We love a bit of wordplay at The Crafty Pint, almost as much as we love awesome beer events. So imagine our delight when we received a phone call from the guys behind Brisbane’s marvellous The Scratch telling us about Brewsvegas – a new beer week coming to the Queensland capital in March.
It’s been put together by a handful of passionate beer lovers from the city’s nascent craft beer bar and microbrewery scene – with assistance from the “local beer family – bloggers, designers, distributors, reps”. It will feature a range of events championing good beer and the amazing change that has been sweeping the city’s beer culture in the past couple of years.
Described by organisers as “a grass roots, community minded celebration of Brisbane’s burgeoning craft beer culture” the aim is “to promote innovation, creativity and collaboration to help nurture and grow a local beer scene already replete with passionate contributors.”
To that end, a steering committee made up of the people already driving that change was formed earlier in the year, among them Kieran Ryan of The Scratch.
“As most ideas do, it came about over a beer or four,” he says. “Brewsvegas is more or less a coming together of the craft community in Brisbane – arguably the fastest growing good beer culture in the country – to bring our own approach to the glorious magic of the beer festival.
“It’s in response to an overall desire (of venues and punters alike) to see the burgeoning good beer scene nurtured and promoted in a way that aligns with what we see as the most endearing principles of the craft beer industry, which at its heart is an extremely creative, conscious and community based family. With such a rapid growth in the small industries, the arts and good food and drink culture in Brisbane, it made perfect sense to us to make another reason to celebrate.”
The festival will kick off on March 23, a rare quiet point in the increasingly busy craft beer calendar.
“We felt March to be a great time of year for Brisbane with plenty of warm weather,” says Kieran. “We also are bearing in mind the schedules of a good many already existing and excellent beer celebrations around Australia and NZ, and hoping to offer something unique that doesn’t clash with other events – thus selflessly filling a part of the pint-shaped hole left in beer lovers' lives when these festivals end.”
Anyone wishing to take part and run an event has a little bit of time to formulate their ideas as submissions for events don’t open until later in the year. In the meantime, they – and beer lovers looking to fill that late March-shaped gap in their lives can find out more and keep tabs with developments via the just-launched website or (better for the time being) Brewsvegas' various social media accounts – Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
One thing to note is that this is not associated with the Queensland Beer Week that has run in the past two years, but a separate event being run by the local craft beer community. It will not be looking to run events across the state in its first year, instead focusing its efforts on Greater Brisbane.
