Beer is set to enjoy its most prominent role yet at the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival when it celebrates its 20th anniversary next March. Having tested the water with the Beer & Cider House Rules session that ran as part of the 2011 festival’s MasterClass series, this time craft beer – with a touch of cider – forms one half of a brand new element of the Langham Melbourne MasterClass lineup. Liquid Lounge features four sessions, two with beer as the star, two based around cocktails. And, ensuring the Liquid Lounge concept goes off with a bang, Danish brewing tyro Mikkel Borg Bjergsø is flying in for his first ever visit to Australia as a special guest, thanks to Hop and Spirit.
He will be joined a number of top Aussie brewers, including Shawn Sherlock from Murray’s, Ben Kraus from Bridge Road, Dave Bonighton from Mountain Goat and Brendan Varis from Feral, for MasterClasses hosted by The Crafty Pint on March 10 and 11. Both will include beers from each of the featured brewers picked specially from their range, including some rare and hard to find beers.
The Saturday afternoon will feature a showcase of beers from around the world that are pushing the boundaries of what beer can be, while on the Sunday morning there will be the Great Melbourne Beer Breakfast. Given the MasterClass schedule demands that there is a 10am Sunday morning session, we decided to create one at which punters could enjoy beers and ciders traditionally enjoyed somewhere in the world for breakfast – hefeweizen with weisswurst, for example – alongside those that either share characteristics with breakfast foods or beers that use ingredients from the breakfast table, such as Bridge Road’s Brew 500 and Mikkeller’s Beer Geek Breakfast and Brunch stouts, all matched with food to create a unique breakfast experience.
“Every year Langham Melbourne MasterClass holds a mirror up to the current and upcoming culinary trends both locally and internationally,” says Penny France, from the MFWF program team. “With Victoria home to a burgeoning craft beer industry led by world-class brewers, we’re excited to include sessions dedicated to beer in the MasterClass program, presented by an incredible line-up of innovative brewers and beer experts.
“At Liquid Lounge our local stars will team up with one of the world’s hottest brewers, Denmark’s Mikkel Borg Bjergso, to put the spotlight on craft brews and also have a bit of fun in the process. The Boatbuilders Yard in the new South Wharf precinct is the perfect spot for Liquid Lounge, reflecting the informal and dynamic nature of the sessions.”
All four Liquid Lounge sessions will take place on the edge of the Yarra at the Boatbuilders Yard. Numbers are being kept fairly low to allow guest brewers the opportunity to tell all about their beers, breweries and approach to brewing and to give attendees as much opportunity to chat to them in person.
On the Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon, Matthew Rees, from Der Raum, hosts “Drinks of the Gold Rush Era” and “Cocktails of the Highest Order” as the other two MasterClass sessions. Various packages, from single session tickets at $80pp per session to those that get you into multiple events across the Langham program, are on sale now. The MasterClass program is also available in today’s Epicure in The Age.
Looking further ahead, we understand that there was the biggest ever number of beer-related submissions for the MFWF 2012 program. Those that made the cut will be revealed on December 2. We know of one, but you’ll just have to wait to find out what it is…
