Beer week continues ... should it ever end?

I was excited during Melbourne Beer Week to see that some of my favorite breweries would be holding events around pubs and bottle shops.  On the 16th of May, Renaissance Brewing and Yeastie Boys had a beer tasting.  It was great to ask questions of the breweries, ingredients, and secrets.  The beer was great and it was essentially all you can drink by the end of the session.  One of the interesting beers from the Yeastie Boys was a beer made from peat malt, which is what they use for Scotch.  It was an interesting flavor that no one seemed to like, but it grew on me.  I left the event with a bottle of Renaissance barley wine, and I will be aging it until I leave Australia.  It's one of my favorite styles from one of my favorite breweries... so quit your whining (apologies for the horrendous pun).

Crusading in Melbourne

Well, well, well.  After watching my favorite rugby team in Christchurch, I decided to watch their next game, which was in Melbourne.  So, I went with some friends, wearing my Crusaders support gear.  Amazingly, as one of the biggest upsets, Melbourne won the game... the one time when I was rooting for the other team.  I had to zip up my jacket to avoid the Rebel fan heckling.   

burs

After visiting Christchurch, I took a 3 day week, while taking the Friday off to go to the Melbourne Beer Spectapular.. part of Melbourne beer week.  If I remember right, it was ~60 beers on tap, but if you are feeling spunky and want to call me out on that number, you can count the taps in the picture.  There were some interesting brews.  One beer was flavored with rose pedals... another with chili peppers, and one tasted like the warhead candies.  While, interesting, I have to say that my favorites were some of the classic styles.  My absolute favorite was a Simcoe Imperial IPA by Liberty Brewing in NZ.  Each brewery was supposed to submit an original beer that they don't sell commercially... at least not as of the event.  Anyhow, whenever you're looking around and think hmmm this may taste good in a beer... I say try it.. but be warned that you may not get many takers on that style.  Barley and hops remain the #1 ingredients ni my book... with maybe a touch of wheat. 

Seeing Red

On my way out of Christchurch, I saw the entire Queensland Reds team going through the International terminal.  They were the team that played the Crusaders on the previous day.  The unfortunate part of the airport was that I had to spend 10 hours there because they canceled my original flight.  Luckily, I can sleep in strange places... blogged with my family, did some shopping, had coffee, some more coffee, and coffee.  I also luckily brought some work to do.  All in all, the Christchurch airport was a pleasent place to be delayed.  

Crusading

Wow, so much has been going on.  I feel like I haven't had any time to update this blog.  I'll try to fastforward my devoted readers through the past couple of months.  I headed to Christchurch in May, which was the first time in a long time.  Ironically, one of my friends from there was training in Melbourne to be a flight attendent for Jetstar, and we somehow ended up on the same flight. 

The downside to that was that the 3 hour flight left at midnight and arrived at 5am.  The trip was a bit of a whirlwind.  I headed to the mountains during my first day... of course.  I hiked up Avalanche Peak with a friend.  It was an amazing day for the mountains (then again, all days are great for that).  Then we raced back to meet old friends for a brew. I forgot how much I enjoyed New Zealand beer. 

However, I started to notice that my beer is actually starting to taste better than some of my favorites, which I attribute to the fact that I brewed it and also that it's a little fresher.  Freshness makes a big difference.   On the next day, I headed to a rugby game to watch my favorite team, The Crusaders.  Oddly enough, I followed that up later that week with another Crusaders game in Melbourne.  I have to say that the beer they served in Christchurch for the game was great and better than what I got in Melbourne. 

The Tasmania Conclusion

 After Port Arthur, it was time to get back into the wilderness and some National Parks.  I headed north toward the Maria Island port.  The entire island is a National Park and there is camping!  There are also sea cliffs, so it seemed quite appealing.  So, I drove into Triabunna around 4 something... 15-30 minutes after the last ferry for the day.  The next day was almost booked up and the the return ferry would have pushed me past my flight.   

I suppose these are the vacation problems when one flys by the seat of one's pants.  Luckily,there are multiple great National Parks in Tasmania.  I headed to Freycinet National Park, which was absolutely beautiful.  I arrived there just after dark and setup camp.  Some possums tried to come eat my noodles, but I wouldn't have it and decided to take them down to the rocky beach.  It was a beautiful night.  I climbed a mountain the next day... because that's what I do.  It was very beautiful.  The climb started out like Stone Mtn in Atlanta, but got much steeper near the end.  It certainly would be impossible in the rain.  The view on top was well worth it.  I ate some snickers, figured out how to work my phone camera, and then headed back to Hobart to catch my flight back to Melbourne. 

Snails in my Mail... Curses

I don't know how common this is in Melbourne, but almost every time we get a fair amount if rain, I get snails in my mailbox. I've found up to two at a given time.  The odd thing is that there are no holes large enough for the shells to get in. Plus my box is always locked.  I think it's a mailman conspiracy. Do they mature after already being in the box? The funny thing is that the snails will eat my mail. It would be great for children with bad mailed report cards... Not so great when bills are unreadable.