During last year’s Good Beer Week, The Crafty Pint ran a couple of events during the week aimed at getting people to check out as many craft beer venues as possible – The Crafty Crawl – and showing off as much of the spectrum of beer styles as we could using beers sourced from all over Australia – Crafty Curates.
Given the extra attention being garnered by the festival this year, we weren’t sure that bringing back the Crawl, an event which, despite being innocent in intention and outcome, could be misconstrued by the rather un-beer-friendly Victorian Government as encouraging people (dressed as pirates in some cases) to drink more than they would otherwise. And following a couple of mutterings from interstate about last year’s festival favouring Victorian brewers (naming no names, New South Wales!) we wondered what we could do to keep everyone happy.
The result? Good Beer Week 2012’s Pint of Origin series. This sees five top Melbourne craft beer-supporting venues turning over their taps for the week to interstate brewers to turn the city into a weeklong showcase of Australian craft beer. In some cases, this will be the first time brewers have sent their beers interstate, including Cowaramup, a tiny Margaret River brewery run by one of the nicest guys in the industry, whose Pilsner surprised everyone – not least its brewer – by taking home the hotly contested Champion Lager trophy at last year’s Australian International Beer Awards. What’s more, the Cheeky Monkey beers have never appeared outside the brewery before – hardly surprising as it has only secured a license to sell beer this week!
The five venues are the Baden Powell in Collingwood (Queensland), the Rainbow Hotel in Fitzroy (NSW), the Courthouse Hotel in North Melbourne (Tasmania), the Great Northern in Carlton North (WA) and the Tramway in North Fitzroy (SA), a recent convert to good beer after it was taken over by new owners last year. All are giving up all or the vast majority of their taps and are looking to invite some of the visiting brewers in at some point in the week. In the case of the Rainbow, they’ve lined up an epic eight course Beergustation on the Tuesday night featuring beers from many of the breweries on the taps, guest brewers and tasty dishes from their kitchen.
Entry to all of the Pint of Origin venues is free (you’ll still have to pay for the beers though!) so if you’re planning a trip interstate and want to see which breweries are worth calling in on, are an interstater missing home,are just keen to sample the best of Oz or have a few hours spare time before your next ticketed event, you know where to go.
The Beers By Venue
Great Northern
Feral
Barrel Fermented Hop Hog
Hop Hog IPA
Smokey Porter
Karma Citra American Black IPA
Watermelon (GABS beer)
Little Creatures
Little Creatures Pale
Little Creatures Rogers
Little Creatures Single Batch – Quiet American
Cowaramup
Cowaramup Pilsner
Bootleg Brewery
Raging Bull
Oatmeal Stout
Last Drop Brewery
Pilsner
Unfiltered Wheat
The Monk
Porter
Kolsch
Cheeky Monkey
Hat Seller Kiwi Pilsner
Old Reliable Classic Pale
Hagenbeck Belgian IPA
Great Northern owner Al Carragher has asked that we publish a special thanks to Little Creatures, who have covered the cost of freight for the smaller breweries and even supplied kegs for Last Drop to brew into. So “Thanks!”
Tramway
Beard & Brau Golden Paw
Brewboys King Brown Ale
Campus Brewery Hoppy Lager (as yet unnamed)
Lobethal Bierhaus Double Hopped IPA
MV Beer Vale/IPA
Steam Exchange Brewery Milk Chocolate Stout
Woolshed Brewery Judas the Dark
Natural Selection Theory Farmhouse Cider
Rainbow
The Governor Golden Ale – Rocks Brewing
Kellerbier – Stone & Wood
The Hangman Pale Ale – Rocks Brewing
The Boxer Red Ale – Rocks Brewing
4 Pines ESB – 4 Pines
Horns Up, Rye IPA – HopDog Beer Works
The Butcher Porter – Rocks Brewing
Vanilla Milk Stout – Thirsty Crow
Baden Powell
Bacchus Brewing
Baltic Porter
Queensland Ale
Burleigh Brewing
28 Pale Ale
Hef
My Wife’s Bitter
4 Hearts Brewing
Pale Ale
IPA
Miner’s Stout
Wein Lager
Summer Wheat
The Queensland brewers will be at the Baden Powell on the Wednesday evening if you’d like to head along to meet them face to face.
Courthouse Hotel
Van Dieman
Tasmanian Pale Ale
Hedgerow Barrel-Aged Sour Ale
Seven Sheds
Razzamatazz
Kentish Ale
Two Metre Tall
Forester Ale
Spelt Ale
Morrison
Irish Stout
Irish Red Ale
Moo Brew
Belgo (GABS beer)
IronHouse
Pale and Porter
Please note the final lineups are subject to change.
And if that’s not enough, you could head to the Royston or The Terminus for their weeklong showcases of Kiwi beers. Or take a trip through the Yarra Valley to Kelly's Bar & Kitchen for their weeklong Yarra Valley Brewers Showcase
