Great Australian Beer Festival

A few weeks ago, I got the chance to attend the Great Australian Beer Festival (Yeah, I'm falling behind on posting stories, sorry about that).  Discount tickets were offered through work, so it was too good of an opportunity to pass up.  Peter, a fellow PhD student at AAHL and I both showed up at the gate as soon as it opened and enjoyed the afternoon tasting beer and cider.

First beers of the day!

The event was set up in different sections, with small booths for every brewing company set up throughout.  There were three music stages set up within the festival grounds and food vendors were planted in the middle.

Lots of people attended, but the crowds weren't too bad

One of the entertainment spots was a circus-type tent set up where they did various "acts".  The acts weren't all that great, but it was a shaded area in the grass to relax.  The morning started off comfortable, but by noon the sun was out in full force, so a break in the shade was a treat.  Some of the acts that we watched included a lady playing the accordion and telling terrible corny jokes, a hula-hoop act, and a really sad version of Evel Knievel.

Hula-hoop craziness

Roving entertainers

Samples were sold via tokens, and each sample was about 100 ml each.  When I had my first sample, I was a little disappointed at how much we got.  It was only a small taste of the beer.  But 30 samples later, I decided that the serving size was appropriate - it allowed you to fully sample the beer but still be able to taste others without passing out in an hour.  Regular Australian beer is about 5.0%, so you can't just drink it endlessly all day...

Beers/ciders that I got to taste included Napoleone's Pear Cider, 3 Ravens' White Ale, Murrays' Whale Ale, Hawthorne's Golden Ale, Mountain Goat's Steam Ale, Cavalier's Summer Ale, Mildura Brewery's Honey Wheat, Feral Brewing Company's Sly Fox, Killer Sproket's Amber Ale, Kooinda Brewery's English Red Ale, Little Creatures' Bright Ale,  and my favorite of the day: Prockley Moses' Blueberry Hefewizen.  I'm sure I missed a few, but those were the ones that I wrote down on my program :P

  

The day was a great success, and we both managed to avoid sunburn.  I was glad to be able to enjoy Australia's beers as well as Australia(s)Wine!