IF you're a craft beer lover in Newcastle, the past four years have been an exciting time to drink.
The local scene has grown exponentially with a series of breweries opening in town like Modus Operandi, Shout, Method, Good Folks and Rogue Scholar, ensuring Newcastle has the most vibrant craft beer scene in NSW outside of inner-west Sydney.
But due to the COVID pandemic, opportunities to bring the various players in the Newcastle beer scene together have been limited.
In November Bitter & Twisted at Maitland Gaol held its first event since 2019 and on Saturday the Newcastle Beer Festival will make its long-awaited return after four years at its new site at King Edward Park.
Many of the city's brewers have been busy working away on old favourites and new releases to put their best foot (and ale) forward to the increasingly discerning and knowledgeable market.
FogHorn owner Shawn Sherlock is arguably the godfather of the Newcastle craft beer scene. The 2015 opening of his King Street brewhouse quickly put Newcastle on the ale map through multiple gold medals at the Australian Craft Beer Awards.
"There's been an explosion of new breweries in the area in the past 12 months," Sherlock says. "Which is good, because we were on our own for such a long time.
"It's good to have a few more opening up and spreading the love."
At the Newcastle Beer Fest FogHorn will launch their Cali IPA. Using a blend of nectaron hops from New Zealand and Australia's eclipse, the Cali IPA sits between the fruitiness of a hazy and a west coast IPA's bitterness.
"It's just a bit cleaner and fresher than the hazys," he says. "Bitterness plays a really important role in the drinkability of a beer. Hazys can be great and they have a massive fruit hit, which is what everyone's been looking for, but it does build up on the palate.
"The hazy and yeast content really accentuate that, while this beer is just a little bit cleaner. At 6.3% its dangerously drinkable."
Besides their core range beers, FogHorn will also be bringing back their Misty Mountain Hop hazy, the Double XPA and the 6.6% red rye IPA collaboration they did with Islington's Method Brewing Co last year.
Method will be making their Newcastle Beer Fest debut after opening last winter.
Co-owner Gavin McKenzie is tight-lipped, but promises a big "surprise beer" and a sour for drinkers, plus their core range.
Fellow newbies Shout Brewing Co will be pouring their core range favourites, the Keep Newy Weird West Coast IPA and the Mullet Pale Ale, plus their Blueberry Sour and a new NEIPA made for the festival.
Andrew and Hayley Drayton from IronBark Hill Brewhouse in Pokolbin have been working overtime to get their beloved Wheatermelon back, after a 12-month break, for the festival.
The 1200-litre batch of the American-style wheat beer used 150 kilograms of hand cut watermelon sourced from Wollombi.
"The first time we brewed it we thought this might be a gamble, but honestly we get asked for it every year, so we decided to bring it back for the festival," Hayley says.
The brewery's first gold-medal winner, the 8.2% Old Nessie Scottish Strong Ale, will also be pouring for those brave enough.
"I had to check if we were allowed to have a beer that strong at the festival, but we got the all clear," Andrew laughs.
IronBark Hill's Tickled Pink XPA is another recent edition to their range that will be showcased at King Edward Park and it's helping to break stereotypes in the brewing industry.
Hayley Drayton is a member of the Australian branch of the global Pink Boots Society, which aims to support women and non-binary people in the brewing industry.
Members get together for brew days and every year they vote on a hop blend through Yakima Chief Hops in the US. The top five hops chosen are made into a blend and distributed to the member breweries.
"We used it to brew the Tickled Pink XPA and we loved it so much, and it was so popular, we brewed it again and we've decided to can it," Hayley says.
Northern Beaches' 4 Pines used the Yakima Chief blend to make a Belgian pale and Canberra's Capitol Brewing Co cooked up a pineapple upside down XPA.
Modus Operandi have previously appeared at the Newcastle Beer Fest, but this will be the brewery's first time since they expanded their operations to Merewether.
Besides their popular Cerveza, which polled No.30 in the GABs Hottest 100 last month, Modus will have their core range pouring.
Drinkers looking for something more adventurous should seek out the 8% Acid Jaguar Imperial Sour which includes raspberries and lime, the Cluster Pucker Sour made with pineapple, peach and lychee and the 5.7% Mic Drop Strong Pale Ale.
The Newcastle Beer Festival begins 11am today at King Edward Park. Visit the website for tickets.
