Hump Day | 20 November | Late Beaver!

Sorry for the delay with these beers, they have finally cleared customs and are in my hot little hands, ready for November Hump Day... There has been plenty of hype for UK craft brewers but you Hump Day crowds have seemed underwhelmed so far. Let’s see if we can raise the whelm-ometer with four beers from London’s Beavertown Brewery, founded by Logan Plant, the son of Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant.

We will be sampling four beers from its core range:

• Gamma Ray (American Pale Ale)
• 8 Ball (India Pale Ale)
• Black Betty (Black IPA)
• Smog Rocket (Smoked Porter)

Each of these beers rates in the high 90s on RateBeer.com (for those to whom that is a good indicator), but let’s let our own tastebuds be our guides…

As always, this will be a fun and laid-back tasting of good beers with great people with light nibbles and lucky door prizes…

Only 45 tickets available.

When: 20 November 2013 5.30pm for 6pm start. Where: Kerbside, Cnr Constance & Ann Street, Fortitude Valley Price: $30

Bookings.

PS. This is the first time I have used Eventbrite. It is a little more expensive for bookings, but has much better features. I'd appreciate any feedback.

Finally, another Hump Day tasting...

Sorry folks, it's been crazy since the end of July and Queensland Beer Week, Regional Flavours and The Ekka...but we finally have another Hump Day scheduled, and more on the way... Hope to join you for some really interesting beers.

Hump Day | 25 September 2013 | An odd bunch of IPAs

This Hump Day will feature a number of little-known but highly-regarded beers from the UK’s Buxton Brewery and French Brewery Craig Allan. It’s a bit of an IPA-a-thon so should appeal to the hopheads amongst you…

The beers:

• Craig Allan – Psychedelia Golden Ale
• Craig Allan - Agent Provocateur Belgian IPA
• Buxton Wild Boar - IPA
• Buxton Black Rocks – Black IPA
• Buxton Axe Edge – Strong IPA

As always, this will be a fun and laid-back tasting of good beers with great people with light nibbles and lucky door prizes…

Only 45 tickets available. (and 15 sold already, so 30 left....)

When: 25 September 2013 5.30pm for 6pm start. Where: Kerbside, Cnr Constance & Ann Street, Fortitude Valley Price: $35

Bookings

Hump Day | 24 April | Top of the Hops

If beer's ingredients were a rock band, hops would be the sexy and enigmatic lead singer swarmed by groupies and pestered for its autograph while the malt and yeast stand up the back keeping time and the rhythm. But are all strutting rock gods the same?

This Hump Day puts hops where the lead singer belongs, front and centre, with a tasting of seven IPAs from Danish brewer Mikkeller, each brewed with a different single hop.

We will be sampling India Pale Ales featuring the following hops:

• Galena
• Magnum
• Simcoe
• Tettnanger
• Cascade
• Saaz
• Amarillo

Get a sense for the different flavours that hops can bring to a beer, all while enjoying great company, light nibbles and getting over that mid-week hump.

VENUE: Kerbside, Constance Street (Ann Street End) Fortitude Valley COST: $35, includes seven samples and food. The fun is free. TIME: 5.30pm for 6pm start, until 7.30 (or later)

Bookings via TryBooking.

Hump Day | 10 October | Date with a Dane

There’s so many beer events on in Brisbane at the moment that we will drop Hump Day back to once a month. This means we’ll only have two more Hump Days before Christmas, October 10 and one in November, on the 14th. For those who haven’t joined us for a Hump Day tasting, these are very informal tastings in which we sample a selection of new or interesting (or new andinteresting) beers in the comfort of the lounge room-like Kerbside Bar in the Valley. They are great fun and very relaxed and feature five beer samples, some finger food and some good beer chat. There's also plenty of lucky door prizes.

They are an easy way to sample a range of beers and get a feel for the styles of beer that are available, and to see what you like. We kick off at about 5.30-5.45pm and, for those keen to get home, generally finish by 7.15pm. (Or not if you wanted to become more familiar with Kerbside's extensive bottled beer list).

The next Hump Day will see us head off to Denmark for some beers from Danish craft breweries, Beer Here and Norrebro.

We will be trying the following:

Beer Here

• Wicked Wheat  4.7% This is a wheat beer, but not your average yeasty mess. This kitten's got claws. Boldly hopped with Citra
• Dead Cat – Single Hop Amber Ale             4.7% Hopped exclusively with American Simcoe – giving pine needles, melon and catty notes to the caramel base
• Executioner IPA                7.0% Flavoursome, yet thirst quenching . Light caramel backbone with a grapefruit and citrus edge
• Sod – Baltic Porter 7.5% A pitch-black porter brewed with a dash of smoked malt. Roasty bitterness, cocoa and smoke highlights

Norrebro

• Kings County Brown Ale 5.5% A deliciously dark, medium body, fruity ale with the scent and taste of nuts, chocolate and dried fruits.

I hope to see you there.

When: Wednesday, 10 October at 5.30pm for 6pm Where: Kerbside, Constance Street, Fortitude Valley Cost:$30, includes five samples and finger food

Hump Day | 19 September | Marvellous Mish Mash

For readers who have't been to one of my Hump Day tastings, about twice a month I run a Wednesday evening tasting featuring four of five interesting beers. It's designed as a fun way to sample new beers that catch my eye. We kick off at Kerbside about 5.30 pm and it's all over about 7...unless you want to kick on. Next week in a departure from my usual ‘we all try it together’ policy, this is a special Hump Day where I will be bringing some beers that I want to showcase, including two beers brewed to celebrate seventh birthdays.

In an even greater departure, I will be featuring a couple of ciders. Don't worry, I'm not surrendering to the oceans of dross hitting the shelves. These aren’t the sweet, fizzy ciders the kids are drinking, these are extraordinary ciders and unique beers blended with cider.

Birra del Borgo ReAle Anniversario 7

Brewed to celebrate the Italian craft brewery’s seventh birthday, this is an American-inspired amber ale brewed with ingredients from 7 different areas of the globe.

Bridge Road B2 Mach 2.0

Brought back by popular demand, this Black Belgian IPA is a melding of a Belgian yeast with lots of hops and dark, roasty malts. Fewer than 1000 bottles of this once-off brew were made. Don’t miss out.

Thorogood’s Medium Dry Cider

Think you know cider? A beautifully fruity, dry champagne-style cider full of apple flavours. Unlike commercial ciders Thorogood’s do not use water or sugar but real apples grow in their own orchard.

Billy B's Golden Apple Beer

Billy B's Golden Fruit and sour lemon flavours enhance a big malty hit.

Billy B's Dark Apple Beer

An Australian lambic? Very possibly. A blend of dark beer and apple cider this is rich malt with a sour, malt cider finish. Words don’t describe it, not all will like it, those that do will love it, but you will definitely remember it.

This will be a unique Hump Day not to be missed!

Numbers will be strictly limited for this one due to the availability of the beers.

When: Wednesday, 19 September at 5.30pm for 6pm Where: Kerbside, Constance Street, Fortitude Valley Cost: $35, includes five samples and finger food