The official attendance figures may prove me wrong, but I had the feeling that there was somewhat less hustle and bustle at this year’s two-day Australian Beer Festival than in former years.
The event came at the very end of the newly-instituted Sydney Craft Beer Week, with its sixty-or-so beer-related events spread over nine days, so if my perception is correct, there is an obvious explanation.
Some drinkers and brewers who participated in the various Craft Beer Week activities may already have exhausted their time and stamina before the latter two days of this busy week. Nevertheless, ample crowds, encouraged by sunshine and mild temperatures, turned out on 27 and 28 October to support the 8th annual festival, held as usual at the Australian Hotel in the Rocks area of the city.
Of the twenty-four drink stalls in operation (one fewer than last year), three were devoted to apple cider producers (Hills Cider Company, Bilpin Cider Company, and The Apple Thief), but that is enough said of them here. The well-known, ‘national’ beer brands of Coopers, Cascade, Matilda Bay, James Squire and Little Creatures engaged a further five stalls, and, at the other end of the spectrum, the winners of the associated home-brew competition occupied another. That leaves fifteen.
Seven of the remaining fifteen stalls represented beer companies that don’t have (or have but don’t use, in one sad case at Picton) their own breweries, namely Hawthorn Brewing Co. and Two Birds Brewing (from Victoria), and Longboard Brewing Co., Endeavour Beverages, Balmain Brewing Co., Scharer’s Brewery and Koala Beer (from NSW). McLaren Vale Beer Company was in this group last year, but has since fired up its own brewery at Willunga in South Australia, so now has graduated to my next category.
Only eight stall-holders at the Festival this year were those most interesting brewers who own and operate their own hardware, and who also are independent or substantially independent of the big brewing companies. Besides McLaren Vale already mentioned, this category comprised Mountain Goat (Victoria), Moo Brew (Tasmania) and Riverside Brewing Co., 4 Pines Brewing Co., Stone Brewing Co., Illawarra Brewing Co., and Casella Beer (New South Wales).
Casella, the maker of Arvo beer, sits a little uncomfortably in my ‘independent or substantially independent’ category. Having recently announced a joint venture with Coca-Cola Amatil, to commence at the end of 2013, this new brewery is poised to advance quickly toward or into the realm of the big multi-national brewers. For the time being, however, it remains small and independent.
I am no fan of Arvo beer, which was designed with considerable consumer input and appeals to those who are more likely to be seen drinking XXXX Gold or VB than a craft-brewed IPA or Saison. I was much impressed, however, by the fact that both of the Arvo big guns, head brewer Andy Mitchell and his deputy Anthony Clem, were pouring beers at their company’s stall. They had even brewed a small batch of a tasty beer especially for the festival, as an alternative offering to their bland staple Arvo 51. Although I think I can guess the answer, I would love to know for sure which out-poured which at this event, and by how much.
Sorry, what is this article about? Is it about the beer festival as the heading would have us believe? Is it about the ownership of brands that were at the festival and independent brewers being better in the mind of the author? Or is it a chance to pen something in the guise of an article to showcase the academic qualifications and superfluous middle initial of the author?
Seriously rubbish stuff. Glad the beer festival was better!
Not sure what prompted this personal swipe at the author Owen. It’s written by a brewery historian, ie he has an interest in brewery history. His coverage of the Australian Beer Festival was from that perspective. If you want to read a post from somebody recounting every beer that they sampled at the Festival and whether each “rocked” or “sucked”, there is no shortage of blogs that will meet that purpose.
It was a query regarding what the article was about.
When it comes to brewery history it doesn’t seem to cover much except to imply that Scharer’s no longer brew at their old site.
Other than that, all the article seems to do is count the number of stalls and play subtraction.
If it was an article on the festival itself, some of your loyal readership may be interested in reading about things mentioned during the interviews with the brewers throughout the course of the 2 days, the one-off beers released at the festival etc. Up to you if you want to mention what “rocked” or “sucked”.
Those would be things i’d be interested in reading about.
Take that however you will Matt.
Brews News has a broad readership and there are plenty of readers who are interested in what the attendance at a festival such as this says about the dynamics of the industry. I’m sorry if this particular article, for which you paid nothing, wasn’t full of the things that you’re interested in reading. Others are. I’m not sure your lack of interest in this article warranted the tone of your comments about the author.
At the end of the day, the article was ‘dry’ and boring. It didn’t say much. It didn’t entertain and it certainly didn’t inform anyone about beer! I can understand why the others were pissed off with such a poorly conceived article. Editor – please employ better writers!
Thanks for the feedback Fellow Writer, perhaps you’d point me to some of your articles?
Thought all he did was bash Arvo and said 3-4 stalls were worth visiting. That was helpful as was not able to go. Got better info from mates who went to the event.