Some news and stuff

Wow! With all the wild weather and hop-pickin’ and what-not, I have completely overlooked a couple of very significant and very beery events on the calendar.

Tomorrow, Tuesday the 16th is the next instalment of the increasingly popular and people-packed Ale Stars at The Local Taphouse (St Kilda Chapter) and it will be the perfect opportunity to Bock On with Shandy and the crew as we sample and prattle on about 4 different Bock beers and enjoy some very nice pizza from Richard’s Kitchen. Thirty smackas, seven o’clock for a seven thirty start and I’ll see you there.


Wednesday and Thursday the 17th and 18th sees the next edition of the very social Victorian Microbrewery Showcase at Federation Square Atrium (off Flinders Street). This is a great opportunity to support the brewers who are out there providing we who are enlightened with quality, small batch, limited release and quality beers above and beyond the stuff that takes up the first three fridges in most bottle shops and pubs.

You can chat with the brewers and sample up to twenty different ales, lagers, wheat beers and various specialty brews while enjoying the company of thousands of like-minded souls. It’s still only $25 for 20 tasting tickets and a $5 food voucher plus a $2 deposit on your tasting glass.

And coming up is a beery event of such culture, class and theatrical conviviality that I will smack out a separate post to do it proper justice shortly, but here is a teaser.

The Beer Diva, Kirrily Waldhorn has put together a theatrical experience like none seen before to take place at some joint called The Sydney Opera House (Sydney readers and Darlo Ale Stars might like to enlighten us on what this is – some place near the SCG or is where they hold the Mardi Gras, perhaps?)


Titled, Beer is Proof that God Wants us to be Happy, tickets go on sale today and the show runs from Wednesday April 28th to Sunday May 2nd with two shows on the Friday. I will be there and God will make sure that I am very happy.

Cheers
Prof. Pilsner

Some nice beer news

While I don’t want to make light of the dreaded GFC and the effects it has had on many people’s livelihood worldwide, I also haven’t got too sucked into the whole ‘imminent collapse of the whole wide world as we know it’ tin-bangers and their calls of doom. Same for Global Warming – “WHOOOOOOOO, We’re all going to DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIE!!!” Call me an optimist.

But today I saw some good news for those ho have been crusading for real causes that affect real people – beer drinkers. It seems that, as a result of the global financial downturn, more and more Australians are staying in instead of going out to dinner. Not great for the restaurant owners who can’t adjust, but there is some good news in it. People staying home to have dinner parties are serving better quality wines and also better beer.

The Herald Sun reports findings of some data or another about sales figures and such which show a big increase in “premium beer” and “bottled wine” sales as well as spirits and a small increase in overall beer sales. I worry a little that ‘Premium Beer’ is what the Big Brewers refer to as premium – mainstream pissy fizz but with silver and gold labels as well as ‘imports’ like Stella Artois (from the small Belgian enclave of Southbank) and Heineken that comes all the way from Camperdown.

Even better was the news that VB sales have dropped by one percent – maybe we are beginning to upgrade a little. I don’t think that this report signals a swing towards craft beer, or even that we are beginning to look for something ‘better’, but maybe it is a small step in the right direction. Premium beer sales are up by 20%, mid-strength by 10% and full strength beer is up by 7% which might just hint at a move towards exploring of the beer world by those who may not have known that anything other than VB and Crown and Toohey’s New existed before.

Today, the premium beer market – tomorrow the craft beer world!!

Cheers
Prof. Pilsner