Good Beer Week

Good Beer week. Melbourne, May 2011. A couple of weeks ago we traveled to Melbourne for Good Beer Week. This is a series of events at craft beer bars all over Melbourne and I can thoroughly recommend everybody to go there next year. Because of the Australian International Beer Awards (AIBA)*, a lot of brewers were in town, including quite a few Kiwis. Together we covered quite a bit of ground participating in instore tastings, beer degustation dinner and even a beer breakfast. I actually lived in Melbourne 6 years ago, but back then I wasn't particularly interested in good beer. I'm pretty confident that the beer scene has come a long way since then though and there are now dozens of fantastic venues to go for great beer. The most obvious choice would be the famous Local Taphouse in St Kilda, followed by places like Beer DeLuxe, Biero and Cookie in the city. I've got a soft spot for the Little Creatures Dining Hall in Fitzroy as it brings back fond memories of good times in Fremantle, where I first started homebrewing. The beer is good but nothing exciting in the current market to be honest. The standout venue of the week was without doubt the recently opened Josie Bones in Collingwood. A fantastic little restaurant that is almost the exact place I would open up if I had the balls to do so: First of all, the drinks list is packed with fantastic beer. Second of all, the kitchen is heavily focused on meat but not your average "how would you like your steak cooked, sir?". I'm sure you can get a steak but the philosophy is that if you kill an animal, you have made a commitment to eat the whole beast, guts and all. Not just the leanest cuts. For example, one of the dishes at the degustation lunch was a trio of duck: Duck tongues, duck hearts and a sausage made of duck neck. Doesn't sound all that charming perhaps but it was delicious and the philosophy behind the project is inspirational. Whether it is Good Beer Week or not, Melbourne is a fantastic place to visit if you're into beer. Apart from all the bars in the city there are also dozens of great little breweries dotted all over the state of Victoria. If we had the time we could easily have spend a couple of weeks in the area. Just stay clear of the gelato from the peer in St Kilda. Monique and I were both violently ill for 2 days after sharing just half a cup of this...  Just              *We didn't enter any beers in AIBA but I would claim some success with all the medals won by Renaissance Brewing, including champion stout for Craftsman Chocolate Oatmeal Stout. ***888888