Australian Amateur Brewing Championship on this weekend

This weekend is the Australian Amateur Brewing Championship and, like last year, us and Mountain Goat are providing a prize to the National Champion Brewer where he can brew a beer to sell @ the Taphouses next year.

Good luck to all contestants!

Beer Diva Oktoberfest

COME AND CELEBRATE ALL THAT OKTOBERFEST HAS TO OFFER AT THE BEER DIVA - BEER & FOOD TASTING @ THE LOCAL TAPHOUSE, DARLINGHURST NEXT WEDNESDAY 28TH OCTOBER!!

I'm not sure about you, but I still haven't had enough of celebrating all that is great about beer! Next Wednesday we will offer a selection of authentic Oktoberfest beers mixed in amongst our own great Aussie craft beers.We will be tasting 8 beers, matched to 5 delicious courses from The Taphouse's new Summer menu, all for only $60.00 per head!! A great night, with great beers, great people and a lot of laughs!Only a week to go, so book now!Our beer line up for next Wednesday is:

Fransiskaner Hefeweizen
Duke Hefeweizen
Stone & Wood Pale Lager
Holgate Big Reg
Weihenstephaner Dunkel
Sunshine Coast Munich Dunkel
Jamieson's Chocolate Bock
Mad Abbott Dubbel

Book on the blog, click on the link to Beer Diva dinner on the right hand side of the page. We will be starting at 7pm.

Cheers

Photos from St Kilda Ale Stars session

Here's the slideshow. Photos are thanks to the Prof.

New night for home brewers & prizes to be won!

Thanks to the generous support of Grain & Grape in Melbourne and Dave’s Home Brew in Sydney, we're launching a new night for homebrewers!

To be held each quarter, Taphouse BrewShare is about homebrewers bringing their own home brew to barter and socialise with their peers!

Even better news is that there is a $100 Grain & Grape/Dave’s Home Brew voucher for People’s Choice Beer!

The dates for the first events are below. Home brewers can brew whatever they like for the first event. In future, however, we may have style-specific nights.

ST KILDA: Tuesday Nov 24th from 7pm & free
DARLO: Thursday Nov 26th from 7pm & free

As it's free, we need to know how many people are coming so you MUST book by emailing either stkilda@thelocal.com.au or darlinghurst@thelocal.com.au.

Hottest 100 Aussie Craft Beers Poll - coming back this year

We'll shortly provide a link to the Hottest 100 Aussie Craft Beers Poll which will return this year after last year's success. Like last year, it will run from November until Australia Day with the winner getting a case of the Top 5 beers..

Anyone, anywhere in Australia can complete the poll! Can Little Creatures Pale Ale win again???

MovemBEER with The Local Taphouse and Stone & Wood Brewery

Out of respect for those men and women who can’t (or shouldn’t) grow moustaches, 30 cents from the sale of every regular glass (or 60 cents from a pint) of our Showcase Brewery Beers from Stone & Wood will be donated to The Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and Beyond Blue.

Thanks to Prof Pilsner for letting us use his idea!

Our illustrious Patron Saint, Wilfred, was a big fan of the mo too..

St Kilda Ale Stars - the Prof's report

One of the favourite things I do each month is read the Prof's report on the Ale Star sessions.. I wait with bated breath after each session to see what he has to say.

This month's is again a great read but no mention of the new handshake (alas, not mine, which drew a flatline response from the expectant masses). Someone had to be the sacrificial lamb I guess.. Congrats (through gritted teeth) to Anton however!

More photos to follow.

Taphouse Sluggers - calling for players!

As promised, we are now booked in for the mixed summer softball comp! The details are below. If you want to play, you better email me quickly at steveATthelocal.com.au and we can organise payment. If you already expressed interest to me and pay up quickly, your spot is guaranteed..

This is awesome fun and a great social night and hopefully the Sluggers can take the pennant in their first season!

----

Softball competition

Season commences Wednesday November 11th

Season length - 13 weeks (break from December 8th then back from January 5th to end of Feb then finals in March)

Venue: Fawkner Park, South Yarra Melways 2L C5

Time: Games start 6.45pm and end 8pm

Squad Size: 12 (at least 5 girls need to be on pitch at one time) includes 2 subs at any time. If you can't play, you MUST find a replacement.

Cost: $60 per person for season. I will email you a Paypal invoice and you will need to prepay this via credit card.

What to wear: We are trying to hit up a brewery for sponsorship (i.e. shirts). Players need to wear shorts/trackpants/caps/enclosed footwear

After game drinks/grub: The Local Taphouse!

Finally, the St Kilda Oktoberfest photos

Here's the link to a slideshow of photos from the Oktoberfest SpecTAPular in St Kilda..

Line up for St Kilda Ale Stars

Here's the lineup for this month's St Kilda Ale Stars (on 20th Oct from 7pm) on IPAs.

Fullers IPA
Emersons IPA
Murrays Icon 2IPA
Gouden Carolus Hopsinjoor

Can't wait. Book via the link top right corner as normal..

$3375 raised for World Vision during Oktoberfests!!

As is now customary, we charge a minimum gold coin entry to our SpecTAPular beerfests in an effort to raise money for a chosen charity (100% goes to the charity).

Thanks to all the customers who attended our Oktoberfests in St Kilda and Darlo, we will be donating $3375 ($1860 for Darlo and $1515 for St Kilda) to World Vision this week. It's such a brilliant effort for which you all should be proud.. Now we have this new benchmark, let's see if we can beat it in future!

Oktoberfest in Darlo tops the lot

After a slightly sluggish start, Oktoberfest in Darlo went beserk (thanks, in part, to the Socceroos game at the SFS)..and broke the busiest day of all time Taphouse record.. It was nuts to say the least but heaps and heaps of fun..

The oompa band were fantastic, the staff looked great in their outfits, the themed food was delicious, the German beers flowed constantly and the atmosphere was particularly festive.

Here is the slideshow but more will be added.

Newsflash: Luke from Epic Brewing (NZ) booked for Nov Ale Stars session in St Kilda

I'm delighted to reveal that multi-award winning NZ Brewer, Luke Nicholas, from Epic Brewing is coming to Melbourne in November and will be the special guest at the Ale Stars session that month (Tues Nob 17th)..

Luke will be chatting about his love of HOPPY beers, his many beer adventures and the NZ brew scene.

This will be a night not to be missed and a highlight of the Ale Star year (are there any lowlights?!). Bookings can be made online after this month's session on IPA's..

You can learn more about Epic Brewing here.

Another contender for Ale Star handshake?

I can't hear this on the computer I'm on but this made me laugh. If the Ale Stars introduced this as their handshake, we'd have to start half an hour earlier AND have an intermission!

Matilda Bay's big Big Helga launch event

Beer Diva contesting the pint carrying comp!
Big Helga is introduced!

On Wednesday, Paul and Les (from Darlo), Justin and Benno (St Kilda) and moi went along for a day long junket to launch Matilda Bay's new beer, Big Helga. Starting off at The Town Hall Hotel in Richmond, we were then bussed down to their Garage Brewery in Dandenong to meet Helga, try the beer and participate in other frivolity.. Then on to our Taphouse digs and finally the after party at the Corner Hotel rooftop bar.

The beer itself is okay (and certainly worth trying) but it isn't in the helles we were told.. Try for yourself as we'll have it on tap for a spell in the not-to-distant future..

See the slideshow here.

More Rogue on the way

James has just placed an order for more Rogue kegs for both venues. We probably won't announce the line up for - keep it a bit of a surprise!

Oktoberfest photos from Red Hill Brewery

Here a couple of photos from Karen @ Red Hill Brewery from last Saturday.. Apparently, a ladybird brings 7 years good luck!

Go figure - Darlo Taphouse named a finalist for Australian Hotel of the Year!

In the forthcoming 2009 Australian Liquor Industry Awards, Darlo has just been named a finalist for one of the major awards, Australian Hotel of the Year. The contenders are:

Chalk Hotel, QLD
ivy, NSW
Story Bridge Hotel, QLD
The Brisbane Hotel, WA
The Local Taphouse, NSW
The Lord Dudley, NSW
The Maid and Magpie, SA
Young and Jackson, VIC

Nice one..

Have I come up with THE secret Ale Star handshake?!

After so many contenders for the official (but highly secretive) Ale Star handshake (we got one half-assed effort!), I think I may have the winner.. mine!

After getting a little merry at Saturday's Oktoberfest, I came across it by accident.. All will be revealed at the next Ale Stars session.

Here's the original post.

;-)

Little Brewing Co. Showcase in Darlo then Stone & Wood

We've managed to squeeze Little Brewing Co in as the October Brewery Showcase in Darlo. Expect to see their awesome APA, Pils, Wit and Mad Abbot Dubbel in shortly.

Coming up in November (in both venues) is Stone & Wood (NSW) including their unique Stone beer. Read more about that here.

Oktoberfest Melbourne huuggeee! Next up Sydney

Last Saturday was St Kilda's second Oktoberfest (or 6th SpecTAPular seasonal beerfest since we opened) and the second biggest night we've ever had (last Oktoberfest pipped it by a whisker)..

The rain stayed away and we had what can only be described as a blast.. The staff looked awesome in their costumes (particularly the ladies) and the ommpa band played up a storm downstairs. More photos will be posted soon.



Of the beers I tried, my personal faves were Spaten Oktoberfestbier, Gilden Kolsch, Red Hill Weizenbock, Mash Eisbock & especially Last Drop Kellerbier..

The only disappointment of the day was that the Schlenkerla Rauchbier Marzen keg was off which was a huge shame given the fact that it was the first time on tap in Australia!

Now to do it all again in Sydney this coming weekend!