Good Beer Week Quick Wrap Up – My Favourites
I’m now sitting at the airport waiting to be taken home after an excellent, and very successful, Good Beer Week. While I listen to my liver quietly weeping because of all the damage I inflicted upon it and look back on the delta between my untappd number of checkins at the start of the week and at the end I though I would write a quick wrap up and talk about some of my favourite things from Good Beer Week. While everything was fantastic I am going to pull out some highlights as I hate it when people are wishy washy and just say everything was wonderful. Depending on how lazy I am I may write up something more concise once I have recovered. I ended up getting to all the events I had planned to and a few more. Lets get into my highlights though.
Favourite Event:Big Good Beer Lunch at Josie Bones. I really can’t talk highly enough about this event, the food, the service and the beer. Everything was fantastic. I had never been to Josie Bones previously but I will certainly visit again. The staff were smart and were knowledgable about the food and the beer. The food was amazing. The beer was great and the matches truly amazing. While I went to many events this was my clear favourite and I will write more about it soon.
Favourite Food/Beer Match: Dessert at Josie Bones Big Good Beer Lunch. It had to be one of the courses from this meal and I had six to choose from but the dessert won out. They served a Pear tarte tartin with American whisky and raisin ice cream. This would have been paired with the Brooklyn Brewery Black Ops Bourbon Barrel aged Imperial Stout if it existed. I can’t begin to tell you how well this worked for me. I don’t know if this is part of the regular menu but if it get in there and try it. You may not be able to have it with Black Ops but find yourself a good rich stout and enjoy.
Favourite Venue: SlowBeer I finally got to SlowBeer on my last night in town for the Slow Beer and food tasting. Where some very excellent foor was matched with beer from Italian craft brewer Birra del Borgo. I won’t go into the details of the tasting right now but let’s just say it was great. SlowBeer reminded me of City Beer Store in San Francisco and it is going for a similar style of venue. It is primarily a bottle shop but they have a couple of taps and communal tables you can sit at and enjoy a beer in store. The range is, to say the least, astounding. I only really got to talk to the proprietor Chris and not the other staff but he knows his stuff well enough for everybody there. Their prices are great and the service is fantastic. Ordering online from them is good but when you get to Melbourne go and visit the store, you won’t be disappointed.
Now for the big one.
Favourite New Beer: Evil Cousin Heretic Brewing. This was so tough to pick but this beer squeezed through in the end. Their Shallow Grave porter was pretty good too. Closer runners up were Tribute from Renaissance and Midnight IPA from Temple. There would be even more competition if I was including Good Beer Wheaty. Back on topic though. This is an imperial IPA that has a great fresh hop aroma and flavour. The aroma that comes from this beer is like smelling a bag of hops. You have to check it out to appreciate it. The beer while being , I think, 8% is bone dry. None of the residual sweetness and viscosity you can sometimes get from a big IPA and it hides the alcohol well. If you like your IPA bitter, really hoppy and bone dry then this is the beer for you.
Favourite Beer Person: Everyone Yep I am wussing out on this because all the people I met for the first time and caught up with this week were awesome people. Beer people really are good people.
Well that is my quick Good Beer Week highlights. If you didn’t make it you really missed out. I’m going to go back to comforting my liver now.
Good Beer Wheaty Day 4 – Yeastie
A short post this morning as I’m at the airport about to fly to Melbourne at 0630. Last night with the Yeastie boys and everyone else was a blast. The whole of Good Beer Wheaty was fantastic and I can’t wait to do it all again next year. Huge thanks to all the staff at the best pub in the country, Adelaide’s own, Wheatsheaf Hotel. See you all in Melbourne for Good Beer Week.
Good Beer Wheaty Day 3 – Prescriptions Delivered
Now day three of Adelaide’s own beer festival, Good Beer Wheaty, at the Wheatsheaf Hotel is done and it was a great session. Huge thanks to Darren ‘Doc’ Robinson of Doctor’s Orders Brewing for making a special, one off, beer just for Good Beer Wheaty and for coming over for the day to talk to us about it.
The beer, Synesthesia, is a smoked, bourbon, vanilla porter. Sounds like a mouthful and it is. Amazing complex flavours but all present and detectable in the beer. A good and very appreciative crowd was in attendance to try the beer three ways. It was served as a normal draft, from the hand pump and through the glass hopper filled with figs and coffee. All were excellent and I don’t think I can pick a favourite. If you missed it last night you can probably get down today to get some but there is only the three kegs so it won’t be around for long. As an added benefit we also got Doc’s latest seasonal which had previouls only poured at GABS. It is called plasma and is a white IPA. The play of the wheat characters with the hops worked really well. I’m looking forward to drinking some more of this as I’m not sure I did it justice after Synethesia three ways. Once again a huge thanks to Doc and the Wheaty for a great night.
At the end of the night for those smart enough to follow @TheWheaty there was allegedly a very special tasting of some amazing treats from Brooklyn Brewery. With a huge thanks to the guys at the Wheaty and to Craig from Palais Imports we got to try Black Ops the very limited Imperial Stout from Brooklyn. Those of us that hung around got to taste something not many people will and it was fantastic. There were also some prize draws for shirts and the like. I personally got away with a copy of the Oxford Companion to Beer signed by Garret Oliver so I’m stoked. So if you like great beer you really should just be at the pub for the whole of Good Beer Wheaty.
After all that excitement what can we do today to compete? Today the Yeastie Boys are in town to regale us with stories of contract brewing and, probably, loud pants. Stu and Sam are up in Lobethal doing a collaboration brew with Alistair today then back at the pub tonight to tell us stuff. There will be plenty of their beer a new release and probably tons of other cool stuff. If you have been reading my posts and I haven’t convinced you yet then you are crazy. Get yourself a ticket and get to the pub tonight. You will regret it if you don’t. Get There!
Good Beer Wheaty Day 2 – Whisky and Sour Beer
We are now half way through Good Beer Wheaty at The Wheatsheaf Hotel. On the upside we have two more great events to go. First up was the ages of whisky, an event I was involved with. The first half of the tasting was based around the stages of production. I made a wash and we got to taste it before fermentation as a wort, after fermentation as wash and then as a new make spirit. I thought it was a really interesting process and tasting. You start with something really malty and sweet. From fermentation it became very mineraly and had lots of banana like fermentation character. Once it was fermented it had the strong alcohol aroma but there was still some malt there. After the distillation process some of the malt flavour made it through. I was expecting just straight hot alcohol and was surprised that there was malt still there. It wasn’t pleasant by any stretch but it was interesting.
After a break it was time for some cherry beers from Alistair at Lobethal Bierhaus. Alistair has taken his heffe and stout and aged them in barrels on sour cherries. I didn’t think I was going to like as fruit beers aren’t generally my thing. However, these were really good. I didn’t a get a strong cherry flavour but there was some interesting sourness and other flavours. I need to go back for more today to really get it straight in my head as there is a lot going on. If you weren’t there last night try to get down today and get some. I don’t know how much there is and you don’t want to miss out. Also on tap last night was the very limited Watermelon Warhead from Feral. This is a Berlinerweisse at 2.6% with watermelon added to it. It’s an amazing combination of sour and sweet fruit. That is a “light” beer I could get behind. Another one that isn’t going to be around for long so you should get in to try it.
Today it’s time for Doctors Orders goes Locum. Doc is coming into to town with a special one off prescription. We still don’t know what style the beer is but it will be poured three ways. It will go through the hopper, off a regular tap and from the hand pump. I con’t wait to see what Doc has in store for us. If his commercial releases are anything to go by this should be a great beer. This is a one off so get to at The Wheaty tonight or you aren’t ever going to get to try this beer. I’m sure you don’t want to miss it. Get There!
Good Beer Wheaty Day 1
Day 1 is over and day2 is about to begin. Day1 was fantastic with a big group in for th hop nerd session. It did get nerdy too. As predicted terms like alpha acids and humulone and many other were used. Stephen got right into the details about hops and explained it well. The only problem with the presentation was that it didn’t go long enough. There could have been another two hours of presentation and still not covered everything. I think everyone there was enjoying it enough for it to go on even further too. Big thanks to Stephen for an excellent presentation and some great beers too.
Once the hop session was over it was a short wait to the Topaz Fix release. I don’t remember a release going going so quickly either. For the first fifteen minutes the tap was basically left open and glasses were swapped and filled. I’m not sure exactly how long it lasted but I doubt there is any of it left. That was the only keg of it too. I believe that some bottles are going to be available around the country but that is it for keg product.
Today we have the whisk(e)y tasting. There will be a bunch of tastings and the talk will be on the process of making spirit. There will be tastings of wort, wash and finally new make spirit at the end of the process. Should prove to be a excellent and interesting session. After that we get to try some new beers from Lobethal Bierhaus. Alistair has added sour cherries to his heffe and to his stout. This is not normally my kind of thing but I do like to try anything innovative brewers are doing. It will certainly be interesting and may even be very tasty too. Going along with that theme there will also be a rare sour on tap from Feral so even more reason to get there.
Another excellent day ahead. So come on down and join me and everyone else for a beer.
Good Beer Wheaty
First session of Good Beer Wheaty is done. Stephen Nelsen’s presentation was fantastic and the beer was great. Forty minute until session two which is the release of the Topaz collaboration. Get There! Seriously, it’s awesome!