{"id":17909,"date":"2016-02-27T15:52:23","date_gmt":"2016-02-27T02:52:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/?p=17909"},"modified":"2017-02-21T15:30:12","modified_gmt":"2017-02-21T02:30:12","slug":"brewdays-gone-by","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2016\/02\/27\/brewdays-gone-by\/","title":{"rendered":"Brewdays Gone By"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Wild<\/a>
Wild & Woolly’s ‘Basilisk’ Berliner Weisse from Brewday 2015<\/figcaption><\/figure>It’s a lovely day for a beer festival. Admittedly, I say this without bothering to look at the forecast or indeed out the window. Today is the fourth running of Brewday<\/a>, a festival of wider Wellington’s beer and beer-adjacent communities, held over the hill in Martinborough \u2014 a place long thought of as wine country (and quite rightly) but also just generally the City’s sunnier back yard.<\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span> I attended the previous three, and had an excellent time at each \u2014 in three very different capacities \u2014\u00a0but am sitting out this one on account of a looming shift in the bar this evening.<\/span>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span> But I have my own theory of making the most of Missing Out<\/a>, and so this year I am enjoying the festival\u00a0nostalgically<\/em>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A lunchtime staffie \u2014 probably Mon P’tit Chou \u2014 in the 2013 Garage Project tent<\/figcaption><\/figure>For the d\u00e9but Brewday in 2013 I was working the Garage Project bar and mostly\u00a0observed the festival from there. Like all good and honest things as they start out, it was a little ropey and spare in parts, but the crowd (a healthy mix of locals and travelling Wellingtonians) seemed to be having a lovely and laid-back afternoon. We were still an unfamiliar name in the area but met masses of open-minded\u00a0drinkers\u00a0who scarcely flinched at a Pinot barrel-aged red ale, or a strong pale ale with lemongrass and coriander and whatnot. Stereotypes were most-enthusiastically smashed by a group of good keen rural men who kept coming back for glass after glass of Mon P’tit Chou<\/a> \u2014 a dry and sherberty saison with a stupidly adorable tap badge.\u00a0Although, to the extent that “saison” is a style, or a word that means anything at all, I suppose it was built for pretty much exactly those people and occasions. You just wouldn’t know it from the beer typically\u00a0marketed in their direction. Evangelism and<\/em> enjoyment? Job done.<\/p>\n

\"Supervising<\/a>
Supervising the clean-up and the impending sunset at the end of Brewday 2014<\/figcaption><\/figure>The following year, everything was just bedded-down and tightened-up nicely. It seems the thing impressively quickly took its place in the calendar and its\u00a0rich ecosystem of festivals. I was mostly in attendance as a “normal person” but kept one eye on the GP bar in case of technical troubles and Em &\u00a0I subbed in to bartend so the crew could have a break. I took more notes<\/span>3<\/sup><\/a><\/span> than photos<\/span>4<\/sup><\/a><\/span> and only had a few beers \u2014 mostly, I was enjoying the break and a restoratively lazy bit of sunshine after a few trying weeks.\u00a0From memory, the success story of Mon P’tit Chou the previous year reached the organisers who then made ‘saison’ something of a vaguely-official festival-beer theme, always a useful prompt to provoke interesting new releases. Festivals are, I like to think, as much a place for\u00a0brewers<\/em> to try things out as they are for drinkers. Both are in a friendlier, more forgiving environment of smaller servings and increased discussion.\u00a0As I scribbled at the time, it’s like a glorious outdoor pub, or a supersized barbeque at your friend’s place \u2014 if you’re lucky enough to\u00a0have a friend with a massive rural back yard, and they also invited several-hundred people you don’t know.\u00a0It turns out, happily, that a good beer festival is an excellent place to be even if you take it so easy you’re still able to drive home.<\/p>\n

\"Effectively<\/a>
Minimalist notes\u00a0on the\u00a02015 map<\/figcaption><\/figure>Last year’s festival, finally, involved\u00a0no work at all<\/em> for me. It was the very day after my last at Garage Project and proved an\u00a0excellent<\/em> way to mark my ‘retirement’. The note-taking \/ photo-capturing balance flipped almost exactly for me compared to the year before, but what scribbles I did make testify to plenty of good food, some frustration at the obligatory late-afternoon dodgy covers band, and ten very enjoyable beers. Particular highlights were (for the whole crowd, judging by how often you heard it mentioned) North End’s Baby Grand, a freakin’\u00a0gorgeous work-in-progress preview\u00a0of a Flanders Red that should see its official release very soon, and (for me personally) Kerer\u016b’s Karengose, a salty and sour wheat beer brewed with seaweed, as a shandy \u2014 about which more soon, because I bloody love that beer and I bloody love a good shandy. After three years \u2014 and I hope to hear after\u00a0four<\/em>, as of later this afternoon\u00a0\u2014 that lazy summertime vibe remained in evidence, untarnished by the increasing popularity and professionalism of the thing. The festival as a whole continued to gently evolve and smarten up its infrastructure and incorporate more new breweries and contract producers as Wellington (the City, and the region more generally) enjoys its boomtime.<\/p>\n

The fractal interestingness of the beer scene is nicely demonstrated when you go to a festival focussed exclusively on\u00a0the region in which you live<\/em> and still discover things you had no idea existed. And the variety of available experiences is handily proven by the fact that the very-same festival<\/em> gave me three totally different but equally excellent days out, three years in a row. There really is an incredible and marvellous\u00a0and useful diversity in beer festivals, and they’re the ideal opportunity to welcome people into the community, to try a few new things \u2014\u00a0or<\/em> just to switch off your daily concerns and spend some time among friends and (mostly) friendly strangers. I think my homework for next week is to put together my own personal Festival Calendar and see just how many I can get myself along to. I strongly suggest you consider doing the same.<\/p>\n

\"Garage<\/a>
Orange Sunshine, blue sky<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n
\"Webb<\/a>
Webb St. from Victoria St.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n
\"Hop<\/a>
Bleeper and booklet<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n

\"Diary<\/a>
Diary III entry #9: Brewday 2014<\/figcaption><\/figure>Original\u00a0Diary<\/em> entry:<\/strong> Brewday 2014<\/strong> \u2014 8\/3\/14 @ the other side of the hill. It’s matured nicely; everything just looks a little tighter + better-prepped. Lovely day with a useful-to-inconvenient Southerly. 1) Kerer\u016b Saison Slipper 3.9% to start. Apparently it’s Maidstone Lager wort, fermented separately the diluted down a little. Classic festival wizardry. With a very tasty result. Perfect for my planned very-different festival. 2) Yeastie Boys Mini-Matta. 4% apparently, with half the tea, too. Heh. At pub quiz, with Hadyn \u2014 Everyone’s buzzing about M.M., and Bayland’s Van the Tsar, which it just occurs to me we had back in podcast days. This is just wonderfully evolved. the band has toned down a touch, and everyone’s massively chilled out. \u2014 We just subbed in on the bar, and there’s a fair amount of boofhead drinkers (GP ‘Beer’ found its home at festivals, with “So what’s your lager?” men) but everyone’s pretty well-behaved. So far. It’s like a glorious outdoor pub. Or a supersized BBQ at your friend’s place. 3) North End ‘Chaleureux Rivage’ 5.5% And, it turned out we got a perfect score in the Quiz. Beer festivals are food festivals, too, and so far we’ve had Vicky’s dumplings, a massive burger (well, that was just me), and a blinged-up margherita pizza. Anyway. This is bloody great. I was tempted to have a Hoppy Wheat [now ‘Super Alpha’], but I’ll stick to the theme. Rich, subtly spicy, and with the easy complexity of a casual conversation among very interesting people. Real good. \u2014 Finally, at 5.05, seeing some wobbly walks, some red-glazed faces, and some shirtless dudebros. But not many. 4) Panhead ‘Stump Puller’ \/ Something Else [I think this became ‘Trekken’] 6% I love that that’s strong enough that I just got a taster. As tasty taster, but. As Kieran says, the festival beers all say a lot about their brewers. This is, in a sense, absurdly hoppy. But it works. Still dry, refreshing, and fun. \u2014 And there’s an arrest. With the usual seemingly-excessive frogmarch, no less.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s a lovely day for a beer festival. Admittedly, I say this without bothering to look at the forecast or indeed out the window. Today is the fourth running of Brewday, a festival of wider Wellington’s beer and beer-adjacent communities, held over the hill in Martinborough \u2014 a place long thought of as wine country … Continue reading Brewdays Gone By<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diary","category-locations"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":18840,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2017\/02\/25\/brewday-2017\/","url_meta":{"origin":17909,"position":0},"title":"Trains, Rains, and Brewday ’17","author":"Phil","date":"February 25, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"This time last year, I was recounting three years' of Brewday experiences over the hill in Martinborough, as I missed out on the festival's fourth incarnation. This time last week, I was on a train to Upper Hutt \u2014 the event's original organisers had sold it, and it'd been relocated\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Location notes"","block_context":{"text":"Location notes","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/locations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Garage Project 'Rhubarb Rhubarb Rhubarb' in a puddle at Brewday 2017","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Brewday-2017-The-upside-down.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Brewday-2017-The-upside-down.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Brewday-2017-The-upside-down.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Brewday-2017-The-upside-down.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Brewday-2017-The-upside-down.jpg?resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7318,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2014\/08\/12\/beer-baroness-unite-pale-ale\/","url_meta":{"origin":17909,"position":1},"title":"Beer Baroness ‘Unite’ Pale Ale \u2014 at a Moa Tap Takeover","author":"Phil","date":"August 12, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Feminism, as they say, is1 the radical idea that women are people too. By very simple extension, women can be beer enthusiasts, bar owners, beer writers, and brewers. There's a lot more to say on the subject, obviously, but it's not really my gig to hold forth given my obvious\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Beer Baronness & Pink Boots 'Unite' Pale Ale (LBQ, 17 July 2014)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Beer-Baronness-Unite-300x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5438,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2013\/04\/03\/beer-diary-podcast-s03e01\/","url_meta":{"origin":17909,"position":2},"title":"Beer Diary Podcast s03e01: A Very Good Friday","author":"Phil","date":"April 3, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Back with unusual promptness \u2014 which is hopefully a good omen \u2014 George and I sat down on Friday for a few beers and a somewhat-supersized season opener for another round of the podcast. We try a couple of new-ish releases, and one bottle that'd been sitting around waiting for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Podcast episodes"","block_context":{"text":"Podcast episodes","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/podcast-episodes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Epic 'Mosaic', label detail","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Epic-Mosaic-label-detail-150x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5967,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2013\/09\/23\/station-ident-changeover\/","url_meta":{"origin":17909,"position":3},"title":"Station Ident: Changeover","author":"Phil","date":"September 23, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"So,\u00a0Beer Diary II is dead \u2014 or at least about to embark on its mostly-bookshelved (but never abandoned) retirement \u2014 long live\u00a0Beer Diary\u00a0III. I'm in Sydney for a few more days, having one of those holidays1 wherein you stop wearing your watch, stop wearing even shoes, and swiftly lose track\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Metablogging"","block_context":{"text":"Metablogging","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/meta\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Beer Diaries, etc.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Beer-Diaries-etc.-1024x575.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Beer-Diaries-etc.-1024x575.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Beer-Diaries-etc.-1024x575.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7275,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2014\/05\/22\/station-ident-sabbatical\/","url_meta":{"origin":17909,"position":4},"title":"Station Ident: Sabbatical","author":"Phil","date":"May 22, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm over in Australia again for a bit of a break and the damn-near-obligatory pilgrimage to the Great Australa\u2014 let's just say\u00a0GABS, shall we? A few days in Sydney has been buckets of fun, and (despite the FOMO) it's\u00a0been nice to have a\u00a0blank time a few hundred kilometres removed from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Metablogging"","block_context":{"text":"Metablogging","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/meta\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Frankie's Pizza taplist (Frankie's Pizza, 20 May 2014)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Frankies-Pizza-taplist.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Frankies-Pizza-taplist.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Frankies-Pizza-taplist.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Frankies-Pizza-taplist.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":18356,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2016\/08\/29\/yall\/","url_meta":{"origin":17909,"position":5},"title":"A festival for the rest of y’all","author":"Phil","date":"August 29, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"So that was the week that was. The week that was a while ago, now. How time flies when you're quietly recuperating. Weirdly, given the work I gravitate towards, I'm a natural introvert and crowds of lovely beer nerds are still, you know, crowds. I think exhaustixhilirated just about covers\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Observations"","block_context":{"text":"Observations","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/reports\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Light-up signage at Beervana 2016 (Wellington Stadium, 12 August 2016)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Blow-your-bulbs-at-Beervana.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Blow-your-bulbs-at-Beervana.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Blow-your-bulbs-at-Beervana.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Blow-your-bulbs-at-Beervana.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17909"}],"version-history":[{"count":34,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18196,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17909\/revisions\/18196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}