The only festival I really made it to this year was Rainbow Serpent Festival. It's become a bit of an institution in my world (this was the 12th time) and I have the scars and tarps to prove it. It's an amazing four (to seven) days with elements relating to both The Rainbow and The Serpent - music, art, workshops, food and a community of 15 000 like-minded human beings making the most of the freedom gifted to our generation in this lucky country.
RSF has a huge sustainability focus with about 150 composting toilets, requirements that food stalls use biodegradable cups, plates and so on, carbon neutral contributions to offset the generators and option for punters to add $10 to their ticket price to carbon neutralise their car trip. They also have a "No Glass" policy. Although this prevents glass rubbish being left in the natural environment and injuries relating to being attacked by meth-crazed ravers or walking barefoot in the dark, it does make it incredibly difficult to drink good beer.
A few years ago I was privileged to run a small specialty bottle shop in Thornbury, Carwyn Cellars. Thornbury has a great community and many are avid festival-goers as well as avid good beer fans. Unable to face the prospect of offering only CUB canned beers to these ace people, I spent the Winter months hunting suppliers who could hook up cans of good beer. And success! That year, for the first time, punters were able to smash cans of Dr Tim's (Can-conditioned Coopers Pale), Newcastle Brown Ale, Authentic Kronenburg 1664, Heineken and Asahi, Kirin Lager, Kirin Ichiban Shiboru, Suntory Rich Malts, Paulaner Munchen Helles and Oktoberfest, Brok, Zywiec, Tatra, some ridiculous 10% ABV Polish Lagers and Schwartzbiers and a few more lines that I can't remember. The next year McCoppin's (Fitzroy), Duncan's Church St (Richmond), Acland Cellars (St Kilda) and the dreaded Dan Murphy's had cottoned on and the advent of drinking good beer in cans at festivals had happened. Fuck yeah!
This year I saw, hiding behind a myriad of stubbie holders, cans of Peroni, Asahi, Kirin, Cascade Pale Ale, various ciders and the ubiquitous Melbourne Bitters. A couple of groups went for the truly sustainable option and brought kegs and taps and ceramic steins and tiki mugs, one bunch known as CocoPocoLoco brought a total of 15 kegs of quality brews, that's 1125 pints. Committed. This year we saw a RSF first as festivals around the world, as well as economic motivations, drive the companies that own big beer brands to develop technology that results in lighter-weight and more recyclable packaging like the dinky little aluminium Asahi bottles that were everywhere at RSF. Here's a picture:
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| Would you drink out of this? |
We took a range of good gear to the Rainbow Serpent Festival. The maths can be difficult but we ended up with 14 slabs and some random cans. Here's the breakdown...
Coopers Dr Tim's
4.5% ABV, 375ml can, $50 Slab from Carwyn Cellars
Photo stolen from http://iansaleadventures.blogspot.com/
Dr Tim's is a canned version of Cooper's Pale Ale which, for abstract marketing reasons, is only available in Adelaide. When I asked the Melbourne Cooper's sales rep if we could get a couple of pallets (there's 64 slabs on a pallet) he reluctantly said "No" so the next day I called Goodwood Cellars in Adelaide and asked if they could freight a pallet over for us. They were amazed I couldn't get it from Cooper's and obliged with only a small mark-up. In Adelaide a slab sells for $44, here in Melbourne they were $55.
The beer is simply good beer, the only beer I know of that's conditioned in the can (they put yeast in the can so it can ferment and mature slowly and accentuate texture and complexity). For some reason in the can it loses a lot of the hop aromas and the yeast esters are the driving aroma. It smells like a loaf of sourdough, which is good for some and not so good for others. In the mouth its dry and full-bodied, straw, mild English hop spice and lees (retired yeast cells) are the main flavours and the texture is full and juicy with great length from the lees and hops combined. I'd drink this over anything from CUB, not just because it's independently owned, and not just for flavour, but as it's all natural (no glucose or dextrose, brew enhancers, flavours, colours, filtering agents, etc) you can drink more of it, it makes you feel good rather than smashed and the hangover, being alcohol-related rather than sugar and chemical-related, is easily fixed with food and water.
Paulaner Oktoberfest
6% ABV, 500ml can, $70 Slab from Carwyn Cellars
Photo stolen from http://agirlandherbeer.com
What better beer for a festival than an Oktoberfest beer! Paulaner are a Munich brewery making possibly the world's best lager, of which this is a beefed up version. This is one of the finest examples of German brewing with gamey, roasty flavours, complex Noble hop spicy finish and a warming effect from the increased ABV. The long lagering (cellaring) period creates an environment where the yeasts can slowly feast their way through all the sugar leaving a rich, dry and STRONG beer. Bless you little yeasts! This beer is a little dangerous at festivals as it tastes so good, comes in such a big can and at 6% ABV will get you dancing more sideways than what you had intended and sleeping in a spinning tent that may or may not be yours.
Kirin Ichiban Shibori
5% ABV, 500ml can, $92 Slab (Wholesale)
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| Photo stolen from random Japanese beer website |
This is Kirin's flagship beer, brewed with the "First Press" method where basically they throw all the weaker elements of the wort away and brew only with the richest, juiciest part. Hence the hefty price tag. What a crackin beer - brewed using corn and rice as well as barley, fine Japanese Toritate hops and the mega-team of scientists that makes Japanese beer, whisky and gadgets as damn good as they are. The adjuncts (grain additions) make the beer lighter, drier and slightly sweeter than a straight malt lager and the Japanese hops are somewhere between the English and German varieties giving good bitterness but also elegant and complex spice. The result is a clean, dry but flavoursome beer you can drink all day and not get tired of the flavour, or bloated, or sick, or in a fight. It has been proved on more than one occasion.
It's important here to note the work of Dr. Masaru Emoto (http://www.masaru-emoto.net/english/e_ome_home.html) and his work on the effect of words on water crystals. Dr Emoto has experimented with attaching written words to bottles of water and researching the word's effect on the shape of the the water crytsals. Fascinating and beautiful. Kirin Ichiban Shibori cans feature the words "Brewed for Good Times" and I have always had a good time when drinking this beer. Hmmmm....
Anderson Valley Brewing Company Poleeko Gold Pale Ale
5.5% ABV, 350ml can, $6.99ea from Purvis Cellars
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| Photo stolen from http://www.chiph.com/ |
Thank God, Satan, Krishna, Cthulu and all the rest for Purvis Cellars! We had to pick up the mega-eski from Kate's place in Richmond, conveniently close to Purvis Cellars where we picked up a few sneaky glass bottles which we'll talk about later as well as these life-saving cans of one of the world's best American Pale Ales. Anderson Valley are a solar powered brewery in an isolated part of Mendicino County, California. Their beers are works of perfection showing flavour, texture, balance and terroir without the extremism of other West Coast breweries like Stone and Dogfishhead. The big American hop presence in the Poleeko Gold Pale Ale makes for an uplifting, stimulating, refreshing and, at times, psychedelic drinking experience. After drinking so many lagers it was absolutely fantastic to feel those mega alpha acids coat the inside of my mouth, to have aroma that transports the mind and to feel full, rich and bitter texture wash away the days of dancefloor dust, gum-burning chems and smoking herb clag. Again, a naturally brewed beer that will make you feel good, alive and fed (yes it is actually nutritious, you can google it). It also pairs well with mushrooms, by the way.
Australia has had an anti-can bias since the days of tinnies and with industrial canning machines being quite pricy the humbled canned beer remains out-of-reach of our tax-oppressed microbreweries (http://www.fairgocraftbeer.com.au/). We look down on cans but really they treat the beer better than any bottle. Lighter-weight packaging means less carbon footprint, technological developments have led to food-safe seals that leave no trace of aluminium flavour in the beer, no sunlight or air can get in to decompose the beer and the finished product can be easily recycled to live once again as a vessel of sweet beery nectar. Check out http://www.craftcans.com/ for a glimpse into the future of beer. But I digress...
Belzebuth Strong Golden Ale
11.8% ABV, 500ml can, $10.99ea from Purvis Cellars
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| Image stolen from http://www.brasserie-graindorge.net/strongest-beer.ph |
When I saw this on the shelf at Purvis I knew it'd be dangerous to take to a festival. People tend to lose their marbles and inhibitions at these events and do things they may later regret. It's irresponsible to encourage these dangerous activities so I only bought two cans. We only drank one.
My friends and I go hard, not as hard as we used to but still those 5 days didn't see much sleep amongst the dancing, philosophising, bike riding around lost in a paddock, interdimensional travelling, making sneaky love in scenic places, playing fusball, tripping on light shows, making new friends and finding old ones. But we still only managed to share one can of the Belzebuth between four of us. Brewed with barley, wheat, rice and sugar (to excite the yeast and get the ABV right up there), the beer drinks like a running-punch in the mouth. Spicy, rich, very full-bodied and the heat from the alcohol could keep a family of Inuits sweating for years. Fark! No wonder they named it after our favourite fallen angel. Perhaps this is a beer better drunk at Royal Doof (http://www.myspace.com/royaldoof) in the mid-winter. Awesome packaging and the looks you get drinking a can like this on the dance floor are well worth the pain, even better is the look you get when you give someone a taste.
These were the "drinking" beers, the beers drunk for rehydration, social lubrication, rampant alcoholism and to wash away the taste of certain things. The following beers were drunk in the name of flavour and texture exploration, much like one experiences music or other art forms...
Oud Beersel Farmboise
5% ABV, 375ml bottle, $11 Wholesale
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| Photo stolen from http://www.flickr.com/photos/k3vini/4445843157/ |
Framboise is a unique style of beer rarely seen in Australia even though it has massive popularity in the rest of the Western world. It starts life as a lambic - a Belgian style of beer that undergoes spontaneous fermentation, when native wild yeasts and other radical bacteria make their own way into the wort and ferment it on their own terms. The brew comprises malted barley, unmalted wheat and lashings of dry hops and is then cellared in used oak or chestnut barrels. Young gueuze (6 months) and old gueuze (2 - 3 years old) are blended to make the lambic which can be drunk as is or blended with cherries to make Kriek or raspberries to make Framboise, both of which are an unforgettable flavour experience.
The Oud Beersel Framboise is a drier version pouring a deep crimson pink with strong carbonation. The nose is tart raspberry, grapefruit elements from the wheat, funky antiseptics from the brettanomyces bacteria and dry grass from the hops. In the mouth its an explosion of sourness followed by juicy raspberry fruit and a dry, tart, bitter finish with enough remnants of juicy raspberry sweetness to keep you smiling. We drank it for breakfast in the sunshine and I truly enjoyed watching peoples faces as they experienced the evolution of flavours and textures in this crazy beer.
Southern Tier Blackwater Creme Brulee Stout
9.6% ABV, 650ml Bottle, $21.99 from Purvis Cellars
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| Photo stolen from http://www.frothyhead.com/ |
No matter how I describe this beer it will not do it justice. Unfortunately stocks have run out here in Oz and we'll have to wait until after June before we get another shipment of crack, I mean Southern Tier's Creme Brulee Stout. The beer is a Milk Stout, a stout brewed with lactose sugar, and vanilla beans. Lots of vanilla beans. Back in the day in England stout was recommended for pregant women and breastfeeding mothers as a source of iron and calcium. Unfortunately alcohol was not so beneficial for the kids so now we recommend decaf lattes and walks in the park. I have spoken with both commercial and home brewers about this beer and the consensus is that it is an absolute technical masterpiece. Without going into brewing garble let's just say that vanilla beans can be bitter, as can roasted grains, lactose sugar can be too milky and sweet and shipping beer to the other side of the world also has its challenges. Southern Tier doesn't care about these challenges, they just Chuck Norris them out of the way and make the most juicy, rich, psychedelic beer I've ever drunk (apart from their Oak Aged Un*Earthly DIPA, see previous blog entry for more).
At first it's all vanilla aroma, so much so that the mind starts to freak as it looks at a bottle of beer and smells a big bowl of intensely flavoured creme brulee. There's hints of rich, roasty stout under there, but just hints, and when coupled with the vanilla it becomes reminiscent of the caramelised sugar sitting on top of all that vanilla cream. In the mouth it's overwhelming - creamy lactose sweetness (brewing yeast won't eat the lactose sugars so they stay undigested and the beers stays sweet), rich roasted barley grains, vanilla vanilla vanilla and vanilla and then that dry, roasty stout bitterness. The second sip (mouthful really) allows for more in depth exploration and reveals rum and raisin elements, shortbread and dark chocolate cream and of course more vanilla. The intensity of this beer, along with the ingestion of various "flavour enhancers", led to an enjoyable moment of synasthesia where the flavour sensations no longer restricted themseles to my mouth but also inspired sound, sight and assorted physical sensations that had previously only been caused by intense music or visual arts and I was thrilled to find a new entry to this sensational world. Thank you Southern Tier and Dr Albert Hoffman. We also shared a bottle of their Oak Aged Un*Earthly DIPA, which was covered recently in this blog. Again I was rewarded by the expressions of people discovering that beer isn't just something you do while drinking.
Soon the festival season will be over and we'll be back to trudging through a Melbourne winter, taking sickies for Seasonal Affected Disorder rather than to go see bands and DJs in the great outdoors, drinking whiskies and dark ales in dark corners rather than gin and juice and pale ales in beer gardens and waiting for that moment when the sun shines through again, the line-ups get released and we splash all our cash on good beer at good festivals having good times with good friends.
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| An exercise in sustainability - The Rainbow Serpent 2010 Canaconda. |
Special thanks go out to Lucas, Lex, Gerald, Kate, Martha, Annabel, Sean, China, Jeff, Rach, Noodle, Nick, Frank and the Rainbow Crew, Alex and Allyson Grey, Simon Posford, Raja Ram, Opiu, Matthew Johnson, Simon and Brian at Purvis Cellars, Ben at Carwyn Cellars, the "United Nations" who camped next to us, Joni Numbers the most professional camper ever and to Sid, the originator of the term "Facebook Juice".
