Good Beer Week ...

They had Moo Brew Belgo on yesterday...not sure what is planned for next Saturday...did things sell out down in Melbourne?

 

The lineup has been announced http://thelocaltaphouse.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/best-of-gabs-2012-lineup-announced-for.html ...details below:

We'll be posting something about the GABS 2012 in Melbourne over the coming week or so but right now we have more important things on our minds!​

‘The Best of GABS 2012’ will take place at the Darlo Taphouse on Saturday June 2nd from midday until 1am. It will feature a selection of 20 beers hand-picked by The Local Taphouse from the 58 beers that were showcased at the Great Australasian Beer SpecTAPular in Melbourne during Good Beer Week. The beers were brewed by Australia and New Zealand’s finest craft brewers and released for the first time at GABS. These beers haven't been made before and probably won't be made again.

Entry is gold coin with all proceeds donated to charity and there will be great entertainment and food on offer.

Here is the lineup:

1. Yeastie Boys (NZ) Gunnamatta‘Tea-leafed’ IPA
2. Renaissance Brewing (NZ) ‘Stonecutter’ Oak Aged Scotch Ale
3. Liberty Brewing Co. (NZ) ‘S!mcoe’ Imperial IPA
4. Harringtons Brewery (NZ) ‘A Bit of Kiwi Wit’ Witbier
5. 8 Wired Brewing (NZ) ‘C4’Double Coffee Brown Ale
6. Invercargill Brewery (NZ) ‘Red Hot Chocolate’ Chilli Stout
7. Epic Brewing Company (NZ) ‘Zythos’ IPA
8. Bright Brewery (VIC) ‘Resistance Red Ale’ IRA
9. True South Brewery (VIC) ‘Coconut Telegraph’ Coconut Porter
10. Red Duck (VIC) ‘Bumble Bee’ Honey Amber
11. Moon Dog Craft Brewery (VIC) ‘Mr Mistoffelees’ Passionfruit and Mango Wild Ale
12. Thunder Road Brewing (VIC) ‘Richmond Pilsner’
13. Little Creatures Brewing (WA) / White Rabbit Brewery (VIC) ‘The Little Rabbit’ Belgian-Style Ale
14. Feral Brewing Co. (WA) ‘Watermelon Warhead’ Berliner Weisse
15. Murray’s Craft Brewing Co (NSW) ‘Bob’s Farmhouse Ale
16. Illawarra Brewing Co. (NSW) ‘Saison Rouge’ Red Saison
17. 4 Pines Brewing Company (NSW) ‘Beetroot Belgian Ale’ Strong Belgian Ale
18. Doctor’s Orders Brewing (NSW) ‘Plasma’ White IPA
19. Steam Exchange / Lobethal Bierhaus Collaboration (SA) ‘Double Dubbel IPA’
20. Seven Sheds (TAS) ‘Black Elephant’ Black Trappist-style Ale

We hope to see you there!

 

Good beers in bold, poor beers struck-out, average beers unchanged. Just my thoughts but hopefully it will point some of you in the right direction. Slightly disappointing to see the Thunder Road and Seven Sheds considered to be some of the best as they were some of my least favourite. S!mcoe was a bit harsh, the Kiwi Wit was boring as was the Bumble Bee.

1. Yeastie Boys (NZ) Gunnamatta‘Tea-leafed’ IPA
2. Renaissance Brewing (NZ) ‘Stonecutter’ Oak Aged Scotch Ale
3. Liberty Brewing Co. (NZ) ‘S!mcoe’ Imperial IPA
4. Harringtons Brewery (NZ) ‘A Bit of Kiwi Wit’ Witbier
5. 8 Wired Brewing (NZ) ‘C4’Double Coffee Brown Ale
6. Invercargill Brewery (NZ) ‘Red Hot Chocolate’ Chilli Stout
7. Epic Brewing Company (NZ) ‘Zythos’ IPA
8. Bright Brewery (VIC) ‘Resistance Red Ale’ IRA
9. True South Brewery (VIC) ‘Coconut Telegraph’ Coconut Porter
10. Red Duck (VIC) ‘Bumble Bee’ Honey Amber
11. Moon Dog Craft Brewery (VIC) ‘Mr Mistoffelees’ Passionfruit and Mango Wild Ale
12. Thunder Road Brewing (VIC) ‘Richmond Pilsner’
13. Little Creatures Brewing (WA) / White Rabbit Brewery (VIC) ‘The Little Rabbit’ Belgian-Style Ale
14. Feral Brewing Co. (WA) ‘Watermelon Warhead’ Berliner Weisse
15. Murray’s Craft Brewing Co (NSW) ‘Bob’s Farmhouse Ale
16. Illawarra Brewing Co. (NSW) ‘Saison Rouge’ Red Saison
17. 4 Pines Brewing Company (NSW) ‘Beetroot Belgian Ale’ Strong Belgian Ale
18. Doctor’s Orders Brewing (NSW) ‘Plasma’ White IPA
19. Steam Exchange / Lobethal Bierhaus Collaboration (SA) ‘Double Dubbel IPA’
20. Seven Sheds (TAS) ‘Black Elephant’ Black Trappist-style Ale

 

Cheers David, always good to know going into it, what people think of them.

 

Agree with sentiments above re the beers but thought black elephant was good (if you like hybrid quads) and the Richmond pilsner wasn't too bad. 4 pines was ok - but maybe it's because I haven't had many Belgians lately.

As for my picks: watermelon warhead and the stonecutter. I went back for full servings of them. Zythos was good too.

 

It's good to hear about the W/Melon W/Hard and the 4 pines. We managed to be able to get those, along with Mash's Koffee Stout, Bootleg's Black Market Black IPA and Last Drop's Dunkelweizen. Greedy Melbourne bas__rds drank the rest.

 

Did anyone in Melbourne have the Gruit beer done by Holgate? Any thoughts? Keg is coming over.

 

Yeah. I tried it at GABS and thought it was excellent. Nothing like Red Duck's version of a Gruit that came out 1-2 years ago. A bit more sweetness than I expected.

 

I was 50/50 on it. Certainly not bad, just not great.

 

Anyone know if the Taphouse Sydney is still putting on new kegs from this?

I had heard they had at least one keg each of all 60 beers, but the information on their website and my impression of their general apathy/contempt towards their Sydney venue leads me to doubt

 

It appears they have been doing a keg of each. I was there before the Wales test on Saturday afternoon drinking Golden Bear Manly Impulse & HopDog Children of Darkness from the GABS lineup. They had a few others on from GABS as well, along with Old Rasputin. The website is not indicative of the beers that are currently on.

Best silent cinema & bocce ball venue in the land. Sometimes with good beer to go with it, but you've just got to make the trip in to find out what's on tap for some reason

 

hmmm - methinks the fact that they are in the process of shutting the bottle shop in Melbourne may not be helping the company overall.....

 

More like a really aggressive market in Melbourne. Think about it. Slowbeer, Acland Cellars, Purvis, Chapel Street, and a few others with about the same range. Really 3 total beer shops as it was Purvis beer, Slowbeer and Provision.
Provision had a point of difference in counter pressure growlers.
Hard to imagine 3 shops surviving in one city.

 

I had taken the relative prevalence of beer shops in Melbourne as evidence of a more sophisticated beer culture...damn

 

I agree, the 3 beer specialist shops were centred in the one area the SE/E inner surburbs so they were very close together.

The other factor may have been that for about 6 months of the 12 months that the Provision was operating Slowbeer was online only as it was moving its shop location, Slowbeer reopening a few months ago would have increased competition.

 

It's also a bit of a weird thing having so much competition so close. Everyone in the industry effectively pays the exact same for all of the products, so the only way to beat out your competitors (apart from great customer service, of course!), is to undercut everyone and make a hell of a lot less profit margin (which, for such a niche market... doesn't really work).

 

Exactly. Purvis seems to have it's own clientèle and does well with it. Same with Slowbeer. I have a hard time buying that Provisions really got a foothold in Melbourne even though it may be the better concept out of the three.
To me hard to imagine two of the three lasting anyway. Have had better experiences with Purvis in the last three years and for me the slow shipping with slowbeer has scared me off of ordering off them ever again.
That being said I think Slowbeer will survive as a beer only outlet as just really unique and a good venue. Just would never have a box shipped from him again

 

Now with Murray's building theirs, even that is under threat....