Crafty Six GBW Special #4: The Foreign Invasion

April 27, 2015, by Crafty Pint

Crafty Six GBW Special #4: The Foreign Invasion

When Good Beer Week was originally conceived it was designed, in part at least, as a series of consumer events that would make use of the presence in Melbourne of a host of Australian and overseas brewers for that year's Australian International Beer Awards (AIBA) dinner. Since then, as the festival has grown, so too has the AIBA, while the addition of the Great Australasian Beer SpecTAPular (GABS) and Australian Craft Brewers Conference have further contributed to its international appeal.

As such, when the fifth Good Beer Week kicks off in May, there will once again be brewing representatives from five continents in town, joining beer lovers from all over Australia and further afield at the 250 events. So, following on from last week's opening trio of Crafty Six GBW Specials, which you can view here, this time around we're focusing on the foreign invasion.

With such an international flavour to the festival, this year's headline Beer Geek event looks to bring a global flavour to the fourth Good Beer Week collaboration masterclass. Evil Twin (USA) and Baird Beer (Japan) join the Japanese monster movie-inspired Melburnians KAIJU! and Edge Brewing Project, which was initially founded with Denmark's Beer Here, at Hawkers Beer, the Aussie brewery set up by a team including Mazen Hajjar, founder of Beirut's 961 Beer. Even the food will have a multinational feel as Mazen's Hawkers co-pilot, Joseph Abboud, brings some of the flavours of his restaurant, Rumi, to the brewery in conjunction with Burn City Smokers' US-inspired BBQ.

Anyway, on with the six.

Click on the event titles to full their full listings on the Good Beer Week website.


Japanese Masterclasses at Zhou Zhou

Zhou Zhou – May 16, 18 & 20
$65pp to $75pp

With three of Japan's finest craft breweries coming to Melbourne for Good Beer Week, the team at Zhou Zhou has taken full advantage. They've invited the guys from Coedo, Hitachino Nest and Baird Beer to star at three separate masterclasses, each centred around pairing beer with their "signature handcrafted dumplings".


A Message To You

Belgian Beer Cafe – May 20
$135pp

One of the top brewers from Belgium's iconic Rodenbach will be bringing the unique wisdom that comes from overseeing the production of Rodenbach's incredible beers to the base of the Eureka Tower for a degustation based around several vintages of the beers that have made this Belgian brewery so famous the world over.


Learn the Irish Eight Degree Lean

Far Side Beers – May 19
Free entry

There can be few beers that have managed to become as synonymous with a country as Guinness with Ireland. But these days there's much more, with a vibrant craft beer scene breathing fresh life into the country's beer culture. One of the leaders is Eight Degree Brewing, founded by an Aussie and a Kiwi, and you can sample their range – plus a new collab – at the home of their Aussie importer in Camberwell.


8 Wired & MPB Collaboration Brew Day

Mornington Peninsula Brewery – May 19
$90pp (including transport from the CBD)

Following last year's successful joint venture with Stillwater Artisanal's Brian Strumke, Mornington Peninsula Brewery invite Soren Eriksen, champion brewer and poker player of New Zealand, to their Bayside home. Jump on a bus from the city for a day of beer, pizza, brewing and learning from some brewing masters.


Blondie Baird Rising

Blondie Bar – May 20
$70pp

Blondie's head chef Vinnie Robinson has been working on a special menu that draws heavily on Japanese cuisine ready to welcome Bryan Baird for dinner. Together they'll be lining up four beer-matched courses and talking guests through what goes into creating the perfect pairing.


Experienceit's Pop Up World of Beer

Nieuw Amsterdam – All week
Free entry

It promises to be a busy Good Beer Week at Nieuw Amsterdam with a couple of very different events featuring WA's Feral and Japan's Baird on the lineup and now, after a change of venue, this weeklong Pop Up too. Importers / distributors Experienceit have rapidly developed one of the largest portfolios in Australia and will be showcasing its beers – as well as the brewers behind many of them – throughout the week. Among the guests will be Jester King, Beavertown, Victory, Sixpoint, Deschutes and NOMAD.

NB: This event has moved from the original location of Gasolina


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.

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