28 September 2013

The small brewers' beer festival in review

| johnboy
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beer festival

The Small Brewers Beer Festival took off this afternoon at EPIC in the teeth of the AFL Grand Final and I have to say I found it immensely rewarding.

I’ll admit Loose Brown and I were a touch underwhelmed when we turned up to find the event was essentially being held in a car park.

But the long row of trestle tables did indeed hold a cornucopia of beers I was previously unaware of and I liked a great many of them. (There were no duds, but some beers were more equal than others).

Amongst the exciting world of beer the Matso Brewery from Broome stood out, all of their stuff was sparkling, crisp and delicious.

The Dalgety Brewing Company was my next favourite, if only for the ute drawn up at the trestle and the beer on tap.

Entry provided 10 $1 beer tickets which were good for a tasting glass.

Once we had a feel for the beers we liked it was time to buy up $5 gold tokens and commit to full bottles.

With three food vendors we never had trouble getting a bite to eat.

Having been heavily promoted on this website it should not have been a surprise there were many RiotACT readers present and it was a great pleasure to meet so many of you. Hope you had a good time.

A very special thanks to all of you who brought me a beer.

If you like variety in beer this is a great event.

Oh and this was me, it was seriously windy.

me and beer

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johnboy said :

For a serious beer drinker it was an unmatched opportunity to try new things at very reasonable prices.

The reason the prices were reasonable, was that the organisers, Mick Strickland and his brothers have done a runner without paying the small brewers, the few cheques he did write have bounced, and they have absconded with the leftover stock. Mick Strickland turned off his mobile soon after the event and the phone number for the Strickland Beer Group at Fyshwick has been disconnected. An irate small brewer (from out of town) went to the Fyshwick premises yesterday, found the front door open, found out-of-date leftover beer from the FIRST (Botanic Gardens) festival and neighbours saying they have been trying to track down the Stricklands. One of the reasons ther wasn’t the advertised 80 breweries taking part was that the Stricklands did not put all the beer out, even though it was in the portable coolroom. This applied to one brewer, who the Stricklands knew wasn’t going to personally be there. When it was pointed out to the Stricklands, that they had ‘forgotten’ to put one of the breweries on tasting, they begrudgingly put out 2 beers on tasting, then had to be ‘reminded’ that they still had a third in their coolroom. Scumsuckers like this are hurting the SMALL brewers. It is rumoured that Mick Strickland has run off to NZ. Does anyone know if Dinny Strickland who was at the beerfest is still in Canberra? There is a posse of small brewers organising a lynching.

Solidarity said :

Unless you talk to the cool dude behind the Pale Nail or whatever it was stand and he was giving out bottles for $1 tickets.

Now he tells us…(-:

I missed this one, which was a shame because I really enjoyed the last one. Unfortunately I had to work (which also involves being around lots of beer but I can’t drink it). Still, I trust you all had fun?

I hope this event keeps going next year and into the future.

Unless you talk to the cool dude behind the Pale Nail or whatever it was stand and he was giving out bottles for $1 tickets.

Did I see it cost ~$35 to get in? Less 10 x $1 samples, that’s $25 for the privilege of paying retail price for beer in a carpark. Oh, and the $14 burgers…

I *really* like the idea of such an event, but that up-front cost will keep me out. Shame. Slash the admission price, and I’ll gladly rock along and try a couple. Surely being a hardcore pisstank need not be mandatory?

For a serious beer drinker it was an unmatched opportunity to try new things at very reasonable prices.

poetix said :

rosscoact said :

When the wine blows the head off your beer it’s time to bail.

The wine is just jealous of the beer getting all the attention.

maxblues said :

rosscoact said :

When the wine blows the head off your beer it’s time to bail.

Loved a couple of the IPA, especially the Lilliput from (forgot the name) 3.8% and bloody delicious

Mixing wine and beer can blow your head off.

Oops, shows where my brain was. Went home and watched the boring AFL grand final with a wonderful 2010 The Story Rices Vineyard shiraz. Beats beer almost every day of the week

rosscoact said :

When the wine blows the head off your beer it’s time to bail.

Loved a couple of the IPA, especially the Lilliput from (forgot the name) 3.8% and bloody delicious

Mixing wine and beer can blow your head off.

rosscoact said :

When the wine blows the head off your beer it’s time to bail.

The wine is just jealous of the beer getting all the attention.

When the wine blows the head off your beer it’s time to bail.

Loved a couple of the IPA, especially the Lilliput from (forgot the name) 3.8% and bloody delicious

Enjoyed the beers from Bullant Brewery and Clare Valley Brewing.

in_the_taratory said :

And another review here: http://inthetaratory.wordpress.com/2013/09/29/small-brewers-beer-fest-take-two/

The beer festival itself is great. The venue choice (on a day like yesterday) made it a little hard to enjoy the beer!

agreed. the beer was great, but what a crap venue. Why it was in a car park is anyones guess. If it rained, it would have been a complete failure. One of the food caterers mentioned they were told to expect 3000 people. I saw maybe 1000 over the day I think. AFL Grand Final would have taken a hit out of numbers too I expect, but the food caterers were selling burgers from $14 down to $10 by about 3pm I think it was.

in_the_taratory10:59 am 29 Sep 13

And another review here: http://inthetaratory.wordpress.com/2013/09/29/small-brewers-beer-fest-take-two/

The beer festival itself is great. The venue choice (on a day like yesterday) made it a little hard to enjoy the beer!

Really fun event, thank you so much for the tickets. It was a shame the wind decided to turn up in such force. It seemed everyone at the event was there to have a good time ans so it was a fun event to be at. Tried a really great mango beer, can’t remember where it was from but it was lovely. I would have to say I didn’t try a beer or cider I didn’t like.

Thanks again.

While there I ran into one of the guys who is running a beer day out in November, I guess he was there putting in some practice.

grunge_hippy8:56 am 29 Sep 13

Doesn’t look nearly as scenic as the one at the botanic gardens at the beginning of the year but perhaps better catered for. I’m looking forward to the Beer Day Out in Nov, and since I won tickets to that, free beer that goes with it.

johnboy said :

you need to read the text around the outside 😉

http://www.27bslash6.com/guns.html

But where can one purchase such a fine article of apparel (It’s conspicuously absent from the 27b/6 merch site)?

(Readers new to the site are encouraged to read the “Overdue account” story (a.k.a. “7-legged friendly spider” for a lighthearted tale of trolling)

Bloody great beer, and nice to meet you at last JB. Thanks for the free tix, much appreciated.

I bought a six pack of Matso’s Pearlers Pale Ale on the way home. (My bike was strangely wobbly. The wind. Probably.) And we drank them watching Hawthorn win, which was a nice way to enjoy WA beer.

Thanks again for the tickets. Sorry we didn’t buy you a beer, but I’m sure you managed.

It was a fun event, though long hair was not a good thing to have there.

johnboy said :

you need to read the text around the outside 😉

http://www.27bslash6.com/guns.html

I chose to ignore that bit 🙂

Good to say that johnboy is a supporter of the right to bear arms. And the right to drink beer, obviously.

you need to read the text around the outside 😉

http://www.27bslash6.com/guns.html

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