Did your heart grow fonder?

Wow, I have been quiet, haven't I? There's been a whole bunch of stuff happening and I just haven't had any time to blog or write.

What kind of stuff, you ask? Well, I guess the big thing is that I recently turned thirty. (Woo! Congrats to me for not dying so far!) I had, without a shadow of doubt, the best party of my thirty years. It was at a little place you may have heard of called The Local Taphouse. Everyone really enjoyed themselves, plenty non-beer-drinkers were trying things – the aunties especially found a friend in the Bridge Road Chevalier Saison – the food was great, of course, and I'd just like to thank the Taphouse publicly, even though they made away with a fair amount of my money and that's probably all the thanks they were looking for. Ha!

Scored some amazing beer-related gifts, one in particular I will have to write all about in the coming month and a half.

I would be remiss if I didn't throw in an almighty plug for the The Beer Lover's Guide to Australia 2011. As well as being the only reference to Australia's breweries and venues you'll surely ever need – until next year's edition – it features a piece by yours-truly! It's also nicely designed and looks pretty. You like things that look pretty, right? It's the result of a lot of hard work by people who are not me, and I'm very proud to be published in it. I'd be very keen to hear what anyone thinks of my piece if you care to spend the time.

Oh, and please excuse my photo on the contributors page. There was actually a Little Creatures Pale in that photo somewhere. I promise from now on I'll use this one. I always wanted a photo of me with a beer, leaning on somethingorother. Oh yeah.

Actual blog soon.

Good Beer Week: Brewers & Chewers

I'm going to skip ahead a little to talk about the undisputed highlight of Good Beer Week for me and probably everyone else who attended, the Brewers & Chewers dinner at The Local Taphouse in St. Kilda. I will, however, attempt to be brief.

What a fantastic fucking idea. Seriously. A dinner with brewers from interstate and overseas. You get great food, beer included – which I understand was donated by the brewers, which is really just amazing of them – and the "Beer Champions" are rotated, giving each table equal time to chat them up.

This was really a first for me. I don't know the who's-who of the Melbourne and Australia beer scene. I'm learning that the brewers are generally the ones in their brewery's t-shirt, but I'm a little lost about who Professor Pilsener and the Beer Diva are, and I don't know who Sam the Brewer is or why she's so awesome. So I guess for me it was an eye-opener as well as just a great event.

It was quite the circumstance, really. After being introduced with their own theme music, the Beer Champions – Søren Eriksen (8 Wired, New Zealand), Steve Grossman (Sierra Nevada, U.S.A.), Brad Rogers (Stone & Wood, N.S.W.), Brendan Varis (Feral, W.A.), Kirrily Waldhorn (Beer Diva), Richard Watkins (Wig & Pen, A.C.T.) and James Watt (BrewDog, Scotland) – were escorted to their first table, and upon the ringing of the twenty-minute bell, were escorted along with their drink and food, cover plate and all, to the next one. I definitely have to compliment the Taphouse here for their great treatment of both the Champions and the guests. It was treated as quite an occasion, which I found to be a welcome piece of humourous irony considering the rather casual and boisterous nature of the evening.

Our first visitor was BrewDog's James Watt, all the way from Scotland. Initially shy in mannerism, he quickly relaxed into the situation and started firing off questions of his own, keen as can be.

Steve Grossman from Sierra Nevada was quick to have us attend the tale of Sierra Nevada having been illegally imported into Australia up until very recently, which was both a fascinating and effective conversation starter. He was a truly nice guy and only happy to accept my feigned ignorance of the fantastic taste of the Sierra Nevada Tornado IPA with a laugh.

My personal favourite was Richard Watkins from the Wig & Pen. The first words from his mouth as he sat down were, "I'm sorry, I'm not very good at these things." And yes, the man has an awkwardly shy streak a mile wide, but you get him going and he's incredibly engaging. Having only been to the Wig & Pen the week before, I was acutely aware of the current batches, which we talked about, and my dismay at the Big Ass Barleywine having run out upon my arrival seemed to spark a bit of pride. We talked briefly about the future of the Wig & Pen, styles he wanted to try, and even the excise. That twenty minutes was over far too quickly.

Kirrily Waldhorn was a great conversationalist. As one might expect, the topic floated along to Women in Beer. Personally, I'd had a bit of an issue with Professor Pilsener's earlier line of questioning, essentially, "What's it like being a woman in a man's beer world?" I bear no grudge or ill sentiment towards the man, to be absolutely clear, but I do think it's counter-productive to focus purely on that and reduce women in the beer world to that Issue rather than successes in their own right with their own expertise. Try asking the men about the role of women in the beer world, I say. Anyway, back on track. She was kind enough to talk personally about how she feels about such things, and humoured me by listening intently to my theory about beer culture being akin to geekdom, those of whom that geek generally and naturally being the kind of human being easy to acceptance.

I definitely feel like I've talked too much – especially since this post will have no photos – so to round things out, I will just say that Brad Rogers from Stone & Wood and Søren Eriksen from 8 Wired were both really fun guys. After the dinner, the girls pounced on Sam Füss from True South, who I will definitely admit was pretty darn awesome, but I'll let them speak to that. Oh, and I will need to sample this Black Saison of yours, Doctors Orders Brewing.

To the Taphouse, thank you. The food was the unsung hero of the evening. You're really onto something here. Please to have another.