GABS 2012

When future generations come to write the history of good beer in this country, I foresee 2012 as being remembered as the year everything really kicked off.  Everything else has been but a prelude to this, a mere opening act.  You could say that 2012 is the year that Australian craft beer crossed the Rubicon...

With movement finally on the excise tax front, new breweries, bottle shops and beer-centric bars making inroads into formerly unconquered lands, major international figures of the ilk of Mikkeller, Ken Grossman and Kjetil Jikiun being drawn to these shores and the resounding success of Good Beer Week, the future appears brighter than a hundred megaton nuclear weapon.  Or so the crowds at the Saturday session of the Great Australasian Beer Spectapular would seem to attest.

This is what I pondered as I sat amidst the Victorian grandeur of the Melbourne Exhibition Hall, a flight of 10 samples before me.  One could bitch about the forty minute wait in line to be served but the fact there was a forty minute long wait at all speaks volumes about the public interest in the event.  My only real gripe was the entry cost, $39 seems a bit steep when no tokens are included.  Rather than the commemorative glass received on entry, I would have much preferred more tasting tokens or at least a bratwurst...

A week later though and the lines and cost are but a memory, overshadowed by the sheer range and quality of beer on offer.  I got through roughly forty of the sixty on the board and many of these were a mere sip, akin to stepping off the train and momentarily locking eyes with a beautiful girl getting on, leaving you with a lifetime of wondering.  Many of these brews demanded a full glass to get your head around their awesomeness and I really should have gone back for another session but with GBW just beginning I think another visit would have bankrupted me...

 

There was a menagerie of styles on display, including some truly weird shit.  What amazed me was how well some of the stranger examples held together.  The Sweet Potato Porter from The Monk Brewery was a good case in point, what seems like just a novelty turned out to a cracking beer with the sweet potato adding a lot of body and depth to the usual porter characters.  There were a few misfires, but on the whole the quality and innovation on display was inspiring and a good gauge of where the industry is at.

I tried many, many excellent beers but the five which really blew me away are listed below.

 

5/ 8 Wired C4 – Coffee, brown ale and Soren Eriksen, could one think of a more divine combination?  I’ll drink anything this man offers and it was the first beer I tried once I finally returned to my table with a tasting paddle.  If the modern workplace wasn’t so full of fascist rules I’d drink this en-route to my job.

4/ Harrington’s Bit of Kiwi Wit – The soft yet discernible characters of kiwi fruit work so well in the context of a witbier I’m surprised no one has tried it before.  Hopefully it won’t be too long before someone tries it again.

3/ Yeastie Boys Gunnamatta – Yeastie Boys never known to let a beat drop!!!  Ahh, RIP Adam Yauch.  The people’s choice and for good reason, Earl Grey is the king of teas and matching the bergamot flavours inherent to this variety with the citric hoppiness of an IPA was a stroke of genius, creating a perfect melody.  I reckon even my grandma would have enjoyed this. 

2/ Bright Resistance Red Ale – I’ve raved about the hop orgasm that is the MIA and this bold, hoppy India Red Ale is this brewer’s Empire Strikes Back.  Utterly stunning, if para-glider mishaps lead to beers of this kind of quality then I’m investing in a shoulder mounted missile launcher and headed to Victoria’s Alpine regions...

1/ 2 Brothers/Diamond Knot Bloody Oak – There is nothing I enjoy more than a goog barley wine and this is one of the best I’ve had, comparable only to Anchor Brewing’s Old Foghorn.  Stunning in every respect, from the oaky, slightly citrus aroma to the caramel, vanilla characters of the flavour to the liquid silk mouthfeel, this one had it all.  I would murder a puppy to have another glass of this, although luckily I may not have to as I hear it may be on tap at the brewery for a strictly limited time so I’m off to Moorabbin.  I may be a while...