#BEERSATURDAY and let's Discuss GABS

GABS or the Great Australian Beer SpecTAPular is possibly the best craft beer festival in Australia. Starting in Melbourne about 10 years ago I've been to all but 2 of them - the first one held at a bar in St Kilda and one about 5 or so years ago where it was held in Southbank, otherwise it has always been in the amazing Royal Exhibition Buildings, which is a stunning building built in 1880 for the world exhibition.

A very excited work friends' hand on Friday

But it's undergoing repairs and the festival was shipped off to a new venue - the Melbourne Showgrounds and a new data - late June (I know I'm, late with this post) rather than the more normal Late May.

The huge shed that this was held in

Now I love this festival the main attraction used to be the 'container' bars, which contain 120 beers specifically brewed for this festival, over the years these beers have got more and more gimmicky, and over the years the stalls from the brewers have become the focal point, so much so that I only had 2 beers from the container bars in the two sessions I was there for. This seems to be the way the festival wants it as well as the containers were shoved down each end of the huge hall and so easy to miss.

One of only two festival beers I had all festival It's a Red Flanders Ale by Melbourne brewery Bad Shepherd

The venue was not as good at the Royal Exhibition buildings, it was more practical sure, essentially a giant hall (in fact the last time I was here was when I drove through it in a car to get tested for COVID, that's how big it is) but it was also soulless, there is something about the weird layout of the royal exhibition buildings which worked nicer, it felt more sectional, more crowded and more intimate, like a pub.

On the flipside though is that this festival is getting more and more popular. I had a group of work friends, not all of which are craft beer people desperate to go along on the Friday afternoon becuase they loved it so much last year, and now three weeks later they are still talking about it so it's doing what it should be doing - making craft beer more accessable and exciting people.

And the highlights of the Festival, Well on the tasting paddle front - it has to be this from One Drop, they basically went all out with the quirk, with gelato sours, lassi sours, pastry stouts. This is gimmick but done well - it was loved by beer nerds and beer haters, it exactly the sort of stuff to take to a festival

I did ask a friend, what's you've favourite colour, when he said green I took him here for the get up green cream smoothie sour

And the Brewery stand of the Festival - this one from Good Land. I think I had almost all of the amazing beers they bought with them, including multiple barrel aged imperial stouts - so, so good.
The highlight was Billion$ which was a..deep breath...A blend of Buffalo Trace Bourbon Barrel-aged Stout and Starward Whiskey Barrel-Aged Quadruple, rested for 16 months, before blended with a fresh Imperial stout. It’s then conditioned on QLD bourbon soaked caramelised bananas, Grade-A maple syrup, honey roasted organic Aussie macadamias, and Tahitian vanilla beans before being infused with a touch of Victorian milk sugar. weighing in at 11%

Good to see a cowboy at Good Land - who are from Country Victoria

Also I have to mention on of the great traditions of GABS which is people making pyramids with the little tasting cups, normally at the Exhibition Building with it's 140 year old fresco and polished timber floor the over zealous cleaning staff would never let them get this big, but in the free wheeling big shed with concrete floors they didn't care

and that my friends was GABS for another year