Weirdly when I sat down to write the second of my guides for Good Beer Week Melbourne 2016 I got Poison – Nothin’ But A Good Time stuck in my head and not one of the far better songs that have “Good Time(s)” in the title.
Just joshing, that is best song with “Good Time” in the title. Before you queue that up, check out my first post about GBW 2016, looking at Foodie events.
Note: there are literally no events chosen here that feature a guy playing a guitar. Photo Supplied by GBW.
The Mister Fox Craft Beer Open
They describe themselves as the “Eastern suburb’s premier craft beer venue”, but I’m not going to lie, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of it. But really that means bugger all these days. I have Netflix and a nearby shop that sells lambic, so my incentives to stay up to date on suburbs that aren’t my own are low. However, this event sounds pretty fun.
It doesn’t say what beers are available, but you turn up, play nine holes and in-between there are brewers and suppliers to chat to and fill your tasting glass. Then it’s back to the bar for prizes.
To somehow make this more about me, I’ve only played golf once (not including driving ranges etc) and I sucked. But it was a hell of a lot of fun and I’d like to do it again. This is probably a pretty good way to do it.
Now this is a venue I have heard of. And with good reason. Atticus Finch has been pouring legit beers since well before you came along all “oh I just love this end of Lygon St for its craft beer and whatever else, probably chicken”. They have been on board with Good Beer Week Melbourne since the start; hosting boozy events while playing music far cooler than whatever junk you listen to.
I once won a free cocktail there for guessing who sampled More More More and I have no shame in my knowledge of 90s summer party jams to say that it was Steal My Sunshine. What are we even talking about?
Anyway, the event isn’t complicated. Six Aussie beers, six aussie whiskies, six tapas, and old time jump blues.
Another venue that I love, Forgotten Worlds appeared one day with decor stolen from someone’s Grandma in the 80s, a stack of classic arcade games (fun fact: us Kiwis call them “spacies”) and a fridge full of great beers. They are reprising last year’s event where basically you turned up, got free play video games, and drank some beers.
This year they play host to a different brewer each night. You get two beers, free-play spacies, and entry to the Street Fighter Tournament. You might think “$35, but it only takes me 20c to dominate Golden Axe?”, but that is completely untrue because you haven’t played an arcade game in ages, you’ve forgotten how an abused joystick reacts, and your motor skills are probably pretty rubbish. I don’t want to tell you how much we burned last time we were there but it was basically “my 10 year old self would hate me right now… but he’s a jerk and I’m an adult with money” dollars.
Click the heading up there for the link to find out what breweries will be there on what nights. Also BurgerTime Burger will be doing burgers (implied by the name, of course).
Are you prepared to get beat by one of the world’s best brewers in another thing he is awesome at? Because Soren from 8 Wired was also twice a NZ Poker Champion.
I love poker, so combine it with some beers from 8 Wired, and some beer dorks who are all just dying to go “all in” at the first chance they get while looking super smug, and you have a pretty amusing evening. It’s at Penny Blue, another long time craft beer supporter. This may be the only event I get a ticket for, but I’ve said that about like, eight events already. This time I’m not bluffing (that’s a little poker-comedy for you).
I like that lawn bowls came screaming back into fashion and just kind of stayed there. Everyone expected it to fade away but here we are in 2016 and there is a bowling club in Melbourne’s West that has a better beer list than 90% of bars that are telling us how super-craft they are.
Days at this bowling club are a notoriously good time. Cheap beer and some of the smoothest greens this side of Jamaica*. For your $20 you get free bowls and beer vouchers for beers from Kooinda, Blue Elephant Cider, Funk Estate (NZ) and Brewcult. The brewers will be on hand for a chat and, no doubt, a laugh too.
If you do plan on going, get some lunges in now in preparation. You don’t want to be the person hobbling about with sore legs for the rest of Good Beer Week. Clumsily knocking into tables and when people ask you have to lie about doing some rock climbing or some other activity not bought back into fashion by Mick Molloy that is still dominated by the elderly.
*I’m sorry. I’m not even sure if smooth greens are a massive talking point in lawn bowls to be honest.
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