THE Robe Beer Fest will showcase a unique bunch of small independent breweries at the foreshore festival on October 27.
There will be no lack of food stalls, local wineries and musical entertainment, as well as the annual amateur homebrew competition and brewing-related education and information sessions.
The brewery line-up in Robe this year includes Robe Town Brewery (Robe), Cape Brew Co (Cape Jaffa), Red Duck (Ballarat), Cide Project (Kalangadoo), Odyssey Craft Brewing (Geelong), Left Barrel (Balhannah), Toy Soldier (Adelaide), Sow & Piglets (Port Campbell), Little Rippa (Mount Gambier), as well as local Robe wineries Woodsoak and Karatta.
“We did have several other breweries wanting to come this year, but we have had to cap the number according to expected visitor numbers,” festival convenor Brenton Lynch-Rhodes said.
Live music on the foreshore will be provided by Adelaide-based Aussie folk band Goldstein, as well as the South East’s own blues outfit Big 10 Trio.
“Besides the foreshore festival on Saturday, there are other official events being organised at local venues throughout the weekend,” Mr Lynch-Rhodes said.
“These include more live music gigs, a beer paired long-lunch, darts competition and beer specials at local eateries.”
Punters will also get the chance to taste and purchase last year’s winning homebrew entry.
The Robe Beer Fest’s 2018 Festival Beer is a French-style Saison, brewed by last year’s homebrew comp winner Ben Rowley from Adelaide and will be available on tap at the festival and for take-away purchases in stubbies.
“Both Ben and I are really happy with how the festival beer came out,” says Maris Biezaitis, brewer at Robe Town Brewery, who helped Ben adjust his recipe to the local brewery’s larger scale and old-fashioned methods.
“It has a wonderful spicy character from the French yeast, beautiful aromas from the noble European hops and has a really clean and crisp finish,” Mr Biezatis said.
A small number of seasoned kegs brewed by previous winners will also be tapped.
Now in its fifth year running, the Robe Homebrew and Craft Beer Festival is a non-profit community event, organised by volunteers and the Robe Tourism Association.
The festival started out as a small regional homebrew competition, but has steadily grown with the development of the craft beer market, which now includes a handful of craft brewing outfits in Robe’s own backyard.
The 2017 festival drew an estimated crowd of 2000 people, with numbers expected to improve this year, according to organisers.
