Good Beer Week: Nathan's Good Beer Week Not-Awards, 2011

Were you to think this was a way for me to be lazy and not have to blog about each individual event, well then, you'd be-- SHUT UP.

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BEER NATHAN WOULDN'T SHUT UP ABOUT FOR TWENTY-FOUR HOURS

Morning Peninsula IPA

I've already expressed how great I think these guys and/or gals are doing for a new brewery, and I'd heard good things about the IPA, so when I saw it on tap at the Terminus, I launched myself at it and was not disappointed. T'is a fine, sessionable IPA to be sure, and I wouldn't stop yakking about it. And I see now it also got a Silver medal from the AIBA. Nice one.

BEER NATHAN WOULDN'T HAVE SHUT UP ABOUT FOR TWENTY-FOUR HOURS HAD HIS BRAIN NOT BEEN FRIED BY THIS POINT

TIE: Holgate Beelzebub's Jewels/Orkney Dark Island Reserve

On Friday evening, we went along to the Gold Medal Tasting at Purvis Beer in Richmond. Although the samples were smaller than previous tastings and some people just didn't know how to move out of the way once they'd had their latest poured, there were both interesting and fantastic beers on offer. Essentially, the idea was to have a previous Gold medal winner and then move to a worthy challenger, courtesy of the Purvis lads. As it happened, there were two tables. The left-hand had the lager and paler styles, and the right-hand had the darker styles, and it turned out to be an interesting contrast. Which is to say the left-hand table was mostly rather uninteresting, but as soon as you got to that second table...

And on that second table, two in particular really stood out for me. Beelzebub's Jewels is a barrel-aged Quadrupel/Abt that weighs in at 12%, and comes from local brewery Holgate, well-known for their ESB and Temptress Porter and who impressed the hell out of me with their Empress Imperial Porter at the previous SpecTAPular. It was, well, it was a Quad, but you were really getting some of that Pinot Noir from the barrel. The Dark Island Reserve is a 10% Barleywine, also aged in barrels, but this time whisky. (Apparently I have a "type".) The bad news about these beers would of course be the price.

BEER NATHAN DID THE BIGGEST DOUBLE-TAKE ON

Yeastie Boys Rex Attitude

My last SpecTAPular I found to have a really good range of interesting styles. Obviously this latest, a Kiwi SpecTAPular, wouldn't quite be the same as the beers weren't specifically brewed for the event. Somewhere in between the Pilseners and the Pales and the Renaissance Stonecutter Scotch ale was this, a "peat-smoked Strong Golden Ale" from the Yeastie Boys, they of the superb Pot Kettle Black (a Black IPA). This was the SpecTAPular beer. Peat-smoked, people, peat-smoked. Give it a shot. I dare you.

NATHAN'S BIGGEST MISTAKE

TIE: Straddling the inflatable palm tree at Mrs. Parma's/Not taking notes!

Sigh. If only that photo didn't exist, and if only those notes did.

NATHAN'S BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT

Why no current single batch at Little Creatures?

Seriously. The best part of going to Little Creatures for me recently has been their single batches. I enjoyed their IPA a few times, and then most recently their Märzen, which was more than drinkable, so, to my dismay, when we decided to give Little Creatures a shot... no single batch. During Good Beer Week! Come on!

NATHAN'S FAVOURITE VENUE

The Local Taphouse

What can you say? Even if it wasn't a fantastic venue anyway, for Good Beer Week they hosted the Barley's Angels event, the Brewer's & Chewers dinner and, of course, the Kiwi SpecTAPular. Way to bring it, guys.

NATHAN'S FAVOURITE DISCOVERY

Deco Wine Bar

I'd wandered past Deco with Sharika recently, after an unsuccessful attempt to eat at the Moroccan Soup Bar without a reservation. Looked like a pretty cool place décor-wise, so we filed it for later. Last Tuesday, when Josie and Ali led me there on the Crafty Crawl quest, queue my reaction, "Oh, this place!" So yes, it's a nice-looking quirky bar with that good ambient-light atmosphere and a pile of complimentary blankets near the bar that tells you a little more. There are no taps to speak of, but there is a fridge with a more-than-decent selection of beer, including some Australian crafts, some good overseas crafts like Hitachino Nest, and even the BrewDog Tactical Nuclear Penguin. And we had a great talk with the owner/bartender – I'm sorry, I didn't get your name; I do that a lot – who was full of suggestions and opinions.

NATHAN'S PRIZE TO THE MOST ENTHUSIASTIC CRAFTY CRAWL VENUE

The Rainbow Hotel

EXT. RAINBOW HOTEL BEER GARDEN ENTRANCE - NIGHT

BOUNCER

(bouncer tone)

Sorry, guys. It's one-in-one-out at the moment.

JOSIE

Is it okay if we just go in and come straight out? We're doing the Crafty Crawl and just wanna--

BOUNCER

(suddenly chipper)

Oh! Yeah! Hey! No worries, just pop on in and go up to the bar. They'll sort you out. Cool.

CUT TO:

INT. VERY CROWDED RAINBOW HOTEL BAR AREA - NIGHT (LATER)

BARTENDER

Oh, yeah! Awesome! Hang on, I'll just get it.

(retrieves treasure)

How cool is this? Such a great idea.

After being to a few places and asking bartenders who had no idea what we were talking about or were even a bit annoyed – and please do not take that to mean there weren't of course plenty of venues that were perfectly happy with it – going to the crowded Rainbow and being greeted with that was a great breath of fresh air and I thank them for it.

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.

Good Beer Week: North Coast Brewing Company Launch

Well, it's over. The inaugural Good Beer Week is over and detoxification begins. Nothing but veggies, sushi and water for the next two weeks! No, I don't think so, but I'm at least going to have lots of vegetables and lay off beer for a little while. We'll see how long that "little while" is.

Overall, I felt Good Beer Week was a definite success, and I hope many other punters, venues, brewers and international guests felt the same way. There were of course some things I hope the organisers will learn from, but it's all part of the process; it was the first one.

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Good Beer Week began for me on Monday, May 16 at Beer DeLuxe for the North Coast Brewing Company launch. Having never been to Beer DeLuxe on a Monday evening, I can't speak to how many customers were there for after-work drinks and how many were there for the launch, but there was certainly a decent amount of people and from what I could see, there were plenty with their North Coast postcard or shiny new glass in hand. It's nice to think that perhaps some of those people had no idea what Good Beer Week was, and just thought ten tastings and a free glass for $20 was a pretty sweet deal.

The tastings were served from bottles by the barstaff. The first few at the lighter end I was happy to have poured into my new Old Rasputin Imperial Stout glass – I was lucky enough to have been given a choice – while the later samplings I had poured into a proper tasting glass. I'm generally of the opinion that tasting from bottles isn't the ideal scenario, but we manage.

North Coast Brewing Company boasts "some of the best beers in this world... or any other" and has a pretty good average going on beer rating websites like Rate Beer and Beer Advocate. They'll have to forgive me for not finding any of their beers particularly memorable, save one. That said, some highlights for me were the Red Seal Ale, the ACME California IPA, and the Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout. Personally, I found the Scrimshaw Pilsener, which I started with, to not be as bad as some were commenting, but I definitely agreed with the consensus on the ACME California Pale Ale. I'd be tempted to give it another try from the tap, but for as long as it's available to me just in a bottle, I will avoid.

Now, the interesting sample of the night for me was the Brother Thelonius Belgian-style Abbey Ale. As someone relatively new to the whole beer tasting thing, this is the first beer I've had that I really felt a difference after giving it a swirl. At first, I got a rather unpleasant junkyard aroma as you get with some cheeses, but after oxygenating, it really opened up and possibly ended up as my favourite. But I am quite the sucker for Abbey and Trappist ales.

For those not content with a free glass, there was even a raffle of various items. A cap, a six-pack of the IPA... I could speak more positively about this, but I have that ever-present grudge you only get from being a consistent loser of raffles.

Anyway, that'll do. I will go and plot my revenge now.