The final months of the year are an excellent time for enjoying as well as learning about beer with numerous beer festivals throughout Australia. Here at Beer Cartel we have been making sure we attend our fair share!

The first was the 5^th Australian Beer Festival at the Australian Hotel in Sydney. This beer festival brings hoards each year to try the different brews on offer and 2009 was no exception. The pub and adjoining streets were chokka with beer tents for 18 breweries and thousands of beer fans keen to get into the beer action.

Armed with our beer tokens and tasting glasses we made our way through the crowds to sample some new and unusual beers. The Red Angus Summer Ale went down a treat and is one to get your hands on if you can, as did the Prime Beer from Fusion Brewing. The Prime beer is designed specially to go with meat – if only we had a good steak on hand while! It is definitely one to re-visit for our next bbq. Also of note was the Akuna Ginger Beer from the great team at Akuna Brewery, their beers were immensely popular with the crowd as they took out the people’s choice award for best stall.

Two weeks later we made our way further north to the Maitland Bitter and Twisted Festival. It was our first chance to take part in a beer festival as an exhibitor and was a lot of fun! It was great to have a chat to various beer fanatics as well as those keen to sample a few different beers. While we were busy manning our stall, we made sure we had time to have a yarn and a beer with some of the different brewers.

The Murray’s Brewing Co. and Matilda Bay beer tents appeared the most popular of the weekend, regularly generating queues of thirsty beer lovers. The Murray’s seasonal beer was extremely flavoursome, as was Matilda Bay’s newest beer Big Helga. Also of real interest for the weekend was the Liquid Bacon made by the brewers at the Hunter Beer Co. The bacon flavour courtesy of smoked malts was very recognisable and polarised the crowd, with beer fans either loving it or hating it.

It was a great weekend despite the Sunday downpour and one we will definitely be looking forward to next year!

PS. For those in New South Wales that haven’t had a chance to get to a beer festival yet this year, check out the Coogee Beer Fest (28^th & 29^th Nov) and Warners at the Bay Beer Festival (29^th Nov).

Cheers,

Rich and Geoff

The Oxfam 100km Trailwalker was a real physical and mental challenge. Our team, G n’ 3, finished in 39 hours and 8 minutes with only a 20 minute power nap on a cold hard floor to recharge the batteries at the 60km mark!

So, here’s a survival guide in case you ever consider doing the 100km Oxfam challenge:

- Make sure you like the people you walk with because you walk as a team the whole way!
- Pack a first aid kit with plenty bandaids, strapping tape, Voltaren and Nurofen Plus. They will become your best friend!
- Pack a pocket knife. Ours came in handy when Kez asked that we cut a hole in her brand new runners, so her little toe could gain relief from the confines of her shoe. She walked from the 70km mark to the end with her toe and sock poking out the side (check out the pic below).
- Make sure to pack your sanity within easy reach, when you lose it from the lack of sleep you’ll want to get it back ASAP!

Start 8.30 AM Fri 28th August: Geoff, Donna, Kez and Krissy

We have had some exciting weeks at Beer Cartel of late. Looking to increase our understanding and education of beer, we have been lucky enough to attend a couple of beer appreciation nights where the beers were matched to food.

Our first appreciation night was hosted by the Beer Diva, Kirrily Waldhorn at The Local Taphouse in Darlinghurst. The Local is a great place for any beer tasting adventure with its large and varied selection of beers on tap. On this night we got to sample a range of 8 beers moving from a Hefeweizen through to a Porter.

The beers were matched with various tasting dishes – we got to enjoy some treats with the Fransiskaner Hefeweizen perfectly paired with a salt and pepper squid, and a dessert of chocolate mousse with the Matilda Bay Dogbolter Dark. The meal and the food went down superbly as the Beer Diva built upon our knowledge, with some interesting facts and a bit of beer trivia thrown into the mix. It was a great night and worth every cent!

The next appreciation night we managed to attend was given as a birthday surprise from my very thoughtful girlfriend. We made a trip to the Redoak Beer Café in Sydney where we were treated to a four course degustation meal. Each course was excellently complemented by different Redoak beers. It was interesting watching the girls tasting the beers and seeing them become quite open to the taste of some of the heavier beers as the bitterness of the beer was reduced by the taste of the dish. The night was well hosted by Redoak’s beer sommelier Simon Beveridge (yes that’s his real name) who definitely has a passion for beer!

To top off a great night we paid another visit to The Local Taphouse and celebrated their American SpecTAPular. Fourteen different beers including a number from America meant we were in for a few treats, including getting to sample some of the great tasting Rogue beers. It was a great end to the night, and very entertaining with a bell rung each time one of the beers kegs brought in for the event was drunk dry.

It has been a tough task attending these events …… hopefully we’ll get to attend a few more in the near future!

Cheers,

Richard and Geoff

About 2 years ago while throwing around business ideas, one concept Geoff mentioned was a beer club. At the time however, we couldn’t decide what the beer club would be about and so it got put to the bottom of the pile. With any business we were looking to start, we had three key requirements:
• it had to be an area we were interested in,
• it had to be profitable,
• it had to be something we could have fun doing.
Often an idea would fall under one of these requirements, but never all three. Each idea was more of a pipe dream than something we would follow through.

Then this year while again kicking business ideas around, the ‘beer club’ concept once more reared its head. Richard has always been mad keen on trying new and different beers, especially after a short stint working for Limburg brewery in New Zealand. For Geoff, his Belgium/American/Australian heritage translated into a huge curiosity in beers from around the world. The more we talked about our idea, the more excited we got! After many business meetings, we had identified our core theme for the business. Our aim is to create an online community of beer lovers, who are interested in learning about and ‘experiencing’ boutique beers from Australia and around the globe.

Ideas are turning to action, the business is beginning to develop and enthusiasm continues to grow. At the moment we are in the process of obtaining a liquor license, while also seeking potential web designers for the site. After a grueling course yesterday with a roomful of Japanese, Korean and a couple of other token Australians – we emerged with our responsible service of alcohol certificate in hand. We are holding our breath for the Australian girl who wasn’t sure if she should put her name on the test!

Thanks to everyone who has provided support and advice so far. If you are in the beer industry, or have any advice you would like to give, we would love to hear from you. Please sign-up to our blog and we will keep you updated on the rest of the adventure!

Cheers
Richard and Geoff