’t the third year of the same festival; we’re progressing just as the industry is progressing and each year the festival is aiming higher. And that’s not just because of us, but because that’s what everyone in the Australian beer industry is doing right now: doing things differently, better and shaking things up.”

The first Good Beer Week was put together in just a few weeks in the first half of 2011, resulting in around 50 sold out events across Melbourne, with a handful in Victoria. The excitement generated proved there was an appetite for such a festival and gave the industry a boost, with beer weeks cropping up in Sydney, Newcastle and Queensland in the following year.

Earlier this year, it returned twice the size, with more than 100 events across Victoria (which you can view on an archived version of the 2012 festival site) and a large contingent of interstate and international visitors – both beer lovers and brewers. Fine dining establishments and cocktail bars were among those joining the breweries and bars that hosted events in the first year, while a multitude of new beers were launched or created, with the Good Beer Week Team overseeing a collaboration between Ní¸gne í˜ and Moylan’s – the first time the Californian brewers had brewed with another brewer in their 17-year history.

The main focus in 2013, according to the organisers, is on refining and improving what has gone before, “Raising The Bar” in other words, and bringing new venues and punters into the good beer fold. (continues below the video)

GBW Promo - Mac and PC from GOOD BEER WEEK on Vimeo.

“The first couple of years have proven how united the converted and beer faithful are, not just by the fact that they like drinking good beer, but by a really positive energy, from the hop farmers through to the people serving and drinking it,” says Miro. “The 2013 festival is all about bringing in other people and helping them appreciate and enjoy craft beer at all levels, from hospitality staff to punters – the masses singing together!

“We’re also looking to encourage people to come up with events that really take us aback. In the past, it’s often the most unusual or out there events that have been the biggest successes and have got people talking. At the end of the day, at Good Beer Week we have a proven method of rewarding creativity.”

The second video – aimed at venues considering taking part in 2013 – will be on the Good Beer Week website in the coming days. A new, custom-designed website is under development and will be launched along with the full program early in 2013. In the meantime, if you’re from a venue and have your idea(s) ready to go, you can register them now by following the step-by-step process on the site.

You can keep up to date with all things Good Beer Week via Facebook and Twitter.

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