There’s a whole host of events this weekend to kick off a fairly furious month of activity on the beer front from coast to coast. The spotlight falls first on Adelaide where, as you read this, people are recovering from the launch of Pirate Life’s latest beer by tucking into the 2016 Beer & BBQ Festival. However, there were at least three punters not at the festival today as they’d won spots at the Crafty Cabal’s first collaborative brew day at The Wheaty. The shenanigans continue in Radelaide all week as we’ve brought Pint of Origin to SA for the first time.
A little further east, a special event (albeit one with nothing to do with beer, though it is at a very beery venue) is happening tonight at The Cambrian Hotel as it hosts an official album party to mark The Avalanches’ first release in 15 years. Further east still, and more about the beer, Stomping Ground is running knock-off Fridays throughout July so you can come enjoy a few brews and food trucks while monitoring the progress of their still-in-development Collingwood brewery. In the same neck of the woods – and at a similar point of ‘brewery in development’ stage – Fury & Son, which has Champion brewer Craig Eulenstein at the helm, is hosting its official launch at The Catfish. Over in WA, the state in which Craig won his awards while brewing at The Monk, they’re getting set for the 2016 Perth Royal Beer Show by hosting an opening party featuring several of last years’ trophy winners.
Up in Sydney, HopDog is reaching for the sky in a typically eclectic tap takeover at Hotel Sweeney’s inner city rooftop bar. From HopDog to hot dogs, the Flodge will be celebrating Hot Dog Day in style with bangers matched with several beers from BrewCult (which, if word is correct, will see a return of the Acid Freaks Balsamic Porter). Not to be outdone in the meat and beer stakes, The DOG Hotel in Randwick has invited in the beers and brewers from The Australian Brewery in for a ten tap takeover and meat raffle galore – we can’t vouch for what cuts will be up for grabs but we can say the brewery’s new Eisbier and Tripel will be pouring. Even meatier and beerier than both those events is Thirsty Crow’s Hops & Chops festival which will have 20 beers on offer alongside the best in local BBQ, condiments and tunes.
There’s a particularly dark theme running throughout July as several venues host some form of dark beer celebration. In terms of breadth of selection the The Alehouse Project’s Dark Side of Beer 4, The Wheaty’s Font of Darkness and Scratch Bar’s Weekend of Darkness will all be pouring more big, black and bold beers than one person should reasonably be able to handle. Speaking of which, 4 Pines is heading to the Mt Macedon Hotel armed with 16 beers – most of which you can’t get anywhere else in Victoria – and The Terminus is hosting the second in its Victorian showdown series which will see ten brewers setting up stalls in the beer garden and trying to win your vote and claim the honour of best Victorian IPA. Carwyn Cellars is poking the bear as it spends two weeks pouring grey market American beers while, in fresher American-style beer releases, Murray’s is rolling along with its American Beer Month which involves releasing eight IPAs of varying size, colour and ridiculous hoppiness. Murray’s is also one of five local brewers to have contributed a one-off beer to the BBC’s Belgian National Day celebration.
There’s plenty of action in terms of degustations with Wayward hosting its first dinner in the brewery (or more specifically the old underground wine vats in its cellar door) while down the road on the same evening the Empire Hotel hosts Warwick Little for a mid-winter Christmas featuring three vintages of the Little Brewing Company’s delicious Christmas Ale. In WA, Eagle Bay is bringing in three top chefs for one memorable evening at the brewery while Moo Brew and sister winery Moorilla will flight it out (in a friendly way, as siblings do) at a long lunch at The Sackville Hotel.
Creating a nice bookend to proceedings, it’s back to South Australia where Sweet Amber Brew Cafe has invited Frank Samson to wield his German Sledgehammer during an evening exploring the beers of Prancing Pony. And back at The Wheaty they’re celebrating the second birthday of Wheaty Brewing Corps with an in-house 13 tap takeover before turning them over to the beers of Michigan’s Founders Brewing for a seven beer, beer geek friendly showcase.
