South Australian Microbrewers Festival

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Spawto

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The Kings Hotel in Adelaide (formerly the Kings Head) located at 357 King William Rd Adelaide, is putting on a South Austrlalian Only Microbrewers Festival from the 5th- 7th of Feburary.

The pub specialises in only serving SA beers and will have a tasting off all Coopers products plus, The Lobethal Bierhaus, Brew Boys, Aussie Cider, Izzie, Woodstock and The Lane Vineyard.

Sturt st next to the hotel is being blocked off for the weekend with brewers setting up stalls, live music, SA only food and a pie floater or two.

$10 gets you in and a tasting off all on offer..... from 4pm Friday till 5pm Sunday, tell your friends see you all there.

Lets make this first SA only beer event a big success.

View attachment kingsstreetcarnival_1_.pdf
 
The missus and I planned on attending for sure... SA Great!
 
I will not ba able to make it! :(

guys and girls who go, let us all know how it went and your thoughts!

Id love to hear about it!
 
It was pretty lame, not much beer on display, the breweries that actually had tastings were Lobethal Bierhaus, Gulf Brewery and the Vale Ale. No produce at all that I could see, the only food was the food inside the Kings Head. Epis Fail IMHO
 
To the best of my knowledge, Vale Ale Isn't actually made in McLaren Vale, it's made under contract interstate (if anyone knows differently, please correct me). And the last time I checked (and admittedly it has been a while) it's registered office was in Woollongong.

Interesting to see an "SA micro festival" where hardly any micros turn up. Gee, I wonder why that could be?

Cheers,
 
I had every intention of dropping in on Friday night, but the brother in law's car broke down and had to rescue him.

Sounds like maybe it was not a big deal to miss this one.
 
Thanks to all those who visited me at the tastings and gave feedback on the beers. It got a bit hectic at times and was very hard to chat to everyone, but I hope I didn't miss anyone. If you have questions about the beers after the event, please feel free to PM me.


Cheers
Peter
 
I went, was a bit disappointed in the "festival" overall but I don't want to complain too much as I'd like to see more of this kind of thing in the future. Good on them for giving it a go!

Too bad more of the micros weren't there offering tastings and a chat. Seems like a missed opportunity as by the time I left on Saturday night the place was pretty full.

Gripes aside, was a good night talking beer with the brewers that did actually make an appearance and the fellow AHB/AMB guys who were good company over a few pints of quality beer... not a bad way to spend a Saturday evening.
 
Andrew said:
To the best of my knowledge, Vale Ale Isn't actually made in McLaren Vale, it's made under contract interstate (if anyone knows differently, please correct me). And the last time I checked (and admittedly it has been a while) it's registered office was in Woollongong.
Click to expand...

Word on the hop vine is that they are in the process of building their own brewery in the vicinity of McLaren Vale.

EDIT: Oh and they have recently taken over mangement of the Salopian Inn down in McLaren Vale as a cellar door/restaurant.
 
While I wasn't there, it would seem that this was typical of many 'venue organised' events.
Another gimmick to bring in the punter and fleece him of his hard earned.

The better way to do this would be for a few interested individuals working with the breweries to do the majority of the organisation including finding a venue.
If the venue is a licensed venue they should be already involved in promoting craft beer, which I believe The Kings Head is.
If this was truly about the beer it would wind up by around 5 or 6pm rather than be a huge session going on til midnight.

Just my 2c.

Cheers
Nige
 
Slightly :icon_offtopic: but relevant to the topic......
At last years ANAWBS presentation SAMBA had a display/tasting/chat with a micro, those represented in product at least was Brew Boys, Gulf, Beard & Brau (which were there in person) Loby, Steam Exchange, well thats all I can remeber not sure if there were more. There was a good range of beers to try from each micro. For the 5 HBers that bothered to turn up to the presentation it was an excellent time to try product and rub shoulders, we all had a ball and plenty of sample to take home too. I'd really like to encourage SAMBA and the breweries they represent to get invovled again this year we thought it was a great opportunity for exposer amongst the HB community. Perhaps more HBers should turn up to the ANAWBS presentations and find out what your missing.
 
I did not get a chance to go but my girlfriend did as she works near where it was held in the city.
when she asked a girl who worked there..

"what kind of beers are you serving tonight"...the reply she got was "Beers from all over the world, Australian and German."

Then my Gf asked her " What Micro Brewerys do you have here this weekend?"

The reply she got was a confused look. Like she did not know what on earth she was talking about!

My point is......It would be good to have the staff educated on what whas going on!

Its like when i went to the beer fest held at the Arkaba in Adelaide half of the reps had no idea about beer, they could not tell you anything about the beer like what hops were in it or anything. Yes it was a good day! But again people who work there should be more educated on the products.
 
I reckon it was a great idea poorly implemented. Changed plans to drag the family in and check it out early on Saturday arvo - evening but didn't actually go in because on arrival I thought $40 (wife + kids) was too much when it's just the same beers that are on tap / bottle inside, and there was No food stuff that I could see - so assume any food was just the bar menu. So - pay $40 for the privelige of sitting in a chain link cage - which at the time I was there there may have had 4 customers. I didn't see any of the brewers in my walk by.

1) Communication
I knew nothing about it until saturday arvo when a mate SMS'd me about it. Not quite sure how it was marketed but with the prevalence of FREE social media tools these days I find it strange that a craft beer fan knew nothing about it. I will put my hand up however and say that I don't listen to radio or read newspapers - so in all liklihood it had the S**t marketed out of it and I'm just a hermit.

2) Definition of "festival"
After getting my sms - I checked it out their website and it really sound like something for everyone. Wineries, local food merchants, music, and hints of other types of entertainment as well. Also - when they said they blocked off sturt street I think I got the wrong impression of how large it was going to be. In reality - it was a celebration of what they normally do spilled out onto the street for a more open party atmosphere. Nothing at all wrong with that - I just think that "festival" implies a HEAP more than what is normally available.

Not trying to slam the organisers or participants (especially the participants) - It just didn't really match with what I was expecting. At least it sounds like the crowd grew as the night went on making it worthwhile for those involved.

I reckon if I'd been there by myself / with a mate I'd have gone in - but just didn't seem worth the expense with the family in tow. I left daydreaming about what it would take / how I would run a beer / food / wine festival.

On the plus side ended up having a great night wandering the city with no real purpose. Highly recommended activity - not something I'd normally have planned to do.
 

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