The Catfish has woven itself into the very fabric of Melbourne's beer scene (with a finger or three in the live music, Philly Cheesesteak and arts pies too).
And, each year, it celebrates its birthday in a manner that gives you an idea why: it's a party designed to share the love with other local brewers and venues.
The Poker Crawl sees teams (of three to six people) set off from The Catfish, drop into four other venues in Fitzroy and Collingwood, enjoying a pot at each, collecting playing cards as they go, before landing back where they started to see which team has the best five card poker hand.
There are birthday beers too, with this year's coming from Fixation, Fury & Son, Bells Beach and Venom and spanning hop bombs to zesty sours.
It runs from 2pm to 8pm on November 23, with rules as follows:
- Come down to The Catfish with your team from 2pm
- Buy one pot of any of the birthday beers and upload it to social media with the hashtag #CATFISHTURNS6; show the bar staff, who will hand you a playing card
- Head to The Rooks Return, Rainbow, Beermash and Fixation's Incubator to complete your poker hand, uploading photos along the way
- You've got until 8pm to complete your hand, plus any optional challenges the venue sets
The birthday collabs:
- Bells Beach Round the Twist Lime Gose
- Venom Venomous Catfish Spring Ale using a new NZ experimental hop
- Fury & Son Furious Catfish Kiwi Fruit Berliner Weisse
- Fixation TkiFix Hibiscus and Rosella Red IPA
If you want help navigating the crawl, download the free Crafty Pint app.
