The Small Brewers Beer Festival hopes to be real big this weekend.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Due to the overwhelming response to the inaugural festival earlier this year, organisers have shifted Saturday’s event to Exhibition Park in Canberra to cater for what is expected to be a big crowd and more brewery representatives.
The first festival was held in March at the Australian National Botanic Gardens and hit crowd capacity within 90 minutes of opening, according to organiser Mick Strickland.
About 2500 people attended the March event - double that will be catered to at Saturday’s show.
The festival is designed to showcase only the small breweries, beer companies and cider makers of Australia - none of the big breweries or their sub-brands are invited to participate.
That hasn’t sat well with some of the big names in the beer industry but Mr Strickland isn’t worried.
He reckons the small beer war has become a crusade.
“It may have put a few noses out-of-joint with the big breweries, but we were at a point where we had nothing to lose. The good news for us was that nearly every brewery that participated in the first festival picked up some business in the Canberra beer market,’’ he said.
“Since holding the last festival in March, we have been invited on three separate occasions to go to the ACCC [Australian Competition and Consumer Commission] and try and put forward a case about the big breweries using their power to establish monopoly beer tap and shelf space contracts with the major clubs and bottle shops.
“We don’t have the manpower, time or financial muscle to open a case with the ACCC, so we thought the best way to fight back was to hold more beer festivals and get the small brewers noticed by the pub, club, restaurant and bottle shop owners.”
There will be 30 breweries and cider makers represented at the festival which will also feature live music and gourmet food.
It opens at 11am on Saturday at Exhibition Park in Canberra in Mitchell. Last drinks will be served at 5.30pm before the festival closes at 6pm.
Tickets are $35 plus booking fee and are available at moshtix.com.au. Latest information is on the Facebook page Small Brewers Beer Festival.
