Thirty-plus official venues, more than 40 events, multiple beer dinners, a couple of beer lunches and a beer breakfast, tastings featuring scores of amazing beers, several new beer launches, ample opportunities to meet brewers from all over the world and Australia’s inaugural Great Beer Debate – not bad for something that was merely an idle conversation in a Melbourne bar a few weeks ago.
Yes, Good Beer Week is no longer “taking shape” – it’s now a fully-fledged, week-long celebration of all that’s good and great about beer in Australia today. Heck, it’s even reached the dizzy heights of an appearance on Channel 31 in Melbourne tonight!
Kicking off with a Gold Medal Dinner at the Terminus Hotel in Clifton Hill, featuring five courses matched to beers that won gold at last year’s Australian International Beer Awards, and wrapping up with a recovery roast, a closing party and a pair of themed beer tastings six days later, it promises to be a week like no other in and around Melbourne. In between times, as well as the staging of the 2011 Australian International Beer Awards, there will be plenty of chances to share beers with the people that brew them, introduce yourself to the world of beer and food pairing, sample hundreds of beers from across Australia and the rest of the world and discover craft beer venues you might never have known about.
What’s more, you could win some beery prizes just for getting involved. The Crafty Crawl will be rewarding those who get out and about – and take amusing photos along the way – with prizes donated by every participating venue plus the likes of Stone & Wood and beer importers Innspire and Northdown.
The prize pool is bulging (well, it does include Kooinda’s pop up bar and a 50l keg of their beer, after all) so don’t forget to document your Good Beer Week in photos.
You can find the events – both those running throughout the week and one-off ticketed dos – in the Crafty diary or on the Good Beer Week website. For the latest, you can also become a friend of Good Beer Week on Facebook or follow it on Twitter.
It should be a fantastic week for beer lovers and newcomers to craft beer alike and, as organiser Barney Matthews says, this year’s event is “just a taste of what’s to come”.
