Tapping into dark beer brewers

AN event set to celebrate Victorian brewers’ darkest beverages will soon descend on Ballarat for the first time.

The inaugural Obsidian Dark Beer Festival, run through recently-established events group Hullabaloo Events, will see everything from stouts to schwarzbiers showcased at the Ballarat Mining Exchange later this month.

Fourteen independent brewers from across the state will deliver two dark offerings each for attendees to sample, some of which will either be event exclusives or seasonal launches.

Festival director Tom Madden, who’s been an avid beer appreciator in the region for many years, said the event is about raising a glass to Victoria’s brewers.

Matt Ives and Craig Blackmore have been good friends since before their brewing days and the festival will mark the duo’s first collaboration.

“It’s around trying to hero the work some of the independent and craft brewers around Victoria do,” he said.

“The reason it’s gone down a dark path is the timing worked to do a beer event activation in winter. It’s well known the pairing between dark beer and colder temperatures go really well.

“We’ve seen the hopefully temporary drop-off of the Ballarat Beer Festival, so hopefully this is offering something else to fill that gap.”

Local participants include Red Duck, Good Knight working with Federation University, Cubby Haus, Dollar Bill, and Aunty Jacks, the latter of which is collaborating with Cheltenham’s Bad Shepherd for one of the samples.

Bad Shepherd senior brewer Craig Blackmore got his start in the industry about a decade ago in Ballarat and said the festival will be a homecoming for him.

“I’m looking forward to returning to my brewing roots,” he said.

“Ballarat’s got a good tradition of brewing, good beermaking and beer lovers. A dark beer festival like this will be a great thing for them and help promote regional and metro breweries.

“My collaboration is basically a black wheat beer, something typical to a hefeweizen with a dark twist on it. It’ll be very light, easy-drinking, but jet black.”

Mr Ives and Mr Blackmore were at work earlier this week at Aunty Jacks’ brewing facilities crafting a new dark concoction to showcase at the festival.

Outside of the main attraction, the event will showcase local producers with toasties from Tim Bone of Tim’s Toasties, bao from Flying Chillies, cheeses from Campana’s Deli, and spirits and cocktails from Itinerant Spirits and Kilderkin Distillery.

“One idea I’m playing with for later events is around a multi-day festival that brings out all our local food and producers from the region and beyond,” Mr Madden said.

“The aim I’ve got for Hullabaloo is potentially putting together a group between local brewers and distillers and try to feed their ideas into something that can be a bit bigger.”

Masterclasses and live music will also take place.

The Obsidian Dark Beer Festival will be held on Saturday 29 June across a day session from 11am to 3pm followed by an evening session between 4pm and 8pm.

Tickets are inclusive of beer samples and can be booked at the event’s website for $85.