St. Paddy's Day!

Beer Fest! And trouble- also St. Paddy’s!

So one of the best things about writing for MBR is that I can drop this little, “oh, I write for a beer blog in America” line here and there and get way better treatment than I should. No one asks what blog or what the readership is, they’re just excited to show off.

So I may have done this at the beer festival….

And met so many people because of it! Brewers and other festival attendees alike. Best to meet the brewers though- they ignore that whole ticketing system at that point- they just keep pouring samples. So full reviews will be on MBR, I’ll give a quick overview here. The festival featured only craft breweries from Victoria, with the exception of Murray's who cheated and took over the taps inside Beer Deluxe. Sometimes that kind of cheating is ok. J I was first shown around by Julian from Holgate- he gave me samples of all of their beers first and then led me around to some of his other recommendations. I ended up landing with Hendo from Prickly Moses who led me through his sampling. He may be coming stateside for the Great American Beer Festival- might have to make it a point to get out there this year! He then sent me on to Murray's, the cheaters, who actually might have had the best line up there, from what I tasted (sorry Victoria breweries!). Overall I had a really great time and tasted a lot of great beer. But the evening didn’t end there…. because it was St. Patrick’s day as well!

We made plans to meet up with Amy and Nick (from Port Douglas) at an Irish bar… which had a line out the door and around the corner by the time we got there. Boooo. So we went to a bar we had seen earlier on the walking tour that had a good party going earlier and was completely hidden in the middle of the financial district. Worked out! No line and they had Guinness. We closed that bar down and then headed over to the casino, since it was pretty much the only thing left open. No gambling done, but definitely more drinking. And a dude who came a picked me up in a big hug and then called me squishy. Squishy. Loads of fun, drank more than we should have and were sad to say goodbye to our Melbourne friends. But hey! What is facebook for??

Our last day in Melbourne we pretty much just had time for lunch before leaving for the airport. I kind of insisted on going back to Cookie- thankfully, JR was compliant. :) And happily, the bar was not packed! We had a really great time talking to Luke and Chris, our bartenders. Both knowledgeable and, Luke especially, excited to share and talk beer. We did some sampling and then I ended up going with a lager made by a winery based on a recommendation from Luke- would not have been my first choice- probably ever- but it was actually very nice. Kudos to Luke for surprising me and, really, just being an awesome bartender. A rare thing in a world without tips! I unloaded all of the Oz money I had left as their tip before heading out to the airport. I’d definitely like to spend more time in Melbourne next time I come back!