As craft beer has begun to firmly cement itself in the Australian market, so too have beer festivals. Where not too long ago you might have struggled to attend a couple of memorable beer events in a year, now you can get to something every month, if not every week. The scene has simply exploded. By Ian Kingham
From the Beaujolais-style celebrations of the annual hop harvest to inner city beer weeks, multi-city roadshows to music festivals where brewers are equal on the bill, beer has finally found its place, and that place is everywhere.
Best of the Beer Weeks
Beer weeks have grabbed a hold of Australia’s big cities and they aren’t letting go. Such has been the growth and popularity that we’re probably not far off the point where you couldn’t call yourself a city unless you’ve got your own beer week.
Leading the way in Australia is Good Beer Week, which takes place in, and in parts takes over Melbourne each May. With over 200 events showcasing the very best the Australian beer world has to offer, Good Beer Week has grown into a truly respected festival internationally and, as such, it attracts the cream of the global craft beer scene.
While that may be the biggest, the oldest can be found on the opposite side of the continent. Now in its 14th year and buoyed by legions of new breweries and some of the most spectacular venues and brewery cellar doors in the country, WA Beer Week [November 11-20] seems to be growing anew. This year the week itself opens with a festival within a festival when Fremantle Beer Fest [November 11-13] takes place over three days with hundreds of different local beers and spirits.
Back on the East Coast, Queensland’s rapidly expanding craft beer scene has its zenith in March when the inimitable Brewsvegas runs amok, while this October sees Sydney Craft Beer Week [October 21-30] return for its sixth outing.
The Classics (with a Twist)
While a lot of focus goes towards the increasingly wonderful beer weeks, there’s still plenty of room for what you might term a ‘classic’ Aussie beer festival. These are the ones whereby an otherwise ordinary location gets taken over by rows of tents manned by brewers simply chatting to punters and pouring their wares.
One of the longest running is the Australian Beer Festival [October 14-16], hosted in the historic streets outside The Australian Heritage Hotel in The Rocks. 2016 represents the 12th year for this event, which is notable for its simple and casual format; aside from a little extra food and the occasional brewer’s talk, the focus is squarely on beer from around 30 different breweries and brewing companies. No entry fee and a location near the heart of Sydney’s tourist hub ensures this iconic beer festival draws in a big crowd, year after year.
Plenty of newer festivals take the classic beer festival format and add a little tweak to make it unique; the Great Southern Beer & Cider Festival [September 30] drops a bunch of Melbourne brewers in the heart of the Yarra Valley wine country; the first Brewers Feast [October 28] will use the gardens of the Abbotsford Convent as the backdrop for a festival where food and beer are given an equal footing; the Port Macquarie Beer & Cider Festival [September 24] brings several interstate brewers to the town for the first time; Crafted LIVE, set in the NSW town of Orange, puts craft brewers by to the smokey pits of teams of professional barbecuers; Brisbane’s Beer InCider Experience [September 16-17] is as much about live music as it is about the many local brewers that appear. These are all unequivocally beer festivals at heart, but they are continually reaching for a more diverse audience.
Moving Feasts
Craft beer festivals need no longer be static affairs. One of the best examples of this is August’s Bendigo On The Hop, which is something of a grassroots movement started by Bendigo Beer, an independent and not-for-profit organisation whose aim is to promote the virtues of their local beer scene. Their concept is essentially a day-long walking tour of Bendigo that has grown to be a sell out every year as it takes in ten local venues supported by nearly 30 local brewers.
Of a similar nature is Brewoomba, the Toowoomba based beer festival that ferries punters around town by shuttle bus to enjoy different venues all featuring different brewers, food, and entertainment. These types of progressive events epitomise a shifting attitude whereby breweries and venues are viewing what are, technically, their competitors more as collaborators with whom they can work to help raise the profile of craft beer in their community for the collective benefit.
With new beer events being added constantly, there’s more happening now than it is possible to explore. And that, to borrow some parliamentary parlance, means there’s never been a more exciting time to be a beer drinker in Australia.
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