200 is quite a milestone - when 
But I'm happy to report that for this week we are getting back out of the house and more importantly getting back to one of the things that I love about craft beer. A Beer Festival. Now I haven't been to a festival in well over a year, and I was a little skeptical about going to this one too. We are essentially COVID free down here in Australia so life is back to normal (minus international travel and of course the endless wait for a vaccine) so it wasn't that, it's more just that I'm a grumpy person who isn't used to having to put up with people.
But I shouldn't have feared - I'd forgotton how good this festival was. It's got the standards - a tent for each brewery - about 25 or so of them - mainly local to my home State of Victoria, about 6 or 7 food options, some bands playing. But then there is the surronds - It's in a old convent, which has stunning gardens. On the top of the hill is the convent itself where Nuns were taught to be Nuns or something and then the gardens fall down the hill towards a river at the bottom.
This of course leads to the problem that everything is on an angle - including you beers so it's a little like drinking in a Batman villian's liar.
The Vibe is super relaxed - so much so that this is the only beer festival that everyone comes to - normally it's myself, my partner and my brother. But as this one is outdoors, has a heap of room, lots of dogs wandering around, some games for the kids to play then my Sister in Law and two neices come with us as well - which give it's a different vibe. It's more of a day out together rather than a discussion about Craft beer. Unfortunately I was comprehensively beaten by a six year old in Uno - but in my defense I was drinking and she was sober which seems unfair.
Now all of this is not to say there wasn't the usual craft beer tropes going on, I bumped into one of the best beer journalists in Australia who was also marvelling at being back out of the house (he was claiming that the day we spent drinking together in Feb last year with a visiting American friend was the last big day out which I find hard to believe) There was the usual parade of new beers, some of them hits and a few of them misses. There was the discovery of a new brewery (called 2 Rupees) which I'd never tried before but will be trying again, and of course there was the guy in front of me in the line complaining to the brewer that was Double IPA he'd just poured was really a Hazy IPA not and IPA.
It is good to see some thing's never change. But then when you head home - up hill which is always a problem you are reminded that you are drinking in a convent and I'm not sure that is Kosher (or whatever word Christians use for that sort of thing)
