Easter Beer Bar Bands - Weekend Catchup

Plenty of Easter delights to quickly mention, with the long weekend allowing for much indulgence into excellent beers, bars and bands.

Thursday I splashed out on my most expensive single beer shop ever, purchasing:

• Holgate Brewhouse Beelzebub’s Jewels (x2!! $53/bottle)
• Mikkeller Beer Geek Breakfast (delightful, but not a “breakfast” beer)
• Lobethal Bierhaus Chocolate Oatmeal Stout (excellent stout, strong chocolate aroma but lacking chocolate taste)
• Grand Ridge Brewery Supershine (very happy to finally see this beer back in stock, after hunting it down for so long. And it was absolutely delicious!)

Good Friday began with my attempt to match a beer with hot cross buns for breakfast. I went with the renowned Beer Geek Breakfast Imperial Oatmeal Stout from Mikkeller of Denmark. This flavour-packed stout is wonderfully complex, with chocolate, coffee and hops all jumping out at you. It is a slow drinking beer with a long bitter finish. However, as a beer for breakfast and a match with hot cross buns, it did not work out in my mouth. Nonetheless, an enjoyable experience and next year I'll look for another hot cross bun beer match.

Friday night we were at Yah Yah’s to see The Cheats and Valleys play a free gig. The Cheats are all that is good and fun about Melbourne live music.  Also, Yah Yah’s is an excellent bar, but their limited tap beer selection this night (just painful Carlton Draught and Hoegaarden White) was a disappointment. I survived on bottled Little Creatures Pale Ale.

Saturday we visited the Red Hill Brewery for lunch, which was magnificent. I had the steak sandwich with a pot of Scotch Ale and it was a wonderful combination. The bread used (from Peninsula Baker Boys) was sensational. The specific aim of my visit was try the just-tapped 2010 vintage of their Hop Harvest ale (“Hoppy Birthday”, an ESB celebrating their 5th Anniversary).  The Hop Harvest was a beautiful beer, but not as hoppy as expected. I’m pretty sure last year's vintage was much hoppier.  However, I will certainly be keen to purchase a 6 pack as soon as it is bottled in two weeks time, because it could well be a very agreeable sessional beer.

I went home with a mixed six - 2x Scotch Ale, 2x Wheat Beer, 2x Golden Ale - all of which I’m already very familiar with (thanks to their now commonplace availability in Dan Murphy’s these days), but happy to purchase direct from the Brewery to support their sensational support of the Victorian microbrewery industry.

Sunday night we popped into the lovely Wesley Anne in Northcote, where we drank Mountain Goat Steam Ale (on tap) and saw The Holy Sea and The Broadside Push play. The Wesley Anne has a wonderful atheistic, ambiance and drinks selection. The Holy Sea are a very generous and soulful band, providing a perfect ending to Easter Sunday. Top night...great weekend.

Thank you, Victoria.

Rock on The Cheats!

Enjoying a "Hoppy Birthday" Hop Harvest (ESB) ale at the Red Hill Brewery.