Good Beer Week set to showcase Melbourne’s strangest brews

WHETHER using cookies or bone marrow or even goat’s whey, new-school brewers are looking at beer differently.

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BEER has never been more exciting for Steve Jeffares, founder of the Great Australasian Beer SpecTAPular (GABS).

And he should know, having witnessed the explosion of interest in local brews from behind the bar at his St Kilda Taphouse and, more recently, at his Stomping Ground brewery and beer hall in Collingwood.

The Mill Brewery and Melbourne Vegan Eats Showcase as part of Good Beer Week 2017

The festival, which is a signature event of Good Beer Week, began with 6000 people six years ago; last year more than 33,000 people attended the three-day event that celebrates craft brewing
in all its guises.

“Whether at the festival or at our venues, we always try to create a fun environment for people to try different beers,” he says. “Generally, the big beer fans are a minority. The majority of people are just willing to try new things.”

Some of the offerings at Good Beer Week 2017.

Those who are willing will have their work cut out, for when GABS takes over the Royal Exhibition Building, more than 150 custom beers brewed especially for the festival will be on offer.

“The brewers have pulled out all stops. They recognise that GABS is the perfect platform to be creative and to release something new to an audience that’s very receptive,” Steve says.

That creativity might take the form of a beer brewed with sea urchin, or using coffee beans first aged in a whisky barrel, or including one of the world’s hottest chillies.

There’ll be a fortified beer from the Barossa, a purple beer that tastes like a “Fruit Tingle” cocktail, and even a beer that’s clear but tastes like a stout.

There are no limits, Steve says, as long as the beer is something the brewers haven’t brewed before.

“It runs the spectrum, traditional beers with a twist on the style, others get super creative at the other end.”

Beer and cheese matching at Milk the Cow as part of Good Beer Week.

While the wild, weird and wacky get all the attention — a beer last year brewed from the yeast of the brewer’s belly button captured the world’s imagination/collective disgust — some one-time novelty beers have gone on to become a great success.

“The Two Birds girls (from Two Birds Brewing in Spotswood) wanted to capture the flavours of the seafood tacos they were eating in California and so brewed their taco beer, with lime, wheat, coriander, for GABS. It was such a success, afterwards there was a social media campaign with a hashtag #releasethetaco that put pressure on them to re-brew. It then went into bottles, then cans and now it’s one of their biggest-selling beers,” Steve says.

 

SMOKING HOT

Andrew Ong, from 2Brothers in Moorabbin, says they have created a special beer to celebrate the brewery’s 1000th brew.

“We wanted to mark the occasion and a nice Cuban cigar and balloon of cognac felt right, but executed in a beery context. So the ‘Smoking Jacket’ was born,” he says.

Taking a dark sweet stout as a base, the team steeped a portion in a mix of Australian and Cuban tobacco, another portion was infused with a custom blend of tea leaves, a portion was aged in French oak and, the finishing touch — a splash of cognac.

These were all combined to create the Smoking Jacket beer, which will be served at GABS and at the brewery.

Ben Lee, Chris Fletcher and Andrew Ong. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

 

MIX IT UP

“In the past, brewers have used a whole host of ingredients, confectionary, herbs, fruit and veg, tea and coffee. An old mentor of mine in Seattle even made a beer with cannabis, which among his friends was very popular,” Andrew says.

“I can’t say that’s on our agenda, but we do have a botanist in our 2 Brothers family and I am keen to give some native Australian herbs and greenery a burn in the future.”

 

FLAVOURS TO SAVOUR

Beers to look out for at GABS include the “Bone & Marrow” from Aether Brewing in Queensland, the “#63 Thai Green Curry” from Big Shed Brewing Concern and the beer inspired by the Indian Holi festival drink bangh thandi by New Zealand’s cult brewer Garage Project. Sweet beers are always popular, Steve says, and are often the ones battling it out for the People’s Choice award at the festival.

Some that could be in contention this year include the “donut stout” (Brothers Beer), the “after dinner mint” (Van Dieman Brewing), the “mango milkshake” (Holiday Brew Co) and “Pic’s peanut butter and jelly porter” (McCashin’s).

“I don’t think there’s a dud beer on the line-up this year,” Steve says.

 

ANCIENT WISDOM

It’s not just what the beers taste like but how they’re brewed that’s becoming increasingly creative and bold. Brewer Heath McVeigh from the Craft & Co in Collingwood has created a very modern brew by looking to the past — 10,000 years, give or take.

Heath has created an Australian first — a beer brewed in terracotta clay amphoras. Terracotta amphoras were the vessels the Egyptians used to create and store wine and beer, and while using porous clay to ferment wine has seen a recent resurgence, thanks to the natural winemaking movement, this is the first time they have been used here to brew beer.

Heath McVeigh at Craft & Co.

“I’ve been experimenting with them since we got them at the end of the year, and have been really surprised with the results,” Heath says. As the vessels are porous, each batch of the German-style wheat beer has its own character, due to the different yeasts that cause fermentation. The clay also imparts a mineral characteristic that changes with every brew.

As part of Good Beer Week and to launch the amphora beer, Craft and Co will serve the Bronze Age-style beers with regular brews to compare and contrast, together with a five-course meal on May 15.

 

MAIN EVENT

And it not just brewers getting creative. As part of Good Beer Week, there are more than 70 events where chefs and brewers come together and play and create some of the best food and beer matches ever tasted.

“I would hate for beer to become ‘wine-ified’,” Steve says. “I would hate for people to get snobby about it, but if you’re in the mood for it, it’s a really fun exercise to pair food with beer.”

 

GO FISHING

Japanese brewer Coedo is teaming up with Soko Sushi for Good Beer Week 2017.

One of the more surprising matches is pairing fish with beer, but that’s a double act that Japan has long loved. Manning Blanchard from Japanese brewer Coedo says beer is a great choice for pairing with fish, due to the lower alcohol content than wine or sake.

Codeo is teaming with Soko Sushi in Abbotsford for a beer-matched sushi degustation on May 19.

He says some of the good pairings to look out for include salmon with a hefeweizen-style beer (“the clove and banana flavours complement the fats in salmon”), tuna with an American pale lager (“the hoppy flavours shine through”) and a German pilsner-style beer with the firm flesh and delicate flavours of kingfish.

 

SWEET SURRENDER

Chocolatier Samanta Bakker from Monsieur Truffe says while stout and milk chocolate, or shiraz with dark chocolate are easy wins when it comes to beer matches, her current favourite is a milk chocolate filled with caramel paired with a lager.

She’s also created a chocolate that features finger lime with a hint of hops that emulates that lager, too.

It’s just one of her new inventions that will feature as part of the beer and chocolate journey she’s created with Cavalier Brewing on May 16.

Samantha Bakker and Andrew Cronin. Picture: Mark Wilson

“I think every beer can be matched with chocolate,” she says. “It’s great that beer is a drink people are taking more seriously now.”

Her top tip when matching beer and choc?

“Don’t drink the beer too cold, and wait after taking a sip before tasting the chocolate. Otherwise your mouth will be too cold to melt the cocoa butter in the chocolate, and you won’t be able to taste it.”

 

JUMP AROUND

And for something completely different, GBW will be flying high at Hawkers brewery in Reservoir … literally.

Acrobat Emily Gare in action at Hawkers Brewery.

Melbourne’s best circus artists will juggle beer, fly from the rafters and tumble through the kegs at The Brewery Circus on May 13. Along with circus performers, alt-pop trio Halcyon Drive will entertain the crowd, while the Fancy Hanks crew will bring their low-and-slow barbecue styles to keep everyone well fed.

Good Beer Week runs from May 12-21 and features more than 250 events across Melbourne and Victoria, including GABS on May 19-21.For information and bookings, goodbeerweek.com.au