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.

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.

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!

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!

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.

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!

Could be a great way to start your long weekend. Lunch with accompanying beers at The Highway. For this bout they have lined up some good local and imported beer to drink alongside some of the always great food from chef Nicholas Finn. There is no menu up as yet but I have enjoyed every meal I have had there. If you haven’t eaten there recently you should make it a point to get in for a meal soon.

The beers for this event are from a wide variety of breweries. From the USA there is the most excellent Brooklyn Brewery. Brooklyn isn’t always as in your face as some of the American craft brewers but they make some of the best beer coming out of the USA. I visited their brewery a couple of years ago and had the beer at the source. Now that we get it in Australia I can say it does travel well. If you haven’t had their beer yet this is a good excuse to try some. Going very local there is beer from McLaren Vale. The Highway has had the IPA from McLaren Vale on tap for a while now and it’s the pick of the line up. I think you can put IPA with just about any food too. The third brewery providing beer is the big boy, Lion Nathan’s, James Squire. While very much considered entry level as far as craft beer goes they still do make some good beers and they have some good people to give talks at these events. If we are lucky they will send along Chuck Hahn.

Sounds like a good excuse to have some good beer and great food to me. Get There!

I’m not going to begin to try to write about all the events at Good Beer Week in Melbourne. What I am going to do is to list and give a very quick summary of the events I am going to. Please say hi if you are at any of these events.

I fly over on the morning of Wednesday the 16th so miss out on a few of the events but I’m not going to miss Good Beer Wheaty.

Wednesday 16 May

Lunchtime – American Craft Brewers Association lunch and tasting at The Courthouse Hotel. This one is invite only. Not sure how I managed to get an invite but I did so yay for me.

Evening – It’s off to Mountain Goat for Abbotsford Collabotsford. I wasn’t a big fan of the beer they came up with last year but it’s always a good event at Mountain Goat.

Thursday 17 May

Day – I will make my first visit to Temple. I had their beers in their first incarnation and look forward to trying again. After that it’s off to the Tramway for Pint of Origin.

Evening – All things going well I’m off to the AIBA awards dinner. If not it will be a big pint of origing night.

Friday 18 May

Breakfast – Hair of the dog breakfast at Beer DeLuxe. I’m told this event has been great in the past so can’t wait to have beer for breakfast.

Lunch – Jose Bones’ Big Good Beer Lunch. I’m looking forward to tackling the whole beast.

Evening – Brooklyn Brewery Party at The Great Northern. Love Brooklyn beers and I hear the Great Northern is a great pub so why wouldn’t I go.

Saturday 19 May

Day – Wandering Melbourne and visiting the beer venues I haven’t yet made it too.

Dinner – I’m wait listed for the Slowbeer pairing, Italian Style.This sounds great and I like the Italian craft beers I have had so far. I really hope I can score a ticket to this. If not maybe I will take five minutes off to rest the liver.

Night – Good Beer Week closing party. Should be a good wrap up to the week and a chance to catch up with everyone before going home and suffering what promises to be a monumental hangover.

So that is my Good Beer week. What are you up to? Get There!

Taking inspiration from Good Beer Week in Melbourne Adelaide’s own Wheaty is having it’s own beer Festival, Good Beer Wheaty!

There is going to be a ton of exciting events. Check out the link to the program above and read my take below. While I want to jump straight into the event I will be involved with lets start from the start and work our way through. There are also some as yet unconfirmed events I will cover quickly at the end but will focus on the events that are currently on the schedule.

To kick things off and get everyone warmed up on Saturday 12 May we have a hop nerdery session hosted by Stephen Nelsen. This will focus on new and emerging Australian hop varieties. The session will cover everything from hop basics through high hop nerdery so don’t be surprised if you hear terms like alpha acid and cohumulone. To make things more exciting there will be tastings of new and rare beers featuring these new Australian hops. If you don’t get to the session you may never get to try these beers again. Better get in and get your tickets as this one will sell out fast.

Next up on Saturday evening is the launch of the Beer Here, Northdown and Nelsen collaboration brew. This beer is a version of the Beer Here Hop Fix except it features Topaz hops. The new version is called Topaz Fix. This is one of the new Australian hops that will be featured in the hop nerd session earlier in the day. The beer will eventually make it out and around the country but the first keg will be tapped at 1700 on 12 May 2012 at The Wheaty.

If you can back up for another session on Sunday it’s going to kick off nice and easy with a whisk(e)y tasting session. This is the event I’m involved with but I can’t go into the detail so as to maintain the mystery. Whisky(e)y is just distilled beer after all so it fits into the theme of the festival. Run by local whisk(e)y gurus Dr Paul Gooding and The Odd Whisky Coy’s own Big G. There will be a bunch of tastings at this event from wort, through wash, new make spirit and some finished whisk(e)y. Should be fun and you get to learn about the whole production process.

If you have the staying power to keep going there is even more on Sunday. The afternoon session is the Cherry Experiment with Alistair from Lobethal Bierhaus. Alistair has taken some local sour cherries and added them to his heff and the oatmeal stout. Fruit in beer isn’t really my thing but I am keen to give it a try. Should be a good contrast to the malts from earlier in the day.

I guess we all have to go to work on Monday so we have to wait until evening for the next event. What an event it will be though. The good Doctor himself, Darren Robinson, of Doctor’s Orders Brewing will be at The Wheaty for Doc Goes Locum. On the night a new beer from Doctor’s Orders Brewing will be poured three ways. You get to taste the latest concoction from a regular tap, through the glass hopper and from the hand pump. The style of the beer is still under wraps and knowing Doc this could be anything. Doc doesn’t tend to brew the same things as everyone else so whatever this is it’s sure to be very creative and something you haven’t tried before. As Doc says “Come get your beer prescription”.

To wrap things up on Tuesday night there are some more international visitors at The Wheaty. Visiting to talk and share their wares are Stu and Sam of the Yeastie Boys. This promises to be a fun event with a tasting of the range of Yeastie Boys beers, some seasonal releases and possibly a couple of surprises. The guys are also going to talk about contract brewing which is something that tends to have a bad name here in Australia but is a well accepted norm in New Zealand craft brewing. I’m personally a fan of the concept and look forward to the talk. On top of all of this there is rumours of some announcements too. You won’t want to miss this event or any of them for that matter. I personally plan to be at every one of them. They make really awesome beer too so go drink some of it.

That is the quick run down of the scheduled events. On top of those, already scheduled, events there are a couple of unconfirmed possibilities that sound pretty exciting. There is a chance that The Wheaty will be part of the Good Beer Week People’s Pint launch of Double Hoptondre. The other unconfirmed event is a possible strike tasting of Brooklyn Brewery Black Ops. No details on when this will be so you better just get to every event. There are very limited quantities of both beers so just make sure you are at the pub all day for the four days so you don’t miss out.

So that is Good Beer Wheaty! You aren’t going to want to miss any of it. I’m planning on being at every event and have taken time off from my day job for the purpose. Get There!

The first Weird Beer Session has happened at The Wheaty and I couldn’t be happier with the result. We had a great group of beer lovers get together and enjoy some amazing beers. We ended up with ten people for the first session and got through around ten different beers. With one to two bottles between the group we got a large enough sample to get a good taste but small enough that we weren’t rolling on the floor at the end of it.

An amazing group turned up, some I had met before and some I hadn’t. People of all levels of beer geekery and beer tastes but really cool and fun people all round. We started the session according to plan with a couple of Cantillon sour beers. From there it went all over the place. There was organic IPA from NZ, Saison from Belgium, Imperial stout from the USA and much more. We couldn’t have picked a more diverse and fantastic range if it had been planned in advance. The highlight of the day for me was the coffee and Fig stout from the Epic Epicurean range. It wasn’t big on the fig flavour for me but the beer was fantastic with an amazing coffee flavour. So many fantastic beers though. I can’t wait to do it all again.

The plan is to try to get something like this going once a month or so. I will consult with the other attendees and see if we can’t set another date with a bit more advance warning this time. Hope to see you at the next event.

I have wanted to do this for a while but out of some other conversations have finally decided to actually do it. I want to do some odd beer tastings. If you are anything like me you are often at the pub and see these out there beers you would love to try but aren’t going to commit to a 750ml bottle of 11% sour beer when you don’t have any beer geeks with you to drink it. These beers are often quite pricey too. So I thought why not try to get a group together to defray the cos and have some people to talk about the beer with.

I wouldn’t mind it becoming something semi regular but thought about starting this Saturday the 21st of April around 1300 at The Wheaty. For the first session I’m thinking of going for some treats from Cantillon. There is a good range in at The Wheaty at the moment so what better time to do it and what better beers to start with? Some of these I have never tried. The idea for the session is that everyone comes along and based on the numbers we get we buy a certain number of bottles of beer. I’m thinking a 750ml between four people is probably a good portion and trying around four beers would probably be enough. So each person would pay the price of a single bottle but get to try four. The plan isn’t for this to tasting to be led by one person telling you all about the beer but just for a group to get together and talk about beer together. The beers I am thinking about are Mamouche, Vigneronne, ‘07 Framboise Cuvee Lou Pepe and ‘09 Kriek Cuvee Lou Pepe none of which I have tried before. That said everything I have had from Cantillon has been nothing short of amazing.

Interested? Let me know. Not sure if this is going to appeal to a large number of beer geeks but it would be cool to get together for some weird beers. If you are interested you can leave a comment on this post but it’s probably best to send me an email aaron at imhereforthehops dot com or send me a message on twitter @hereforthehops. Hope to see you there.

Posting frequency has gone down lately but with good reason. Besides the day job being busy I am also working on a side project involving brewing. Can’t say much about it right now but it, hopefully, isn’t too far off.

In the interim I will attempt to get some more posts up on the site. Coming up soon is Good Beer Week and Good Beer Wheaty so they should provide lots of fodder for postin. I just have to find some time to write between hangovers. Details should be out soon for the Wheaty event so I won’t say much now but there are some exciting things going on.

This Sunday, 18 March 2012, it’s time meet the brewer, Christian Skovdal Anderson, of Beer Here at The Wheaty. It’s not often we get European craft brewers in Adelaide and certainly not of this stature. To go along with the visit there will be a bunch of Beer Here beers taking over the taps. The list going on tap is:

Yes that is six taps of Beer Here goodness. Some of which hasn’t been seen on our part of the world before. If you have any affection for beer at all you would have to be mad not be there on Sunday. Don’t worry about work on Monday just get to The Wheaty have some awesome beers while talking to the guy that made them on the other side of the world. How cool is that? Get There!

Continuing on their addition of great craft beer to the line up Shanker’s on Prospect Rd are having a craft beer Sunday Session on Sunday 18 March from 1130 until 1600. Featuring beers from a number of Australian craft breweries and some great food from Shanker’s it promises to be a great afternoon. The featured breweries for the first event are Bridge Road Brewers, Kooinda, Feral and Mountain Goat. A star studded Australian line up for sure. Their normal craft range will also be available. If you have never eaten at Shanker’s you will be up for a treat on that front too.

Pouring on the day will be the following excellent beers:

Bridge Road Brewers
Galaxy Single Hop IPA
Bridge Rd/Nogne-0 India Saison

Kooinda
Kooinda Black IPA
American Pale Ale

Feral
Hop Hog American IPA
Golden Ace Belgian Golden Ale

Mountain Goat
Steam Ale
Rare Breed Rye IPA

It’s a mere $20 to get in which includes your first beer and finger food for the whole afternoon. The featured beers and the whole list as at special prices all day. I can’t think of a reason to not go. They are doing great things for craft beer at Shanker’s, they make fantastic food and they are good people. Get There!

It’s being released all over the place very soon now. However, the first Adelaide tapping, that I’m aware of, is this Wednesday the 22nd of March at The Wheaty from 1700. If the Doctor’s past efforts are anything to go by this is certain to be an absolute cracker. It is coming up at The Lion too and as soon as I know when it will be tapped there I will be sure to let you know.

The beer this time is what the good Doctor is calling a Black Imperial Pilsner. Labelled a lager interpretation of the Mind Warp Black IPA. I have had the Mind Warp and it was sensational. Doc did a black IPA long before everyone jumped on the bandwagon and it got really trendy. It is up there with the best black IPA I have tried too. You won’t want to miss it’s lager version. I’m certainly not going to.

What could you possibly have to do that would keep you away? Get There!

Lots of good beer stuff going on at the moment. New stuff from local breweries and interesting beers arriving at local pubs.

At the Wheaty there is plenty of good stuff coming up. This week has many exciting new beers coming up. Already announced in the regular Wheaty mail is lots of tasty treats. This Friday, the 10th of February, is the start of a run of what promises to be excellent single hop IPAs from Mikkeller. First up on tap this Friday is Citra. I love this hop so can’t wait to see what Mikkeller has done with it. Also coming up, hopefully this week, are some excellent new arrivals from Green Flash and Bear Republic. I had the very good luck of having some of the Bear Republic beers fresh from the taps when I was in the USA and Racer 5 is one of the best IPAs I have had. I personally can’t wait to get a chance to try it again. Also in stock right now are a bunch of new wheat beers from German brewer Schneider. Things are looking good over the next few weeks. Get There!

Shanker’s on Prospect Rd is updating it’s list again. They keep turning it over and adding more good beer. Recently some beers from Bridge Road Brewers have found their way into the fridge and I hear there may be some India Saison on the way soon. I also managed to get to Shanker’s for my Birthday which happened to coincide with the Prospect Road Street Party for the Tour Downunder. On the night they had a special beer brewed by Beard and Brau on tap. It was a very tasty pale ale which went down a treat in the hot weather and with the great food. To top all this off there is a rumour some very tasty locally made beers may be turning up on tap on a permanent basis at Shanker’s in the near future.

Across town at the Earl of Leicester there are some great beers hitting the taps and in the fridge. I’m not sure if I mentioned it previously but they are, as far as I’m aware, the only venue pouring the Double Red from Beard and Brau. It’s a great beer and my favourite from Beard and Brau so far. They currently have the Poleeko Gold from Anderson Valley on tap too. I’m yet to see it anywhere else in the country on tap and haven’t seen a mention of it in bottles either. There is a bunch of other great beers in bottle too and the food is always great. Get down and check them out.

The Highway have been putting some god beers on tap too. On my last visit they had both The Runt and Barrel Fermented Hop Hog from Feral. They have had great stuff in bottles for some time now and it’s great to see some great Australian craft beer hitting the taps. In bottle there is a great selection from across the ditch in NZ and from the USA. I enjoyed some tasty drops from Epic, 8Wired and Yeastie Boys on my last visit. The beer list is improving with every visit and the food coming out of the kitchen is excellent too.

At The Lion in North Adelaide they have been turning up the craft beers in recent times too. Recently there have even been beers from American favourite Rogue. However they seem to always have at least a couple of Australian crafts on tap. On my most recent visit there were beers from Lobethal and Moutain Goat on tap. In the fridge was the Pike’s Stout which I hadn’t had before. They are brewing their beers at Hargreaves Hill now and this is a pretty good drop. There is normally beer from the likes of Yeastie Boys, Brooklyn Brewery, Sierra Nevada and Hitachino. There really is a good range of beers now and you should get down there and check it out.

On the brewery scene Brewboys have updated the Charger lager now called Charger E55. It’s a great drop and I don’t know how long it will be available for so get down there and try some. In addition there are always new single batch and or single keg beers going on tap. If you don’t get down regularly you won’t get the chance to try them ever. The regular lineup is great too so just go and talk to the brewers and have a few beers.

Over at Beard and Brau there is the aforementioned Double Red that they have out at The Earl. You really should get there to try it. I don’t think it’s available any more but if you can find it the Tourrific Pale Ale was a great drop. It’s a great and really drinkable American Style Pale Ale. To try the range get to the Earl of Leicester as they usually have a large number of Beard and Brau beers. Shanker’s generally have a couple available too. You can drop into Shanker’s just for a beer too.

Lobethal have been releasing some new beers too. The latest verion of the Devil’c Choice is out and a tasty drop it is. If you like high ABV Belgian style ales then this should be right up your alley. They have recently started brewing a new beer just for the Good Life Pizza shops. I haven’t even had a chance to try it myself yet. I’m told it’s quite a tasty drop. This is unconfirmed but I believe it’s an American Pale Ale with a good hit of Citra hops. The Pilsener has recently undergone a change in recipe too. I’m not sure if this is just for The Wheaty or it’s a availble generally. Either way they have dried it out and made it a little more bitter. It has worked a treat and made what was a good beer even better. It’s currently on tap at the Wheaty and tasting great.

Down at Steam Exchange they also have a new release. It’s a Belgian Trappist style called Flurieu Family Reserve. I have to admit it is a little sweet for my tastes but it does have some really interesting flavours and should be given a try. My tastes are more on the bitter side anyway. I haven’t been down to Goolwa for a while to visit the brewery so plan to do that in the next few weeks. Always good to hang out at the brewery and have super fresh beers.

Well that is the wrap up for now. This has turned out much longer than I expected. Apologies if I have missed anything it’s just that there is so much going on. Just get out there and drink some great beer. Support your local breweries and your local venues. See you at the bar.

Times are pretty good for us beer lovers in Adelaide. Over the last year or so we have seen a number of venues adding more craft beer to their lists and an increase in the rate of release of new beers from local breweries. Add to this some breweries in the start up phase and some new ones just launched and you have an exciting time for local beer people. While we would all like there to be more good beer available it is increasing.

I’m going to do some updates to the drink and breweries sections of the web site soon to reflect this. Thought in the time being I would do a really quick summary. Swell Brewery launched in the last year to plenty of good reviews. I have tried their first two beers but am yet to make it to the brewery or meet the brewer. There are a few other projects on their way to becoming breweries but we will wait until they launch before we say too much about them. The existing local breweries have also had a number of exciting new releases including the latest Devil’s Choice from Lobethal and the excellent Glactic Pale from Brewboys.

As far as places to drink go I still have my favourite. As anybody who has ever read this site know the Wheaty is my favourite and the Wheaty is still great but there are a number of other choices around too. As per an earlier article the Earl of Leicester is stocking some great beer, The Highway has started to really upgrade their list and The Lion has some great beer on their taps and in the fridge too. If you are looking for a restaurant then look no further than the excellent Shanker’s on Prospect Rd and Press in the city. While in the cbd the Crown & Sceptre and The Kings are certainly worth a look too.

All around things just keep getting better. I have even started to see some of the more accessible craft beers in mainstream bar. If I can walk into any pub and find a Pacific Ale or Punk IPA I would be pretty happy with that. Go to the pub and get some beer.

I’m back. The site has been very quiet over the last few months. I have been travelling extensively for my day job which just hasn’t left me the time for writing. While still busy my travel is being drastically reduced so I will have time to start cranking out some content again. Lots has been happening in beer in and around Adelaide and there should be plenty more happening in the coming months.

Onto the topic at hand though. I would love to catch up with other beer writers around Adelaide. Really I just like drinking and talking about beer and always like to meet more beer loving people. Maybe we can even help each other out. We could work together on campaigning for issues affecting craft beer in our town. We can lobby venues to get more good beer. We can also have some fun and enjoy a few beers together.

If you are interested in getting together for some beers and talking to other beer people let me know. I would like to set up a meeting at a beer venue but even if you just want to catch up one on one let me know or you could just hand around at the Wheaty for half an hour. Hit me up and lets get something organised. Comment on this post, send me an email aaron at imhereforthehops dot com, hit me on twitter or just come up and say hi if you see me at the pub. Let’s get the craft beer movement going in Adelaide. We have some great venues and there are some great beers around but I’m greedy and I want there to be more.

See you at the pub.

The Earl has long been known for their amazingly good and huge schnitzels. I always go for the small size and am teased for it but I don’t know how any human can eat a large one. The Earl has also been doing some good beer for quite a while too. However, after going back for the first time in a a year or two recently I found they really had upped the ante in the good beer stakes. The Earl is now one of the best beer venues in Adelaide. There has been some new entrants to the market recently but the Earl just keeps doing good things well.

On my most recent visit, lunch yesterday, I was happy to find a new drop from Beard and Brau on tap. They are calling it the Double Red Tail and it is a very tasty Imperial Red Ale. I don’t think it is available anywhere else at the moment so if for no other reason go in for a pint. I teamed it up with a schnitzel that was really a good steak covered in crumbs. No messing about with thin crappy meat here, just good real beef. I don’t know if it would make the list of the gastronomer set but a good schnitzel and a great beer was a hit in my books.

In addition to the treats mentioned above the Earl has a huge range of beers from all over. A wide range of German, Belgian an other European favourites including some not so common British ales. Then there is the new guys from Europe like Nogne-0 and American treats like Rogue. If new world is more to your liking you can pick up some 8wired beers from NZ and of course the locals like the aforementioned Beard and Brau. In fact The Leicester seems to be becoming the “home pub” for Beard and Brau with a couple of their beers on tap a lot of the time.

All up it’s one of Adelaide’s best pubs with great beer and food. I would like to explore the menu more but can never go past the schnitzels when I go there. Check it out for yourself and head down for lunch or just a beer. Get There!

It’s time for another new and exciting range to hit the taps at The Wheaty in Adelaide. This time coming on to the taps is beer from California’s Anderson Valley. Some of their beers have been available in bottle and, surprisingly, in cans for a while now. However there is nothing like trying the beers fresh from the tap to get their real impact. While Anderson Valley may not be as in your face as some US breweries they produce fantastic well rounded and really well made quality beers.

The kick off event is this Friday, 25 November from 1700 at The Wheaty. First to go on tap is the very excellent Hop Ottin’ IPA. The IPA is probably my favourite of their range but that probably isn’t a surprise to anyone. Following will be the Boont Amber, their flagship, Poleeko Gold and the always reliable Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout.

So get down to The Wheaty from 1700. While you are thinking about it you should follow them on twitter here and sign up for their mailing list so you never miss out on what is happening. Hope to see you there on Friday. Get There!