Esk Beerfest 2016 The Hangover/ Debrief

This was the feeling for day two of Beerfest

The local beer drinking event of the year came to an unfortunate end Saturday night.

I was one of the first in the gates on Friday afternoon and left at close, similar to Saturday I didn’t miss much and gave it a good effort.

Four Beer Sampler from Double Head Brewing

Even though I took notes along the way I had to piece together what I got up to so I could be as accurate as possible.

Esk Beerfest by the numbers:

How many drinks were advertised:          250+

Actual number of ‘drinks’:                     155? (give or take a couple, this figure includes spirits, wines, mead, non craft beer etc)

How many drinks I had on Friday:          13

How many drinks I had on Saturday:       22+

How much I spent:                                 $350~

I can’t believe it myself when I crunched the numbers and will probably be on water only for the next week or so…

Moo Brew, classy as always

Red Duck had a lot to choose from

The Beer: This event is the Holy Grail of beer drinking and I tried to make the most of it. There were around 23 different Breweries, most with a variety of their best brews on offer. Red Duck from Ballarat had a large selection, including Hodor – an 11% Imperial Porter, did you get the Game of Thrones reference? Morrison Brewery had six of their amazing beers on tap and Devils Brewery were back in fine form.

BEST BEER AWARD: Wow, this was a tough one. I started the event with my favourite from last year and have now found a new one – Sunny With a Chance of Awesome by Last Rites Brewing Company. Not only did I try this in its natural form I had a hopinatored version as well. Until yesterday I had never heard about a hopinator, I was very curious! This website explains it better than I can:

“They’re glass cylinders of various shapes and forms through which beer can be diverted on its merry way from keg to tap to glass. They’re designed to hold whatever a brewer or barman thinks would add to / alter / screw up their beer to change the taste for the drinker. And, as one of the enthusiastic, knowledgeable staff points out, they’re a great way to educate the punter about what does what in beer.” http://craftypint.com/news/109/Hopinators-Hit-Hobart

Sunny With a Chance of Awesome is a summer pale ale using citrus hops. The hopinator version is unlike anything I’ve ever tried before, which is why it wins this year’s award.

The Cider: I actually drank quite a bit of cider over the two days, trying different brands and flavours. Apple Cider is of course the original kind of cider but I prefer to try different fruits, Coal Valley Cider had the most variety with Lemon, Pear and Cherry to name a few. Red Brick Road were also there, with their Mean Green hop infused cider still on tap, I had a couple of those.

BEST CIDER AWARD: 4 Brothers Cider Co were amazing, their products were also fantastic. A mainland group that had four ciders available, their best was the Passionfruit which wins the award.

The Food: As I mentioned earlier I believe that there was less food on offer and my favourites from last year weren’t there either. I still had some amazing food from the Pie-O-Matic, including the Pyengana Steak and Cheese and the Mexican Pie. Dapper Dogs Mobile Kitchen had some amazing Bratwurst looking hot dogs, I had the Booze Hound – the sauce was made with Morrison’s very own Smoked Chilli IPA. The Burger Junkie Van had hamburgers and fries. The Boag’s Container Bar even had pizzas they were making, having a mushroom pizza at the end of the night was an amazing way to finish the event.   

Awesome hot dogs!

BEST FOOD AWARD: The Best Food Award goes to Burger Junkie for their Beef, Beer Mustard and Crispy Pancetta Burger, this was one of the best items I got to eat at Beerfest, a burger is usually a good companion with beer.

Boag's made pizza, delicious

There is beer in the sauce!!!

Boag's stall

The Stalls: This year I was very impressed with the stalls, more so because of the souvenirs that were for sale. I love spending money on alcohol branded things – especially stubby holders. T-Bone Brewing Co had hats and Growlers, The Boag’s Bar had stubby holders and hats, there was even a Beerfest T-Shirt up for grabs.  

BEST STALL: The clear winners are the Iron House Brewery, not only did they have the biggest selection of items to buy (plus a lot of amazing beer to choose from) but the staff were super friendly and happy to chat with people. I already had a t-shirt from Festivale but this time around I added a stubby holder, coasters and Growler to the collection.  

My first time drinking mead, it was interesting

The taps for Wanderer Mead were awesome!

That finishes the Esk Beerfest for 2016. Thank you to the people who joined me and shared their drinking experiences, I’m going to start saving for next year.

Good times with great people =)

Cheers

Dave

Trying out my new shirt