What to do when you have a week in Melbourne
Recently I was in Melbourne for a week of training for my day job. It’s nothing interesting so I shan’t trouble you with the details. I was staying right in the CBD so took the opportunity to enjoy the beer delights Melbourne had to offer. I ended up running out of steam at the end of the week but managed to get to some cool events and have some fun before a cold took over.
Day 1 I arrived in Melbourne late afternoon and checked into my hotel after a typical late flight and surviving the taxi ride from Tullamarine. It had been nealry a year since my last visit to Biero and I thiought it would be fairly quiet on a Monday so this was my first stop.
Quiet was an understatement. I was the only customer around when I arrived, it was very early in the evening. I was outnumbered by staff three to one so I didn’t have to wait at the bar. Biero had it’s Black Friday event the previous Friday so it was mostly stouts on tap. There was a few I hadn’t tried so decided that was the best place to start. I actually started with one I had tasted before but wanted to revisit. The Hargreave’s Hill Imperial Stout is a cracker and really easy drinking for something with such a high ABV. As a side note I didn’t make any notes about the beers on this trip so won’t be able to provide much in the way of tasting notes but this trip is more about the Melbourne experience anyway. Next up was one of the highlights of the trip, the Stubborn Russian from Bright Brewery. This was thick chewy and warming. Maybe not the best thing for early in the night but a really sensational beer. From here I moved to something a little lighter, Phin and Matt’s Extrordinary Ale by Southern Tier. This just seemed like a fairly standard APA to me and not really remarkable. I finished off the session with another pallet cleanser in Bruggen Blonde. Biero has a great range and there was a number of other beers I wanted to try but most of the were 9% plus and came in 750ml bottles. Not really an option when you are out by yourself. I prefer being at Biero on a Monday night as it gets a bit night clubby for me later in the week, or it did a year ago when I was there previously.
From Biero I decided to check out a little bar I had heard good things about but had never made it to. Penny Blue is one of those classic down a lane running off a lane running off a backstreet in Melbourne places. The difference to most others is that Penny Blue has great beer. The wine selection looked pretty good at a glance too but I wasn’t there for the wine this night. As you would expect, for a Monday night, it was quiet with a couple of small groups scattered about the place. Penny Blue has a real lounge relaxed feel and I felt really comfortable there. It’s the kind of place you expect to find the cool people but it pulls it off without being at all pretentious. If a beer geek from Adelaide drinking by himself can feel comfortable there surely anyone can. The bar man I spoke to was knowledgable, wanted to talk about the beers and was keen to make reccomendations. I started the session here with the Harvest Ale from Red Hill. This beer is starting to get a little old not but it’s still tasting great. Penny Blue obviously look after their stock. It was one win after another here with the Kooinda Full Nelson Black IPA next. I finally found it in small bottles so treated myself to one. Another great beer amongst the recent trend to blackify traditional pale styles, (see everybodies black IPAs and black Saisons from Doctor’s Orders and Bridge Road). Luckily there was another beer geek around. I wanted to try the Moylan’s Hopsicle but 750ml of 9.2% Imperial IPA wasn’t going to happen at the end of the night. The barman, I’m sorry I forget your name, organised us and we split a bottle. If you haven’t tried it yet make sure you do some time soon when it gets back into stock. That wrapped up the night for me. Not a huge night but I had big things planned for the next two nights so it was probably a wise decision.
Tuesday after a day of death by powerpoint I couldn’t to get out and get to the pub fast enough. Tuesday was to be a/the big one. I had managed to be in town for the Mikkeller tap takeover at the Local Taphouse in St Kilda. This means 20 different Mikkeller beers on tap at once. Looking at the lineup there was 14 or 15 I hadn’t had before and Mikkeller is one of my favourite brewers so to say I was looking forward to this event would be a mamoth undestatement. I almost sprinted to Southern Cross Station and onto a Sandringham line train bound for Balaclava station. A tram could have gotten me closer but this looked like the fastest way to get there. Once off the peak hour train packed with people who merely served to annoy and couldn’t possibly understand the momentous event ahead of me it was a left turn on Carlisle Street and straight to the Local. I did turn my head as I passed the bottleshop but decided I would head in there for takeaways later. This proved to be a bad decision but we shall cover that later.
Once inside and upstairs I found some local beer geeks I had previously only met online, beer people are good people, and grabbed my first paddle of tasters. I’m not even going to begin to try to list all of the beers or talk about them specifically as there was just too many and frankly it’s all a bit of a blur. The Taphouse is a great venue and has so much good beer. The staff are pretty good, are very enthusiastic and friendly. The place has a great vibe and it’s easy to get spome conversation going with complete strangers when it’s a collection of beer people. Beer people want to discuss what they are dinrking and their thoughts on different beers. We all like to compare notes, I find it particularly intersteing when someone has a polar oposite view on a beer that I either love or hate. After a couple of tasting paddles I noticed it was getting close to 2000, the closing time of the bottleshop, so I thought I best head down and pick up some stuff I can’t find in Adelaide. This is a bad idea when you are already well into a session at the Taphouse, I think they may count on this. I spent far more money than I should of. Though I picked up plenty of good beer and the money certainly wans’t wasted I’m not sure my better half was happy with the credit card bill.
After making my way through all the tastings it was the moment of truth. After tasting all of those beers what do you actually go back to for drinking and not just tasting. For me it was the Simcoe IPA and Ten. While I really liked the Black there is a limit to how much 17% Imperial Stout I can drink and IPA is my default position. After a few more beers and much excellent conversation I realised. A) It was getting late. B) I had a reasonably early start back in training the next day. C) I hadn’t eaten anything since lunch time. D) I was quite drunk. E) I was doing it all again the next night. So I bid farewell to my new beer geek friends and made for the station. I picked up some terrible junk food on the way back to the hotel and collapsed with my half eaten burger onto the hotel bed.
Wednesday was spent in training cursing Tuesday me but as the day wore on I started to come good. By the time I was done with work for the day I was running out the door and heading for the pub onice again. This time I was off to North Melbourne to visit the Courthouse Hotel. Renowned as a good beer venue that is getting better all the time it was my first visit. Once again my timing was exceptional as the Courthouse had on a Crafty Pint sponsored beer food and wine matching dinner. With each course we were to be served an accompanying beer and wine to compare and contrast. First things first though. I hit the bar and was soon joined by the local Melbourne members of the Australian Beer Writers Guild. We snuck in as many beers as we could before being called upstairs for dinner. I managed to squeeze in a couple of previously untatsed, by me, 3 Ravens beers that I quite enjoyed.
The dinner was exceptional. Initially I was a bit dissapointed as I got sat with a bunch of people I didn’t know and was looking forward to a conversation with some of the local beer geeks. I quickly pulled myself out of that funk and got chatting with some locals who were all fairly new to good beer. These were people who had the Courthouse as their local saw a poster for the dinner and decided to give it a go. It’s a good thing to see. I think these were the only people at the event not closely related to someone at the pub or Crafty Pint who was putting the event on. All of the courses were great though I thought the pasta course which was one piece of tortellini on a spoon was kind of odd. I didn’t need more food overall but I felt I couldn’t really get a real sense for the dish never mind contrast two drinks to it with only one piece of pasta. The pick of the courses because of the match was the cheese with the Westmalle Tripel. These went together so well I would have been happy if served nothing else. The pork dish was also excellent but the match of the cheese and the Westmalle was truly excellent.
Once dinner was over it was back to the bar and a few of the higher ABV and weirder beers that were on offer. Unspurprisingly people start to care less about prices at this time of night and bottles of Brew Dog Tokyo were ordered. Festivities, for me at least, were cut short only by the imminent arrival of the last tram back into the city. This meant it was time to leave the Courthouse. It’s a great pub that you wouldn’t pick for what it is from the outside. It camouflages it’s self well with it’s suburban pub look and Carlton Draught sign above the door. If you are in North Melbourne I reccomend a look.
Thursday wasn’t a pretty thing. After three fairly drinkie nights in a row Melbourne had taken it’s toll on me. After making it through the days training session I decided a walk around the streets of Melbourne would be a good idea. There was a big tasting on a Purvis Cellars I would have liked to make it to but I was a bit rundown at this point and it was at their Surrey Hills outlet which seemed a fair way from the CBD. In the end my night was a wander about the city and a couple of local craft beers and Young and Jacksons. In the end this was a good decision after a fairly full week of beer drinking.
This trip was not planned particularly around any of these events. This just seems to be what happens in Melbourne. There is always some kind of beer event going on. Just head over for a visit I’m sure you will find something to do in the local beer scene. Make sure you look around when you are going over and give the venues I have mentioned here a go and tell me about others you find.
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Australia’s Hottest 100 Craft Beers – Number 1 Vale Ale
The Hottest 100 Australian Craft beers list has been compiled and released. Thanks to The Local Taphouse and the Crafty Pint for putting it all together and publishing it. This years winner is Vale Ale from McLaren Vale Beer company. Big congratulations to the guys. Can’t wait to taste the beers when they start coming out of the new brewery. A couple of other local breweries made the list too. You can check out the full list here thanks to Crafty Pint.
I’m not a fan of a lot of the stuff on the list. I’m not saying they are bad beers but beers from the two largest breweries in the country surely can’t count as craft. I like Alpha Pale but there is no way that is a craft beer. I think the definition really needs to be tightened up to reward the real craft producers around the country and not slap the big boys on the back regardless of their beer being any good or not. Go out and drink something from a small craft producer today!
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ANHC – A quick look
It’s all over and I am suffering the post conference come down. My body has not had any alcohol in it for two days now and doesn’t really know how to deal with it. Once again the ANHC Committee and all the speakers have done an epic job pulling off a fantastic conference.
My trip consisted of a beer bar crawl around Melbourne on Wednesday afternoon visiting Beer Deluxe, Mrs Parmas and Biero. All fantastic venues with their own charms. Wednesday night included a judges dinner and calibration session.
Thursday kicked off judging of AABC then onto The Local Taphouse. The Taphouse in St Kilda is a great venue. I went down there planning to have just a couple and going back to my hotel for an early night. That didn’t happen. I got stuck into the beer list, met up with fellow beer blogger James and before I knew what was going on my wallet was much lighter, I was much less stable on my feet and it was midnight. I can’t quite work out what happened there.
Friday was the start of the conference proper.
It was a struggle early on. After a while I got into gear and started soaking up the info. The 10.5% Belgian ale served in the first session of the day was a little harsh though. Lots of great sessions and beers served during the day. At the end of the conference day it was onto the beer and food matching dinner. It was spectacular. An amazing meal matched with great beers from home brewers. Some of the best beers I have had either home made or commercial for some time. The menu was made to match the beers. The menu was put together by Chris Badenoch and it was good enough to get me to buy his book. Then it was onto club night. This is where things get really hazy. Tons of just amazing beer from home brewers from around the country and even some from the USA. Also got to meet up with another beer and food blogger Gem.
Saturday the conference continues though with many sore heads. After the usual tastings including cooking from Chris Badenoch again it was time for the conference to wrap up and for us to head off to the gala dinner. A few of us thought we would hit Biero again on the way to dinner but unfortunately it wasn’t yet open so we hit the Celtic club for $5 Imperial pints of Matilda Bay Alpha pale. From there we hit the dinner where we got to try the very awesome B2 Bomber from Bridge Road Brewers. The meal wasn’t as good as the previous night but was tasty. After that there was a quick stop at Biero, a bit too night clubby on Saturday for my taste then a night cap at Beer Deluxe.
Sunday morning was all about sore head withdrawal symptoms and dealing with airports. Will get some stuff about some of the events in the future.
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A Night at the Taphouse Sydney
Another post from the road. Headed into the Local Taphouse in Darlinghurst after work to have a couple of beers. It ended up being more than a couple as I found some great beers on tap. I was even lucky enough to find a Mikkeller on tap. I thought I was going to miss out on that as they were launching at the Wheaty back in Adelaide while I was there.
The evening started with a local that I haven’t had before. The Murrays Grand Cru was a fantastic example of a Belgian Tripel. Though not completely authentic to stye it has a lot of great Belgian qualities. It has wonderful malt qualities and the bitterness level is just right. Be careful wit this one as it is scarily easy to drink for such a large beer. After that I moved on to a Mikkeller Stateside IPA. I have had this beer from bottle before but it’s much better and has a great fresh hop flavour and aroma. The bitterness is assertive but well balanced and not over the top. Try this beer if you get the chance. Onto another local next in the form of Five Islands Rust Amber. Without being amazing it was a very drinkable and I really enjoyed my pint. Great toffee like malt flavours with a good bitterness and some nice hop flavours. Next up was the Murrays Dark Knight Porter. This was a good beer with some nice chocolate flavours. However, I found this beer to sweet for my taste. Perhaps if it had been matched wit the right food it would have worked better for me but it was just too sweet for me. From there out I stuck with the Mikkeller Stateside IPA, I don’t remember how many though.
After all that beer I also managed to sneak in their 3 beef burger which is marinated in Schlkerla. It’s a great burger and helps to soak up some of the booze.
This is a really good pub with some great staff that know something about beer and seem to care. Gets thumbs up for food, beer, service and ambience from me.
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