News - Crafty Pint

Good Beer Week Pt III

2012-05-16T00:00:00Z

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…

BEST OF THE WEB

A write up on The People’s Pint.

One on Raconteur: Reloaded

The Beer & Cider Sorbet Masterclass by Poppet’s Window

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

Good Beer Sunday

2012-05-14T00:00:00Z

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

Good Beer Saturday

2012-05-13T00:00:00Z

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

And. We're. Off!

2012-05-12T00:00:00Z

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”

@aylewis: “My tasting note for @moondogbrewing MrMistoffelees reads simply: "Fuckity yum!” #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.

Craft Beer Pioneer

2012-05-09T00:00:00Z

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.

World Beer Cup Winners

2012-05-07T00:00:00Z

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

The full list of winners is here.

One Week To Go!

2012-05-05T00:00:00Z

Seven more sleeps… Seven more sleeps… Yes, not long now until the planning, preparation, talk and bluster ends and Good Beer Week 2012 explodes into life. This time next Saturday, Holgate will have thrown open its doors for the sold out Bull and Raven Cask Off, the beers for the sold out Brooklyn Brewery Degustation will be chilling, True South’s Art vs Beer Exhibition will have opened, all manner of weeklong showcases – from the Pint of Origin series to Kiwi Takeovers, a Yarra Valley Brewers Showcase and the Great Beer Swap – will be in full swing alongside other weeklong offerings featuring beer, burgers and more beer (and burgers), and the crowds will be gathering at the Royal Exhibition Building for the third session of the Great Australasian Beer Spectapular.

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.

Seven more sleeps… Seven more sleeps…

Chapel's Broad Church

2012-05-04T00:00:00Z

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.

They are also holding an event during Good Beer Week – Japan: The Land Of Beer and Sake.

When Old Meets New

2012-05-02T00:00:00Z

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.

Pint of Origin

2012-05-01T00:00:00Z

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

Cowaramup
Cowaramup Pilsner

Bootleg Brewery
Raging Bull
Oatmeal Stout

Last Drop Brewery
Pilsner
Unfiltered Wheat

The Monk
Porter
Kolsch

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

Baden Powell

Bacchus Brewing
Baltic Porter
Queensland Ale

Burleigh Brewing
28 Pale Ale
Hef
My Wife’s Bitter

4 Hearts Brewing
Pale Ale
IPA
Miner’s Stout
Wein Lager
Summer Wheat

The Queensland brewers will be at the Baden Powell on the Wednesday evening if you’d like to head along to meet them face to face.

Courthouse Hotel

Van Dieman
Tasmanian Pale Ale
Hedgerow Barrel-Aged Sour Ale

Seven Sheds
Razzamatazz
Kentish Ale

Two Metre Tall
Forester Ale
Spelt Ale

Morrison
Irish Stout
Irish Red Ale

Moo Brew
Belgo (GABS beer)

IronHouse
Pale and Porter

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

Good Beer Wheaty

2012-04-27T00:00:00Z

Any self-respecting beer lover who has been to Adelaide will have made it part of their mission to call in on Jade and her hop and whisky-loving friends at The Wheaty. One of the finest beer bars in the land run by people who live and breathe what they do with true passion, it’s a place that many brewers are happy to showcase their beers at for the first time and one where you can put yourself in the hands of the staff and be taken on a high quality boozy journey. Heck, last time The Crafty Pint called in we were met by a chap for whom Hahn Super Dry was the drop of choice: quite a challenge. After a couple of missteps (Croucher’s Pilsner featured “too much bitterness”), we’d turned him on to Emerson’s Pilsner, Murray’s Punch & Judy and Rogers and, hopefully, another craft beer conversion was underway.

Anyway, that’s not why we brought you all here today. No, that was to tell you about the venue’s plans for next month, when it will hold the inaugural Good Beer Wheaty, a mini-beer festival for the locals who can’t make it to Melbourne for Good Beer Week. Featuring “High Hop Nerdery”, beer launches, events centred around beer and whisky and visits from the likes of Darren Robinson from Doctor’s Orders and the Yeastie Boys, it should help assuage any sadness for those left behind.

“Blame the Yeastie Boys,” says co-owner Jade Flavell. “After several beer-fuelled conversations with Stu and Sam at last year’s Good Beer Week we all decided it would be an excellent idea to hold a Yeastie Boys concept tasting at The Wheaty – then GBW ended and we all resumed normal activities.

“Stu, however, remembered said discussions and within weeks had invited himself and Yeastie Sam to The Wheaty to make good our plan; naturally I thought it would make sense to build a whole mini-beerfest around the Yeastie’s visit and so Good Beer Wheaty was born. We figured that Melbourne shouldn’t have all the fun, and with a nod to Good Beer Week and its endeavour to make the most of visiting good beer people for the AIBAs The Wheaty put together a collection of craft beer (and whisk(e)y) events of the kind we already host – but over a concentrated period and with some very special bells and whistles. Good Beer Wheaty is very short, very craft & very Wheaty.”

The full program is online, with events running from May 12 to 15. We might even squeeze in The People’s Pint SA Launch too if it can be arranged in time. As for the craft beer scene in SA, Jade says: “As far as The Wheaty goes it’s never been better; the demand and enthusiasm for craft beer is unrelenting and infectious: people want good beer!

“As far as the broader scene goes, it’s getting there. While we haven’t seen the explosion of dedicated, specialist craft beer venues in SA that has occurred in other states, such as Queensland, it’s getting easier to drink better beer. More pubs are dedicating fridge space – though nowhere near enough tap space – to craft beer, a handful of pubs and a restaurant are holding regular craft beer nights, bottleshops are improving, a couple of restaurants take beer seriously and a newly opened inner city bar looks like having a strong craft beer focus in tap and bottle. Slowly, slowly. Brewery wise the ‘old’ stalwarts are busy developing new beers, tweaking old ones and expanding their facilities and two to three new SA micros are set to fire up before the end of 2012. If all goes to plan the next 12 months could be SA’s craft beer watershed…”

In Wheaty land, the long-promised kitchen is finally set to arrive in November, so no more ordering pizzas from down the road, and they’re planning to brew a Ryewaka IPA with Adelaide Hills brewery Lobethal Bierhaus. Jade is also collating some “damn fine brews” for July’s ‘Font of Darkness’ and September’s ‘Fountain of Hoppiness’ so plenty more to look forward too.

What’s more, if you’ve not sampled SA’s craft beers but will be in Melbourne for Good Beer Week, then you need to know that the Tramway Hotel in North Fitzroy is turning over its taps to SA’s brewers for the week as part of The Crafty Pint coordinated Pint of Origin that sees five Melbourne pubs become showcases for interstate brewers for the week. You’ll find WA at the Great Northern, Tassie at the Courthouse Hotel, NSW at the Rainbow Hotel and Queensland at the Baden Powell.

A Rye Smile

2012-04-24T00:00:00Z

Australia’s first ever People’s Pint has been brewed! The beer made its way through the brewhouse at Temple Brewery & Brasserie yesterday ready for release during Good Beer Week. It means we can finally reveal what form the Double Hoptendre conjured by the competition winner Leo Hede will take. And it also means that we’re able to reveal that the spirit of giving in which The People’s Pint was conceived still has a lot more to give…

The launch of the beer will also be the formal launch of a new scholarship that will see one young Aussie brewer sent overseas to work at one of the world’s leading international craft breweries for two weeks – all expenses paid. You’ll have to wait until Good Beer Week to find out which overseas brewery is involved – and submissions for the scholarship will not open until the festival is finished – but we can confirm that Temple, in conjunction with Good Beer Week, plans to make this an annual affair.

“This is a chance for us to give something back to the industry,” says Renata Feruglio, who founded Temple with husband and brewer Ron. “Brewing is a really hard gig but everyone along the way has been very supportive.”

When The People’s Pint was being planned by The Crafty Pint and Good Beer Week, we were keen that it would not be a profit-making exercise, hence the idea for a scholarship. As soon as we approached Temple to see if they would become the brewers of the beer, they not only loved the idea but got straight back in touch to say they would add in their own money to fund the scholarship.

“We want to help provide the motivation for the pursuit of excellence,” says Ron. “We strive to achieve that here at Temple and we know that it’s really hard – it’s much easier to make something that’s less than excellent. Our intention is that whoever ends up receiving this scholarship will be sufficiently motivated to reach loftier heights in their brewing.”

As for The People’s Pint itself, the Double Hoptendre is a “Double Hopped Rye Red Ale” that is expected to register around 6.2%. Starting from the original description in the competition entry:

“A woman walked into a bar and ordered a Double Hoptendre. So the bartender gave her one… This is a spicy, flamboyantly hopped, cheeky beer, not afraid of making a statement, big flavours but enough subtlety to be acceptable for all occasions; it speaks its mind without offending anyone.”

the beer took shape in a conversation between Leo and Ron. They discussed what Leo had in mind, the characteristics he was seeking and what he was hoping to achieve.

In the end, the “Double” and “Hop” translated into the use of two hops throughout (Styrian Golding and First Gold) plus plans for some hefty “double dry-hopping” with them. Both hops have a spicy as well as floral character too, which accounts in part for the “spicy”, while the fact that a whopping 15kg of them will be used covers off “flamboyantly hopped”. The spiciness is also catered for by the use of rye malt; except there’s not just one rye malt – Ron has used four different varieties, including German and American malted rye and caramel rye. Between them they should help account for the “big flavours”.

Comments online during the voting phase suggested many expected the beer to be an IPA with big pungent hops, so the fact it’s something very different hints at the double meaning element of “Double Hoptendre”. And, in a nod to the fact that this is the beer of the people and many of the people who took part nominated beers inspired by the red of the Australian desert, Ron decided he’d try and make it as red as possible too.

“From the conversation with Leo, it was clear he wanted something spicy and interesting and with its own personality,” says Ron. “So we decided to use rye extensively along with English Maris Otter. The ‘Double’ meant it had to be hoppy and I was keen to stick with my current crusade of staying away from fruit salad hops. Both hops we’re using contribute spiciness and some floral and lemony notes while the redness should make it pretty interesting.”

The beer is launched at Temple on the Monday night of Good Beer Week on a night that features the formal announcement of the scholarship and musical comedy from ElbowSkin too. There has also been interest from a number of great interstate craft beer venues so, all being well, there maybe a coordinated national launch.

“I’m nervous about the beer,” admits Ron, “because it hasn’t gone through my usual pre-production process so it’s something of a live gig! Red beers are always a challenge to get right too as they can easily become brown.”

That said, he tells us: “It should have a dry spiciness, a full mouthfeel from the numerous malts that are in there, while the hops should be distinctive because they are being used in abundance and they are two hops that haven’t been used in a signature context in Australia; they should be quite aromatic but different.”

See you on May 14 to find out if he’s right!

For those for whom The People’s Pint is new, there’s a load of info on the competition website here (apologies if any of it’s out of date now that it’s over!). At The Crafty Pint, we’d like to thank not just Temple for getting involved and offering the scholarship, but also Bintani for providing the rather large amount of grain and hops, Grain & Grape for yeast, Code Create for the website and William Delmont for the logo. In keeping with the spirit of the venture, everyone has supplied their time and goods free of charge. Thanks!

Temple will be extending its opening hours all throughout Good Beer Week, from midday to 11pm all week.

Slow Mover

2012-04-23T00:00:00Z

Australia’s first dedicated craft beer store is about to open the doors at its new home. Slowbeer has moved a couple of kilometres closer to the heart of Melbourne from its old base in Hawthorn to new, bigger premises in Richmond, where it has installed extra taps and will be inviting guests to pull up a pew inside or out so they can enjoy their purchases on site – with a platter of cheeses and cured meats on the side if they so desire.

“The focus is shifting to be more social,” says owner Chris Menichelli. “We’ve got seating inside, will be adding footpath trading very soon and plan to open a beer garden at the back for next summer.

“I really wanted to push the food side of things but not in a pretentious way, just in a relaxed, social manner. We’ll have a board with four local and imported artisan cheeses that change regularly plus some smoked and cured meats, preserves and olives.”

The beer range will remain much the same, although there will soon be four taps pouring and the ability to offer more growlers, which will be decorated with the store’s new branding and logo. The intention is to use the greater capacity to hold more frequent events at the store, the first of which will be Slowbeer & Food Pairing, Italian Style during Good Beer Week. It will focus on the Bizarre range of beers from Birra del Borgo, one of the most adventurous Italian craft breweries whose beers are just starting to arrive in Australia now, alongside Italian cheese, charcuterie and antipasti.

The new store is at 468 Bridge Road, Richmond, and opens on April 24. It will be open seven days a week, from midday to 9pm. There is a corkage charge to drink in store, ranging from $2 per bottle to $4 depending on size.

Happy Valley

The Valley Cellar Door beer garden in action

Slowbeer isn’t the only bottleshop in Melbourne offering the option to eat and drink in, with Chapel St Cellars, Mordy Cellar Door and Valley Cellar Door in Moonee Ponds among those where you can do both. Chapel St Cellars now has seven taps pouring while Valley has just expanded its draught offering, moving from one tap to four, expanding its beer garden and operating more as a bar than bottleshop.

If you head to Valley Cellar Door this Saturday, you can catch ‘Beer Song’ writers ElbowSkin performing an hour’s set of musical comedy in the beer garden from 4pm. Tickets cost $25pp.

Alternatively if Japan is your thing, Chapel St Cellars will be showcasing beer and sake for its Good Beer Week event on May 19. Tickets cost $35pp.

A Giveaway A Day!

2012-04-20T00:00:00Z

As of today, the good folks behind the good ship Good Beer Week will be giving punters the chance to win tickets to one of the 100 events coming to Melbourne and Victoria in just over three weeks time. Each day’s competition and the previous day’s winner(s) will be announced at 2pm, giving you just 24 hours to get involved.

The first giveaway comes courtesy of us here at The Crafty Pint, with two pairs of tickets for the launch of The People’s Pint on May 14 up for grabs. Given the beer itself – the Double Hoptendre – is due to be brewed at Temple Brewery & Brasserie today, it only seemed appropriate. As for what the Double Hoptendre is, you’ll have to wait until Monday…

The Good Beer Week giveaways are being run through the festival’s Twitter and Facebook accounts, with each day’s question and the list of winners also appearing here. There you’ll also find the rules, which can be summarised as:

“Share” the question on Facebook or retweet it on Twitter
Hunt down the answer to the question and email it to competitions@goodbeerweek.com with your contact details
Cross your fingers and hope you get notified 24 hours later.

If you like the sound of winning stuff and you missed the story on here yesterday, then there’s also a whopping $1,000 up for grabs for the winning piece of art in True South’s Art vs Beer Good Beer Week competition. Read all about it here.

Anyway, good luck. And if you win today’s comp, we look forward to seeing you on May 14!

Beer. Art. Cocktails.

2012-04-19T00:00:00Z

History is littered with tales of artists who have found inspiration in alcohol. The likes of Van Gogh and Picasso were fond of a little absinthe, Hemingway had something of a love affair with rum, while Dylan Thomas' tipple of preference was beer and more recently, Elbow’s fondness for the amber nectar saw them have beer brewed that bears their name. Even once the beer has been drained, there’s no stopping some people taking beer can art or experimentation with beer bottles to rather impressive lengths. And now, as their Good Beer Week offering, Black Rock’s True South is looking for the beer in art, or is it the art in beer? They’re inviting creative types – or those who simply want to give it a go – to come up with beer-themed artwork to feature at a Good Beer Week exhibition and are offering an incredible $1,000 cash prize for the piece of art judged the finest.

“We wanted to do something different,” says Tanya Harrowell, from True South. “Sam [their brewer] creates different and innovate beer all the time, and it was important for us to do something that tied into our location. We’re also aware that there is a lot of talent in the beer community and I want other people to know that and we also want to attract people that would ordinarily have nothing to do with beer.

“Craft beer is growing, and it’s growing for a reason, because it appeals to a much broader audience then the mainstream brands can and do. Brewers all over Australia and the world are constantly reinventing themselves, trying to be the most creative, doing stuff that nobody else has thought about before. We can’t all be brewers, but we all have opinions.

Submissions are open until May 1, with the exhibition opening at the brewery on the first night of Good Beer Week, May 12. The artwork will be judged by a select team of beery experts, with the awards handed out on the last night of the festival, May 19. To find out more about the rules – or submit your entry – head here.

As well as the Critic’s Choice prize of $1,000 in cash, there is a People’s Choice prize chosen by visitors to the exhibition during the week of two five litre mini-kegs and a degustation dinner for two at the brewery. The artworks will also be put up for sale by the brewery on behalf of their creators.

“We’re looking for people’s thoughts, their ideas, but mostly their artwork,” says Tanya. “And I don’t just mean the stuff you hang on the wall. I would love to see drawings, sculpture, film and tinny art. We’d love it if people submitted work that we haven’t even thought of.

“We want to put on an art exhibition that showcases the unique and challenging qualities that craft beer offers but also to bring a positive, unique and interesting presentation of what beer means to the masses.”

More details of the exhibition and opening and closing nights can be found here.

It’s not the only competition going on in the lead up to Good Beer Week. Currently, Melbourne’s top mixologists are taking on a challenge set down by the organisers of the Lageritas, Hopsmopolitans and Amberetto event at Black Pearl. They’ve been tasked with inventing a beer cockail, with the top four as judged by a panel of experts to be featured at said event, which will be a beer cocktail masterclass led by serial award-winning barman Chris Hysted. The Crafty Pint once set Chris the challenge of making a cocktail featuring beer and whisky called Ground for Divorce, inspired by the opening lines of the song that bears its name by the aforementioned Elbow. It went on to win best whisky cocktail in Australia, so this guy knows what he’s doing.

Anyway, beer, art and cocktails. Quite a mix. And that’s just two of 100 events taking place during Good Beer Week…

Pic above from the wall of the Junction Beer Hall, in Newport.

Houston. We Have A Beer

2012-04-17T00:00:00Z

Australian beer and space themes aren’t so unfamiliar to each other – we do, after all, already have Moon Dogs, Retro Rockets and supply the world with Galaxy hops. But an actual beer in space? It would seem to be the stuff of science fiction rather than something grounded in the laws of earthly physics. If you really were trying to brew a genuine space beer surely you’d need the help of, well, some sort of rocket scientist. In a quirk of fate, that’s exactly what Manly brewers 4 Pines chanced upon.

Dr Jason Held is a space engineer from Colorado and is the Director of Sabre Astronautics. He’s also a keen craft beer drinker, former home brewer and happens to reside in Manly.

As he told us: “I walked into 4 Pines, went up to the manager and said ‘I’m going to ask you a question I’ve never asked another man: Would you like your beer to be in space?’”

Needless to say, being presented with such a unique concept made it difficult to refuse. That first meeting was back in 2010 and, ever since, Sabre and 4 Pines have been working together to make the dream a reality.

As Jaron Mitchell, General Manager of 4 Pines, says: “Beer has followed humans around for the past few thousand years, so if humans are going to head into space more often I guess it’s only natural that beer will follow. We’re really excited to be part of a project like this that’s never been done before.”

The concept came about because of the way that the space travel market is changing. On the back of companies like Virgin Galactic that will offer flights and Bigelow Aerospace who have designed inflatable hotels, you’ll no longer have to be one of NASA’s ‘best of the best’ to reach space – all you’ll need is a very large wad of cash and a bit of patience; tens of thousands of people have already signed up. Quite reasonably then, it’s assumed that if people are going all the way to space for a bit of a holiday, they’d probably want to enjoy a beer while sitting and taking in the view of the earth.

“And not just any beer”, says Jason, “but a full-flavoured beer that tastes just like a craft beer you’d drink on earth."

While the concept of a space beer may seem as straightforward as packing one in your carry-on luggage, there are plenty of problems us normal earth folk would never consider.

“On earth, your body is designed to deal with things like gravity,” says Jason. “The blood flow is pulled towards your feet, whereas in space it flows freely. You get more of it to your head, which swells a bit and you can actually appear younger – it’s like a form of rejuvenation”.

Head in the clouds, feet on the ground.

While that’s clearly a cosmetic benefit, there are downsides on the palate.

“Because of the swelling, it can feel like having a mild form of a cold. Your tongue can expand and dull your sense of taste, particularly if you’ve been up there for a long time. That’s why so many astronauts return to earth and become so fond of strong-flavoured things like Tabasco and Kimchi, the Korean dish.”

The gases pose another problem. On earth, if you drink something fizzy and feel the need to burp, you easily expel the air but the liquid remains. The lack of gravity in space means that if you burp, there’s the possibility of what Jason referred to as ‘wet burps’ which, in a slightly disturbing train of thought, means you could be surrounded by floating liquid droplets from your own digestive tract. With all the science behind it, it’s slightly ironic that the crudest indicator of whether the beer passes the space test is whether or not you end up burping after drinking it. Nevertheless, when considering brewing a beer for a zero-gravity environment, these are the types of things that must be taken into account.

In order to select the right beer for the job, the team did initial trials with the full range of 4 Pines beers before settling on Stout as the most appropriate style due to its relatively low level of carbonation and full flavour. The next stage of testing was certainly far more rigorous than your usual tasting session. Three versions of the beer were taken to the Queensland University of Technology and loaded into a drop-tower, which is essentially a tall shaft where the beer is dropped and experiences near-zero gravity. According to Jason, the video recording of these tests allowed them to monitor the “physical chemical properties of the beer and how it changes based on different levels of gravity”.

Based on those results, the successful batch was taken on what the clip below suggests could be the most fun beer tasting in history. The beer was taken up on a zero-gravity commercial flight, colloquially known as the ‘Vomit Comet’, and knocked back while monitoring basic biometrics and the all-important burp test.

And after all that rigmarole we’re left with our Space Beer, based on the original 4 Pines Stout. That neatly explains why if you now buy the Stout in bottles you may notice the small logo on the label which reads ‘Vostok: Certified Space Beer’.

‘Vostok’ is a reference to the name of the spacecraft that Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin piloted in 1961 to become the first man to orbit the earth. To mark the occasion, on April 12 of each year, people in countries all around the globe gather to celebrate ‘Yuri’s Night’ and for the past couple of years 4 Pines has held one of the official events. The Manly party is a time when local space engineers, astrophysicists, academics and anyone else that’s partial to dressing up in a space costume come together to drink craft beer. Meanwhile, the Stout theme happily provided another chance to revisit the 4 Pines Keller Door series of Stouts, which were originally released for St Patrick’s Day.

While much progress has been made, the Space Beer development programme continues to refine the product, with advancements now being made on a bottle design to combat the difficulty of consuming liquid without the assistance of gravity. Based on the principle of surface tension, where liquid sticks to the side of a vessel, initial progress has been made on a bottle where the beer starts at the bottom and wicks its way up to the top. This stuff really could be mistaken for science fiction, but for Jason it’s just “good research, fun research – the first in the world. And the more you drink the better our research gets!”

For Jaron, “it’s been a wicked journey to date but it’s only going to keep on going. I guess it’s really that terrible old cliché, watch this space…”

Thanks again to Nick O for this article. Check out more of his beery musings at his blog, Water & Hops & Malt & Yeast.

Masterclass of Champions

2012-04-16T00:00:00Z

Take two champions of the brewing world visiting Australia for the first time, give them free rein over a brewery for a day, then bring in chefs from some of Melbourne’s leading restaurants and what do you have? The Good Beer Week Masterclass of Champions. After months of discussions, negotiations and excited chatter, all the details are now in place for what promises to be one of the 2012 festival’s truly unique events. Kjetil Jikiun, from Norway’s Nøgne Ø – named Champion Exhibitor at the 2010 Australian International Beer Awards, and the founder and head brewer from Californian brewery Moylan’s – last year’s AIBA Champion Exhibitor, are joining forces at Hargreaves Hill’s brewery in the Yarra Valley for a brew day, masterclass and brewery floor degustation rolled into one.

Kjetil, Brendan Moylan and his brewer Denise Jones have been in discussion with Hargreaves Hill owner Simon Walkenhorst and the Good Beer Week Team over the beer they will brew on the day and those that they will showcase during the degustation. Meanwhile, in the past few days the Good Beer Week Team has confirmed that The 36 Collective, a group of “dining chameleons”, has pulled together a dream team of chefs and waiting staff from the Stokehouse and Auction Rooms to create a one-off menu – with a little “service theatre” thrown in along the way.

The result is an experience for guests that will start with a bus trip from Melbourne CBD to the brewery followed by an intimate masterclass with Kjetil, Brendan, Denise and Simon while this unique collaborative beer is brewed. It will include brewhouse tours, sensory evaluations of the unfermented beer at different stages of the process and the chance to delve into the minds of the award-winning brewers. Then guests will sit down to a three-course degustation with an Eastern European theme (a theme that goes beyond the food), each course matched to a beer from each of the the three breweries.

“Whether you’re a beer lover, foodie or home brewer, this has to be the ultimate experience,” says Good Beer Week co-founder James Smith. “Bringing together the last two AIBA champions to create a beer especially for the festival is incredibly exciting. That we’re able to combine it with an intimate masterclass and a brewery floor degustation created by some of the brightest young talents in Melbourne is simply amazing.

Kjetil Jikiun

“I worked with The 36 Collective for The Gypsy & The Goat event during Melbourne Food & Wine Festival (see photo at top) where they created a menu that caused one guest to dream of her soup later that night so I’m really looking forward to seeing what they come up with this time.”

Josh Elias, from The 36 Collective, says they are taking traditional Eastern European food as a starting point – pickles, pastrami, lox, kreplach, perogies and so on.

“We’re looking at the old tradition of warmth and comfort from food but giving it a modern twist,” he says. “We want to provide food with lots of soul that’s given a twist that will promote the beers as best as possible and will give people a new kind of experience.”

He says the group’s aim is “to open the windows and doors to fine dining through new environments”, hence creating events in breweries.

“We’re taking fine dining out of fine dining restaurants and putting it into breweries, laneways and all kinds of different environments and spaces,” he says. “We like to align ourselves with brewers or winemakers or people who produce products that make people challenge the way they look at something.”

As for the Good Beer Week brew, it seems the brewers are keen to see how far they can take the Hargreaves Hill brewhouse. There has been talk of using exotic sugars and new or experimental Australian hop varieties, with Kjetil declaring, “I really love experiencing new flavours and aromas! This will be certainly be a lot of fun. Hopefully we can combine lots from many worlds!”

Brendan Moylan

The beer won’t be available until after Good Beer Week, but the two visiting brewers have nominated the three beers each would like to showcase with the lunch and Simon has offered to serve one brand new beer as well as one served straight from the tank.

“Getting to know the international brewers is really good fun,” says Simon from Hargreaves. “It’s a good opportunity for people to learn about brewing and it’ll be really interesting to see how the brew comes together.”

Tickets for the Masterclass of Champions cost $250pp and can be booked here. It takes place on May 15. Guests can either meet at Fed Square at 9am to catch the bus to the brewery or head straight to the brewery in Lilydale.

Kjetil is being hosted in Australia by Phoenix Beers. The Moylan’s crew will be in Melbourne with Northdown Craft Beer Movement.

One Month To Go!

2012-04-13T00:00:00Z

As part of the tiny team of volunteers buzzing around in a self-made maelstrom ensuring everything’s in place for Good Beer Week, it feels like the festival is all-consuming. So it’s reassuring to find out we’re not alone. Walking into one of the participating venues, the owner approached clutching a copy of the program in his fist.

“It’s much bigger this time,” he said. “It’s everywhere!”

With blackboards, A-frames and posters bearing the festival logo appearing at venues across the state, media coverage online and in print cropping up with increasing regularity, a serious Good Beer Week buzz in the social media world, and posters and ads beginning to appear on walls, trains, in magazines and elsewhere, it should be starting to feel that way.

With just a month to go, the first events have started selling out. If you were hoping to attend the Brooklyn Brewery Dinner at Beer DeLuxe – bad luck, as all 80 tickets have gone, while Bright’s Brewer for a Day in the High Country is full and the Cantillon evening at the Belgian Beer Cafe Eureka is down to the very final few. The Good Beer Week Team will let you know as and when others get close to try and make sure no one misses out on their dream ticket. That said, if you do, the chances are there will be something else to ease the pain – at the very least one of the many free showcases around the city all week.

We can also confirm that, after a few months of back and forth, the US Brewers Association confirmed it is coming to Melbourne for the week. It’s bringing its Export Development Program – in other words, heaps of good beers from American breweries you’ve probably never seen before – to showcase at the AIBA World of Beer event. Here’s hoping Melbourne puts on a great show and they tell their members to send more over in the future.

With Steve Grossman from Sierra Nevada returning and Brendan Moylan confirming he’s bringing along his head brewer, Denise Jones – the woman behind the beers that saw the Californian brewery named Champion Exhibitor at the Australian International Beer Awards last year, there’s a good showing from the States. Who knows what Brendan, Denise and Kjetil from Nøgne Ø will come up with for their beer at the Masterclass of Champions; having been party to their ongoing discussions, it appears the sky’s the limit, with questions being asked of how far the Hargreaves Hill brewhouse can be pushed, just what exotic sugars are available, whether they can get their hands on new hop varieties and so on. With The 36 Collective – the team that presented the food in fine style at our Gypsy & The Goat event – confirmed as providing the degustation lunch we can’t wait. We’re in the process of finalising a few details with the participants ready to release the full lowdown early next week, but we’re confident the woman who bought a ticket for her husband “to give him the best 60th birthday present possible” will be welcoming home a happy man at the end of the day!

On the subject of new beers, brewers across Australia and New Zealand have been busy with their Great Australasian Beer Spectapular brews (see the Little Rabbit – Little Creatures / White Rabbit dream team in action above). The organisers of the event at the Royal Exhibition Building are after more than beers, however. They need volunteers. If you’re keen on helping out, head here to find out more.

Australia’s first beer of the people – The People’s Pint – is also taking shape. The beer that won the most votes in our nationwide competition was the Double Hoptendre concocted by Leo Hede from Brisbane which, following a chat with head brewer Ron Feruglio at Temple Brewery & Brasserie, is taking shape as a double hopped, spicy affair with a reddish hue apparently. Bintani has supplied the ingredients free of charge, with Grain & Grape contributing some yeast, ready for the brew to take place any day now. We’ll be there when it happens – to be there when it’s launched, head here.

So, the clock is well and truly ticking. Thanks to all the events who’ve been pushing the festival hard and to those who are keeping the Good Beer Week Team abreast of developments with their events. If you’re keen to keep in touch with the latest, check out the festival on Facebook and Twitter or sign up for the newsletter on the website. There will be competitions and giveaways via all three starting next week.

Waltz In Matilda

2012-04-11T00:00:00Z

The brewery that kickstarted the craft beer scene in Australia nearly 30 years ago opened the doors to its latest incarnation this week. Matilda Bay moved its brewery from the Garage in Dandenong to a new site in Port Melbourne earlier this year and has now welcomed drinkers into its Brewery Bar. Open seven days a week, the concrete, brick and wooden bench affair overlooking the brewery promises both the full range of Matilda Bay beers as well as beer friendly nibbles – warm marinated olives, dips, cheeses.

“We’re now settled in at Port Melbourne,“ says head brewer Scott Vincent. "The whole team has been putting in long hours, not leaving any stone unturned to make sure the bar is a beauty for all our friend. We’ve tested all the taps, tasted the entire menu, and sat in every stool. It’s been thirsty work.

“The best bit is the three taps that run from the tanks, straight into schooner glasses. The liquid pouring from them will be unfiltered, unpasteurised brews, something a bit special. Nothing tastes better than beer straight from a tank.”

Matilda Bay was founded back in the early 1980s in WA by the group of friends that turned Fremantle’s Freemasons Hotel into the Sail & Anchor and began pouring the country’s first craft beers. After enjoying great success with their beers and a number of venues across the country, the brewery was bought by CUB, becoming the company’s craft beer arm. It moved its operation to Victoria in 2005, spending more than six years at the Garage before this latest move.

The new venue has room for just 30 for now, although we understand there are plans for a much larger capacity in the future. It sits inside an old Cadbury factory on Bertie Street, just a few minutes from the Melbourne CBD. There will also free brewery tours daily. If you’d like to take one, call or email ahead – (03) 9673 4545 or beer@matildabay.com – to book in.

Opening hours:
Monday to Friday: 8.30am to 7pm
Saturday to Sunday: 10.30am to 7pm

Record Breakers

2012-04-05T00:00:00Z

The Australian International Beer Awards continues to grow apace. After setting a record for the number of beers entered for judging in 2011, the second largest awards of its kind in the world has attracted more than 150 additional entries this year. Judging o the 1,352 beers from 39 countries began this week and will continue throughout April, with the winners to be announced at a Gala Dinner on May 17, during Good Beer Week.

Among the judges are international guests, Anders Kissmeyer, the Danish brewer who recently left Norrebro to establish his own brand, Kissmeyer, and Masayoshi Kaji and Shoji Kobotake of Japan. They will be tasting 692 international brews and 660 from across Australia. The former include entries from Cambodia, Fiji, Lithuania, Puerto Rico and South Korea.

Ann Houlihan, manager, Epicure Events at the Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria (RASV) said: “We have again received an outstanding number of entries for the 2012 AIBA from exhibitors across the world, recording an increase in not only the number of entries but exhibitors also.

“Now in its 20 year, the increase in entries is testament to the AIBA’s global reputation as one of the most highly regarded and respected awards of its industry."

To mark its 20th anniversary, the AIBA will this year host the first World of Beer event where beer lovers will be taken on a unique tour of the globe with the opportunity to taste the best local and international brews entered in the 2012 AIBA. We also understand here at The Crafty Pint that the showcase will feature the US Brewers Association’s Export Program, coming to Australia for the first time to present beers from American craft brewers never before seen on these shores. We have also been working the Brewers Association to set up an industry reception, details of which will be released in the run up to Good Beer Week.

AIBA’s World of Beer – Tastings From Around The Globe – will be held on May 18 from 4pm to 8pm at The Atrium, Federation Square. Tickets are available online here.

The awards organisers are also marking their 20th anniversary with the commissioning of a special beer, as mentioned in earlier Crafty Pint newsletters. The Collaborator is an Australian Brown Ale brewed last week by Andrew Ong and Brendan Varis of 2 Brothers and Feral respectively, both trophy winners in recent AIBAs.

The Perfect Match

Another first for the AIBAs in 2012 is their move to create a menu for the gala dinner with beer and food designed to work in harmony. The organisers invited Chris Badenoch, from Josie Bones, to write the menu, which was launched at an event at his restaurant this week.

The three course tasting was presented as a canapé menu, comprising dishes including ocean trout and spanner crab for entrée, pork belly for main, and baby pannacotta for dessert. It was served with tasting-sized samples of trophy winning beers from 2011.

Chris says: “We’re passionate about using beer as an ingredient as well as an accompaniment to great food and the dishes we’ve created for the AIBA highlight the quality and diversity of entries.”