Is anything in life more perfectly matched than a frosty, perfectly poured pot of the amber nectar on a hot day? No, we don’t think so either!
While there are plenty of ways to try out new beers, nothing will give you the sheer variety and volume of new beer like attending the Great Australian Beer Festival (GABF) when it returns to Geelong in January next year.
Now entering its eighth year with a new home at iconic Johnstone Park, the Great Australian Beer Festival (previously held out at the Geelong Racecourse) attracts a crowd of around 5000 for an afternoon of craft beer tasting and education, brewing demos, top local food and live music, with breweries attending from around the country, including more than a dozen from the Geelong region alone!
With an explosion of new styles, collaborations and experiments in recent years, the Australian craft beer scene is creating more enticing brews than ever. In creating the ultimate boulevard of beers, this year the GABF (aka beer lover’s paradise) is raising the bar and will be featuring all four 2019 Australian International Beer Awards (AIBA) Champion Australian Breweries. This includes Gold Coast brewery Balter, who took out the Champion Large Australian Brewery trophy; Queensland’s Green Beacon who have earned the Champion Medium Australian Brewery title; Manly’s 4 Pines Brewing Company who took out the Champion Australian Beer award for their Keller Door: Schwarzbier; and local legends Blackman’s Brewing who took out Champion Small Australian Brewery.
As a festival that attracts breweries from around the country to showcase their brews, alongside the growing number of regional breweries throughout Geelong, Bellarine and the surf coast regions, GABF is making good on their promise on bringing good, flavoursome, and creative beers to the masses with these champions!
“To have one or two champion brewers attend is a coup! To get all four to feature at our 8th annual fest is sensational,” says GABF Festival Director, Michael Ward. “These breweries have been recognised and awarded at the largest annual beer competition in the world and to have them in Geelong is a real honour.”
Alongside these champions, the GABF will host forty-one breweries, including the likes of Young Henry’s (NSW), Modus Operandi (NSW), Stone & Wood (NSW), Exit (Vic), Mountain Goat (Vic), Hawkers (Vic), Bridge Road (Vic), Bricklane (Vic), Prancing Pony (SA), and Coopers (SA) – just to name a few!
GABF overflows with fun, from the moment you set hands on your tasting glass, ‘til the time you’re tipping back your last beer of the day! Celebrate and party with your community while sampling hundreds of new brews from all over Australia. Before you know it, you’ll be jamming along with the live music (Sneaky Sound System, Kim Churchill and local bands The Kite Machine and The Run), snacking on delicious food, and learning a thing or two at the masterclasses.
It all goes down at Johnstone Park, Geelong CBD – January 18, from 1pm-8pm. Limited first release tickets are on sale now via www.gabfgeelong.com.au/
