This week in Melbourne is a a beer festival called Pint of Origin, running for about 10 days it sees about 20 venue each hand over their taps to a different 'region' of the world. That region could be quite small, i.e. Heartbreaker bar are doing 'Melbourne North of the river' which is breweries for about a 5km square region or it could be huge, a whole Continent, Europe or a Country 'China' 'Japan' or the craft beer powerhouse that it The USA which is where we found ourselves visiting on Sunday.
Carwyn Cellars are a amazing bar in normal circumstances but I don't get their often enough as it's a reasonable distance away but we made the effort on Sunday on the promise of two breweries taking over the taps (most bars will run a different brewery tap takeover with last for about 2 days suring the week and then we get someone else, it makes sense from getting kegs in and diehard beer people will visit for multiple takeovers) those breweries Cycle Brewing and Fonta Flora.
Cycle is maybe the most interesting for us. This is a Florida brewery, never been availiable in Australia before, and never will be again as they have just closed down so this was the one and only chance to have their beers. What we were promised was big boozy dark beers.
So it was appropriate that when we left home it was raining, a bit cold and a great day for being inside drinking. But we had to get their first so it was onto the train - which by the way is free at the moment (due to a fuel crisis, they don't want us driving). Here's a photo of the not appropriately named for the grey deery day today Merri station on the way to Thornbury.
But you are not here to hear about trains so let talk beers. Here are the first one...
It was from Cycle brewing and was called 'To be continued' - which they won’t because they have closed down, which can't be from lack of skill because this beer is just outstanding, sweet, sticky, indulgence and amazing - it's possibly the best beer I've had all year.
Next up was Sunday, a coffee imperial stout, not quite as good as the ‘to be continued’ as the coffee cuts across it a little but you know still probably in the top 5 beer I’ve had this year, so this is a strong start.
My wife's brother turned up at this point (he lives not far from here) and we ordered up some Hot Dogs and Burgers (being Amercian) so there are no photos of the next two Cycle beers but I can assure you they were amazing. Instead you can have a picture of the bar, it really was very dark in here for a Sunday Afternoon
Then it was time to moved onto Fonta Flora and in particular the Three year blend Appalachian gueuze which is quite a mouthful to order but is also close to perfect Lambic style beer, perfect balance of almost vinegar tartness with waves of subtle fruit it had great depth.
And for our final road we got these two beers which, believe or not are Bright Red and Black, I'm telling you it's dark in here. The red one is Razzamatazz by Fonta flora which was a fairly standard sour, but the surprise was the black one.....
It is from a brewery called 'Humble Forager' and is the called 'Redwood' it is a bourbon barrel aged barley wine and wow what an mazing beer to end on - not quite a sweet as the 'to be continued' which makes it a little gentler and easier to drink, some would say smoother but in any other company this would be the stand-out.
So there you go a little trip to the Northern Suburbs of Melbourne on a free train and you get to experience some of the best breweries from the USA - gee I lvoe this festival, now off to the bar again.