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Beer and Loathing

Pecker Up

Less than a year ago, I was ruminating on the future of craft beer. Things were looking grim even then, and since that time something like a dozen or more other breweries in this country alone have gone through the mill, including Australia’s oldest craft brewery, Grand Ridge, which has been brewing since the 80’s…

Connection

People seek connection in a lot of ways. Rituals, both spiritual and secular, intimate or large-scale are an inherent human trait, evident since days long past. Things like shared worship, shared labour, hardship, or frivolity can all forge those bonds, not only to each other but to humanity as a whole. They can grow slowly…

Diff’rent Strokes

It is possible – easy, even – to drink a different beer every day of the year without repetition, all produced entirely within Victoria. Hell, even just the Greater Melbourne area. New South Wales has more breweries, Queensland slightly fewer, plus the rest of the states are also producing quality drops. And this isn’t even…

Music is the New Cheese

A New Take on Beer Pairing Romeo and Juliet. Peanut butter and jelly. Whiskey and the jar-o. Some things just go together. Music and booze is one of those magically delicious pairings, and further to a conversation I had a while back, here is a recommendation for something I’ve been loving recently paired with something…

Canvent 2: Canvent Harder

Greetings! If you didn’t read part one, please feel free to catch up here: Or don’t! Sometimes you can enjoy just the second half of the story. Anyway, let’s dive straight back into the review of 2023’s Canvent Calendar with… Wednesday, December 13th – Deeds Brewing Sticky Toff Sticky Toffee Pastry Stout 6% Smells immediately…

Canvent 2023

It’s that most magical time of the year time of year when I review the Canvent Calendar from Carwyn. Will that first offering be something safe, accessible, popular, welcoming? Something easy to draw people in and start things off in a good place – a NEIPA or DIPA, perhaps? Who knows. The joy is in…

Staff of Hospitality +1

               It can be a bit of a thorny subject, talking about staff at a venue. Very delicate thing to tread the line between fair criticism and being a bit of an entitled Karen, bitching about the servants. It can feel like you’re discussing the merits and failures of people as if they were chattels,…

Anatomy of a Perfect Day

What would my perfect day look like? I don’t know I’ve never really thought about it, but since you ask, it would probably go something like… It begins with waking naturally – not from the jarring screech of an alarm clock, not from a partner or pet who can’t contain themselves, nor even from the…

Right On Schedule

When I was younger, I used to have a weird sort of chip on my shoulder about habitual behaviour, about having regular engagements, about being tied to a regular time and a place. I don’t know why exactly; I think I just thought you had to be… I don’t even know, a bit of a…

What Comes Next?

So things have been shaky for hospo for a while now, and for beer in particular.* Following the (ongoing) global pandemic, a number of recessions and economic slumps worldwide, supply chain issues and rising costs all over the globe, we are beginning to see some cracks in the foundation. Breweries are dropping all around us…

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