Guess who's back? Yes, as the old saying goes, you just can't keep a good PoO down.
Good Beer Week might be taking a year's break as the Independent Brewers Association look to catch their breath and reprioritise resources after navigating the challenges of the past two years, but Pint of Origin will still be going ahead this May.
It's been part of the country's biggest beer week since The Crafty Pint introduced it way back in 2012; now, thanks to the enthusiasm and creativity of the 17 venues who'd signed up for its tenth running, we've come up with a grand plan to keep it going – and bring joy to those who treat those days in May like their own version of Christmas.
Pint of Origin 2022 – or #poo22 if you want to commit the hashtag to memory nice and early – will run from May 20 to 28 at 17 venues spread across Melbourne. It comes with a new look too, courtesy of a rebrand you can see coming to life here from Jessie Jungalwalla and the Craft Instinct team designed to give it a stronger visual identity and bring it in line with the rest of the Crafty family.
The eagle-eyed among you calculated something was coming after joining the dots between a series of social posts on Tuesday. Inspired by Beermash co-owner Dayvid Clark's idea at our hastily-arranged first planning meeting, we accompanied the participating venues in a series of "How good is...?" posts related – often tenuously – to each of our roles within Pint of Origin.
Congratulations to those who worked out what was going on within a few hours of the posts going live, particularly as the general mood seemed to be one of confusion. There were so many good posts it was hard to pick a favourite at Crafty Towers, although the sight of Bob Katter being chased across a beach by a cassowary has to be up there.
We also particularly enjoyed seeing comments along the lines of: "Have you been hacked?" from members of the public, not to mention spotting a third N in the BONNNIE DOON post while compiling the above montage last night!
That said, the highlight may well be what happened with the UK venue (we'll leave you to track down who's doing what for the time being given one of the joys of PoO is the discovery). The venue's marketing manager is on holiday in Thailand with only sporadic access to the internet so hadn't seen an email from the venue manager before receiving a notification that a new computer has signed in to their Instagram account. Thus, upon spotting an image from The Office with the caption: "How good is David Brent?", she assumed their account had been hacked, promptly deleted the post and went back to her holiday!
Anyway, looking forward to May all you need to know is that it's happening. There's a real buzz of excitement among the venues who have been drawing up grand plans – and in some cases, already have tens of thousands of dollars worth of beer on order. We'll be making some improvements to ensure Pint of Origin 2022 is better than ever too, but we'll let you know about them in the coming weeks.
So, beer lovers, the good news is May 20 to 28, 2022, can remain inked in your diaries. If you'd planned to take the week off for Good Beer Week, there's still going to be heaps for you to enjoy. And if you're interstate or overseas and have developed itchy feet over the past couple of years, we're pretty sure there's good deals on flights and accommodation now the travel industry is bouncing back.
In short, come and explore the world of beer with us in Melbourne this May!