On Sunday it was Warners At The Bay's Annual Beer Festival which this year coincided with Newcastle Craft Beer Week.
What a day! Held from 12pm to 4pm the event held in the motel car park of my favorite bottle shop hosted over 80 Beers from 25 suppliers and a couple of ciders sunk in too! The weather after a week of non-stop rain Sunday really turned it on with blue sunny skies and the mercury hanging round 30 degrees Celsius--purrrfect beer sampling weather in my book!
The event was a sell out with tickets capped at 700 and by the looks of things everyone showed up! Each ticket holder was given a coopers show bag which contained a pen, a back issue of beer & brewer magazine, info sheets,beer tickets, a copy of the excellent Beer Lovers Guide To Australia and the most important thing of all a 200ml Warners At The Bay tasting glass! On to the beers!
Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar
Wow and I mean WOW! This ale was a big surprise. Big malty character on the nose with a bit of caramel thrown in too. The mouth full is where the awesome Hazelnuttyness hits you wonderfully smooth going down and satisfying. I get abit funny about brewers adding stuff to beers...BUT this is done right in true Rogue Brewery fashion- these guys really know what they are doing. Had this over at the Innspire Craft Beer Merchants tent- a great bunch of guys who bring in some incredible beers from around the world. Check out their ute/pickup below.
Over at the Stone & Wood Brewery tent the home of one of my favorite brews Pacific Ale which was as always excellent... the fellas were also sampling a Spanish lager brew called Moritz
A very thirst quenching brew very smooth going down in the spring sun and a somewhat faint vanilla taste to it on the finish. Very nice! Will definitely be picking up a case of these on a scorching hot day this summer!
Next up was the Lord Nelson Brewery Stand
These guys from Sydney's institutional brewpub were very informative and great to chat with... the beer was great too! They had the Three Sheets Pale Ale and Old Admiral strong amber ale on tap for the day. The Three Sheets was great- not too overpowering in the hop department and a very inoffensive ale- Extremely refreshing. The Old Admiral on the other hand had a good malty backbone to it-would be great by the pint on a cool evening. The brewpub is a great place to check out if you find yourself in Sydney-a great establishment that is a part of Sydney's and Australia's craft brew history.
Next up we made our way over to the wonderful peps at the Beer Importers and Distributors (BID) stand
Sam Adams Lager as always-- a great Vienna style lager with malty goodness went down a treat! Warstiener a very clean bright larger which would rival any Mexican style lager as the easiest drink brew out there . Noble Pils from Sam Adams was also a good example of the style. Hope to see some Belgians next year from BID as they provide the Aussie market with some cracker beers from beer's holy land.
McLaren Vale
I have converted a few peps over to craft brew with Vale Ale from these guys. I was pleasantly surprised they also brew an IPA which was one of the only IPA's available for tasting at the event. And what a great IPA at that! Big hop aroma on the nose and a sweet maltyness going down, finishing up with a awesome hoppy bitterness which hop-heads like me are addicted to. Hope to see more from these guys.
Notable Mentions:
Mudgee Brewing Amazing Wheat beer! Has the biggest banana aroma of any wheat beer I have ever tasted! Great to see a good Aussie brewer making a PROPER wheat beer.
Black Duck Brewery Great beers on show especialy the PROPER bitter lovely beer could've drank it all day... and that has nothing to do with the fact it has PROPER in its name I swear (^_^).
Ekim Brewing & Happy Goblin best pale ales at the event-great bunch of guys too!
Mark's Home Brew- Mark and Shawn great guys and last minute suppliers for taps and things so the breweries could serve us beery people beer! Thanks Heaps!
Last but not least a massive thanks to Mark Mead & Crew from Warners at the Bay and Corey Crooks & crew from the Albion Hotel & Newcastle Craft Beer week Founder for making this amazing event happen....us beery folks really appreciate the enormous time and effort that you guys have put into this event to make it a cracker! Cheers fellas.
No comments:
Post a Comment