Visit to Jamieson Brewery - October 2013. Plus pictures of Lake Eildon

Yesterday I went to visit the Jamieson Brewery. I heard they had a new brew on tap "Gooley's Pils Draught"
I stopped on the drive at Bonnie Doon, as it is great to see Lake Eildon back over 95% full.

Further along the drive, I stopped at the bridge over the Howqua River. It is now part of Lake Eildon. This is a place I often stop to do some flyfishing. Now I would need a boat!

I continued the last 10 km towards Jamieson along the Mansfield-WoodsPoint Rd. What a pretty road this is now the lake laps the road.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last stop - the most important. The visit to the 

Jamieson Brewery

A great brewery with an excellent selection of there locally brewed craftbeer on tap
Gooley's Pils Draught - 5.2% Pilsner (new to the range - a tasty, refreshing pilsner - should be popular in Summer)
Irish Red Ale - 4.8% Red Ale
Pale Ale - 4.6%  Pale Ale
Jamieson Brown Ale - 5% English Brown Ale
Mountain Ale - 5% Dunkelweizen - A dark wheat beer.
The Beast IPA - 7%  Highly hopped American Pale Ale (my favourite, love the six different hops)
Raspberry Ale 4.7%  Raspberry flavoured Fruit Beer (a real surprise packed. So tasty)

Royal Melbourne Wine Awards 2013

Royal Melbourne Wine Awards - 2013

This year I decided to help with the Royal Melbourne Wine Awards. This is run by the same organization that runs the Australian International Beer Awards.
I though this might be an interesting adventure, as my knowledge about wine is fairly limited (although I do like drinking it!!).

Bump In

Day 1 of Bump In, had the group of helpers setup racking to hold more than 12,000 (thats right! twelve thousand) bottles of wine. There were over 3100 entries this year, and we had to rack four of each wine.

Once the racking was in position, labels were required to identify "Class", "Exhibit number" and "tasting order".

Next palettes were unloaded, wine bottles labelled and wine put away into the racks. This took the best part of 3 days!

The final bump in activity was to setup the judging area. Tables, glasses etc. Bump in took our group 4 days.

Wine Awards - Judging

Judging went for 4 days.
Wines were put on trolleys and taken out to the front of house steward stations. The stewards poured the wines for the judges.
We prepared nibbles for the judges each morning of the awards

Seven panels of 5 judges spent 4 days judging the 3100 wines.

 A very successful event. A lot of lifting, bending, washing, cleaning, hunting for wine. But fun!

Exhibitor Tasting

A week after the judging is over, there is an exhibitor tasting day. All 3100 wines are presented to the exhibitors for tasting. Setup is done the day before the tasting. Another long, but enjoyable day.

Bump Out

 Bump out went for 3 days. First job was to collect all medal winning wines and pack them in Class. These will be taken to the Consumer Tasting event in a weeks time. Then all the rest of the wine bottles needed to be boxed, put on pallets, and wrapped.
Tables, wine racks, boxes, plates, and everything else needed to be packed up

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

Consumer Tasting - Collins Place - Melbourne - Friday 25th October

The last event for me is the Consumer Tasting event. Half a day setup, an evening of serving medal winning wines to ticket paying consumers. Over three hundred happy wine lovers attended this function at Collins Place.
The setup started 4 hours before the event, when all the furniture, wine, fencing needed to be setup

Final Mail Out - Winery Certificates and Result books

The final activity for me for the 2013 Royal Melbourne Wine Awards was the preparation of the final mail out
Each winery received their results, certificates and a catalogue of results.