Melbourne Microbreweries Showcase At Fed Square

[mark_m]

Came across the following link today, could be interesting
Mark

http://www.federationsquare.com.au/index.cfm?pageID=207

 

[DarkFaerytale]

deffinatly worth having a look, i went to one last year and had an absolute ball, you get 20 tastes for $20 from a large range of microbrewery's in and around melbourne, they hold it over 2 days so you can do 10 tastes on each day and properly rate the beers or just go on the one day and get nicely inebriated, i'll deffinatly be there on saturday and still unsure if i'll be there on friday (might put a brew down instead) look out for the guy in the beeradvocate t-shirt, that'll be me

-Phill

 

[Wortgames]

I might see you there Phill!

 

[DarkFaerytale]

make sure you come up and say hello

-Phill

 

[Belgrave Brewer]

I went to the last one as well. Had a great time and had the opportunity to try beers I hadn't had before.
The line up looks a little smaller this time.

I'll definitely be there! :beerbang:

Cheers,
BB

 

[SpillsMostOfIt]

It's annoying that it is happening on the same weekend that 'they' will be burning huge quantities of jet fuel.

I'll be there Friday. Twenty samples in four hours? :blink:

 

[Wortgames]

Apparently the samples are 60ml, which doesn't seem like such great value when you realise that $20 buys you the equivalent of 3.2 stubbies. That's $150 a slab.

Not sure if you can buy beers for cash too - anyone?

Not that I'm a pisshead particularly (well, no more than anyone else here) but if I'm having a beer day I want to drink a few beers. I'm weird like that. I don't know how well I'll be able to form an opinion on a beer based on a 60ml sample either - and they'll want to be bloody spectacular brews at that price.

It's a shame that the punters have to cough up to this level for something like this, you'd think that the breweries and the various Vic govt departments involved could rustle up a decent exhibition without the visitor having to fund it to that extent.

I'll still try and make it down there but I don't think it's quite the 'unmissable' event I first thought. Somehow I think the bitter taste of feeling like I'm being fleeced will take more than 3 stubbies to wash it away.

 

[[email protected]]

Last time I went, I got there nice and early. There was barely anyone around, and the brewers were more than generous with their time and their pours (nearly filling up my tasting glass).

$20 for 20 pours turned out to be great value. If my memory serves me correctly, Matilda Bay was very generous.

 

[Belgrave Brewer]

Yep...I had a similar experience. I went later and ended up getting tickets from people who were leaving that were not going to use them.

The vendors pouring from kegs just wanted to empty them at the end, so the pours got large.

 

[DarkFaerytale]

i would have to agree deffinatly well worth the money i remember being pretty intoxicated when i left the last one

i'm pretty sure i remember whats Brewing and mountain goat were selling bottles of there stuff also

-Phill

 

[spog]

one of these days i am going to act like a cricket nut, and roll up 2 days before the event with a deck chair and get in first

 

[Wortgames]

OK, I'm going to try and get down there later on, and maybe tomorrow as well if it's good and if I can slip it through parliament on the back of something else...

Who else is going and when? It would be great to meet up with some other AHBers over a (small) glass or two...

If you PM me we can exchange phone numbers :beer:

 

[Belgrave Brewer]

I'll be down there tomorrow (Saturday) and have plans to meet up with wortgames if he makes it 2 days in a row, hehe.

Anyone else going?

BB

 

[Wortgames]

The best laid plans and all that...

Technical dramas have kept me later than I wanted tonight, so I won't make it down there - but I'm definitely keen for tomorrow.

I'll see a couple of you there by the looks of it.

 

[DarkFaerytale]

had a great day, mostly really good beers on show, a couple of not so good ones and one infected with DMS (mmm creamed corn)

can't wait for the next one

sorry i missed you wortgames, next time!

-Phill

 

[Wortgames]

Yep, next time Phill! I didn't catch up with Belgrave either as I forgot to call him in the morning and didn't have a mobile # for him - sorry BB if you were there.

Which one gave you the DMS Phill? Can't say I picked it in any of the ones I tried (I didn't try all of them of course).


I have mixed opinions on the beers. I should just start by saying I am not a hophead, I'm generally on a quest to find a well-balanced to malty brew, which I realise means I'm usually going to be disappointed as 'microbrewing' seems to be largely about how much alpha you can cram into a beer.

I honestly thought most of the beers there were over-hopped for their style. I tried a number of amber ales, pale ales, brown ales and bocks and found them all to be leaning towards 'heavily hopped'. Maybe this is due to the number of hopheads who become brewers, leaning to a skewed output (like chefs who make bitter food to impress other chefs), but I found it a bit disappointing. I was hard-pushed to find what I would call a 'well-balanced' or 'malty' brew.

Out of the lot I probably most enjoyed the Grand Ridge 'Moonlight Nut Brown Ale' and Matilda Bay's 'Dogbolter' - both of which I've had before as they aren't hard to find in bottle shops. I also had a few 'Rooftop Red' served on hand pull at Transport next door which were pretty tasty too.

I thought the Temple Brewing Company's 'Saison' (wit?) was good. I'm not usually big on wheats (or wits) but this was the first one I've had where I could really identify the coriander - it was very different to the usual Hoegaarden 'clone' and would make an awesome summer quencher.

Bright Brewery's Dubbel was fantastic, bittered with EKG and with (I think?) Hersbrucker later in the boil, about 8.5% ABV. Very tasty indeed.

I'm not sure what Southern Bay Brewing Co is all about - but I found their beers to be a bit of a worry. The 'Schonbrauhaus Lager' was extremely doughy, the 'Platinum Premium' seemed devoid of any character whatsoever and the 'Bearings Ale' had a distinct hint of green apple. Neither of the 2 guys serving were brewers or had any idea of the grist, and the more 'senior' guy there proudly told me how the beers were all 'double cold filtered'. Are these guys using powdered instant beer mix?!

I was also blown away by just how fruity the Buckley's Original Ale was (on draught). It tasted like either it contained lime cordial or it was fermented at 35C. The first girl serving couldn't tell me anything about it, the second (who I believe was one of the brewers, but new) told me 'hmm, you're right, that doesn't taste how it usually does' and the brewer himself apparently kept calling in to apologise for running late and never quite made it so I never really got an answer as to whether something was wrong with the keg or if that was its intended profile.

All in all, it was an interesting day and I'd probably go again, but maybe Sat afternoon isn't the best time. There didn't seem to be a lot of opportunity for talking with brewers, most of the folks serving didn't really strike me as the brewing type and most had their hands full just exchanging samples for tickets. It was all a bit machinelike.

I'm probably just a grumpy git, but I was really hoping to find a gem somewhere among the beers there, and it just didn't happen. If that was representative of the Victorian microbrewery scene, it seems sadly one-dimensional, at least at the moment. I asked a couple of brewers whether they'd ever consider brewing something like a 'mild ale' and they just laughed at me, one even acted as though it would be utterly beneath him to brew anything called 'mild' and I must be some kind of lightweight. Maybe I am, but still - there's more to beer than hops IMHO.

So hopheads rejoice, it appears that you can steep yourself in high-alpha pelletbrau right across our fine state, but those looking for a bit more malt or sophisticated subtlety will need to keep looking...

 

[Thirsty Boy]

Hey Wortgames,

I agree about the dominance of the Hop brigade at the VMBS. But the place wasn't entirely devoid of malt...

Did you try the 3 Ravens dark? It was an altbier with a bit of added smoked malt. Really nice. It would have been easy to overdo the smoke, but they kept it pretty subtle and it came out pretty damn good.

You are also right about the Bright Breweries dubbel. Top beer.

I liked the Bridge rd Brewers Australian Ale, but I like most of their beers, they have some house flavour going on that does it for my taste buds nicely. I've got a bottle of their Bier degarde that I have been aging for a year now. Just about time to give that puppy a run. Also a saver for the non hophead brigade. Pity they weren't pouring it on Friday.

On the other hand, if you like the hops, some of the IPAs on show were pretty damn good. Jamiesons the beast and the Mountain Goat Double IPA were the standouts (for the hoppy beers) for me.

I've been to a few of these now and its good to see how the breweries keep developing and improving, or in some cases - dont. Plus it gives me a chance ot exercise my 3 times and you are out rule. I try to make sure I have tasted a beer on three different occasions before I decide its no good. Just to rule out the "bad bottle" or "wrecked pallet" factor. If its no good after three... its no damn good.

I got my $20 worth of beer immersion and I'll keep going to the showcases.

Thirsty

 

[Wortgames]

Hi TB, I like the '3 strikes' rule - I'm probably not normally that forgiving but I can certainly see it's value :beer:

I missed both the brews you liked! 3 Ravens were all out of Black when I got there - which is a bugger as it sounds awesome - but their Bronze wasn't bad. As for the Bridge Rd Australian ale, I have to confess it just didn't leap out to me as one to try. I figured it for a 'draught' or at best a Coopers style. Next time I'll try and get there early on the Friday in the hopes of chatting with some brewers rather than just going off the list of names.

I did try the Mountain Goat Double IPA, I felt somehow obliged to, and it was exactly what I thought it would be - far too hoppy for me but certainly worth a taste.

Is Friday generally a better day? Like I said I found the whole thing pretty full-on and it was difficult to talk beer without looking like a tosser and holding up someone else...

 

[Malnourished]

Each to their own, hey? I spent most of my time there complaining about the general lack of hops. WortGames, can you give an example of a non-IPA which you considered too hoppy?

I love that breweries like Mountain Goat and Jamieson are having a go at these big, hoppy styles but they're not entirely to my taste. I like them, but they seem overloaded with sticky sweet malts and intense hop flavour and seriously lacking in hop aroma and dryness. The flavours are nice enough, but the drinkability just isn't there - it makes you feel all bloated after a few mouthfuls. I'm certain a healthy dose of dry hopping would give these beers a serious injection of freshness, but it seems like they're all scared to go down that path. I wouldn't call them unbalanced, "wonky" is probably a better term.

I thought Bridge Road's IPA was a good example of a solid, drinkable IPA - lovely malt character at a relatively low ABV, but again lacking in hop character. I liked it a lot.

And other than those three, I can't think of another beer there which I thought had noticeable hop character.

If you hate hops ( ) you'll get on great with the Red Duck folks. Their website proudly proclaims "low hops levels and rich, malt driven flavours", but to me most of their beers are wildly unbalanced. At the very least, a beer needs some bitterness to provide a bit of structure - I think their beers smell fine, but once they hit your mouth they fall apart.

Most of my favourite beers there were actually porters. Bridge Road's most notably, but Bright's and What's Brewing's too.

I agree with a lot of what else has been said though. IMO three breweries probably would've been better off staying home.

And if you want to talk to the brewers you really need to be there at the start - it's always dead. Fridays are generally a lot busier than Saturday was, particularly once the after work crowd gets in.

 

[DarkFaerytale]

we got there just on 12 on the saturday and were able to chat to quite a few of the brewers befor the rush started

that 3 ravens dark was pretty darn good, when the lady who served me said it had smoked malt i was worried it was going to be over done but it was spot on, so was there wit beer, the temple saison was great as well

as far as southern bay went i toatally avoided there stall just from the names of there beers, obviously aiming for the mega swill crowds

the beer suffering from DMS was the whats brewing PA. i'v had the beer befor at there pub in geelong and was quite nice, obviously this batch came out shithouse as my non beer drinking friend found out, but at least i got my first taste of DMS and there porter was quite nice