Mt. View Hotel‘s rooftop bar has some of the best city views in Melbourne, a jaunty carnival-like atmosphere with its food truck-esque bar and fairy lights, and this week, they have jumped on the Good Beer Week wagon for the first time and are hosting a series of evenings to showcase some of Australia’s best craft beer.
Their ‘Meet the Beer’ series is all about getting to know some of our favourites a little more intimately, sampling from their range, and chatting to the brewers themselves to find out more about their product. They’re a passionate bunch, those craft beer brewers. They will willingly talk all things hop, yeast, and grain.
Saturday night’s guest beer at the Mount was Holgate Brewhouse, a local family-run business micro-brewed with pure Macedon Ranges water. These guys are purists when it comes to sourcing their ingredients for their beer. They want authenticity of flavour and experience. Their Pilsner is a German-style lager made from German hops and a little bit of magic that transported me, in a Proustian moment, to Munich and its Oktoberfest. Similarly capturing an experience and a place, the supercharged Road Trip American IPA on tap for the night was the result of a Holgate family holiday to the U.S. Pacific Northwest. Made with American hops, this is craft beer at its finest.
Josh, the brewer, took great delight in explaining the Millennium Falcon, a hefty Imperial IPA weighing in at 10% a/v. Created in 2013 to mark the 1000th brew since launching, this is a limited release beer created with all pale malt, allowing the hops to really shine. Now brought out every year on the May the fourth, you can’t help but feel the (hop)force.
Mt. View will be welcoming the brewers and the punters Wednesday to Saturday nights over Good Beer Week from 5pm until late. It pays to get there early-ish so you can get to chat to the brewers themselves. It’s a big week for them and they might not stay until the end. But their beer certainly will. Plus, Mt. View are offering a food and booze special, with your choice of Buffalo wings or pork ribs as well as a schooner or bottle of the host’s finest brew for only $15.
Check out Quiet Deeds on Wednesday, Young Henrys on Thursday, Bridge Road Brewers on Friday, or Vale and Fox Hat Brewing on Saturday.
For more information or to reserve a spot, jump on Mt. View’s Good Beer Week listing and let the good times roll.
– Jo
Jo Rittey is a freelance writer and French teacher caught up in the myth she can cram as much as possible into every day, devouring life like a large crème brûlée.
Mt. View Hotel
70 Bridge Rd, Richmond VIC
www.mtviewhotel.com.au
For more Good Beer Week events, check out our guide to the best of the fest!
