A couple of months ago, we caught up with Scott Meager, owner of the Steam Packet Inn in Williamstown. He’d just been given the green light to go ahead with a new beer festival in the Melbourne suburb to commemorate 150 years of his venue and 175 years of its license. At that time, details were still being ironed out but, barring a couple of minor details, the inaugural Williamstown Heritage Beer & Cider Festival, or the Willy Beer Fest as it’s more commonly referred to, is ready to roll.
That means two sessions on November 23 at Robertson Reserve, just a couple of hundred metres from the Steam Packet, featuring more than 20 beer, wine and cider stalls, live entertainment and Williamstown’s very own beer.
“It’s all been going well,” says Scott. “We have had some nice press, making the front page of the local papers. Everything seems to be under control and [we’ve] pretty much confirmed everything for the event.”
The festival beer was brewed with Jayne Lewis of Two Birds Brewing earlier this month. The aim was to create a beer similar to those that would have poured in Williamstown’s pubs around 150 years ago.
“The beer is tasting great,” he says. “It went into kegs this week, which I was lucky enough to get go along to help with. It is a take on what a beer in the 1860s at the Steam Packet would have looked like – slightly opaque with a nice deep golden, not quite amber, colour.
“It’s an easy style pale ale brewed with Willamette and Citra hops. Jayne also use local sheoak and river mint plants in the process to give it complexity and a unique character. The name is under wraps at the moment, but we have a few working titles based around local historical events, local landmarks, ships and fauna.”
The beer will be available at the Festival as well as at the Steam Packet throughout the entire month of November, and at Bettenay’s Prince Albert in Williamstown and selected other beer venues in the west. Keep an eye on the Two Birds and Willy Beer Fest Twitter feeds to find out where it is due to land.
The list of exhibitors for the Willy Beer Fest confirmed to date is:
- 2 Brothers
- Mountain Goat
- Two Birds Brewing
- Trumer Pils
- Bridgeport
- Kwencher
- Golden Axe Cider
- Buckleys Beer
- Stone & Wood
- Tooborac Hotel & Brewery
- Three Troupers
- Napoleone Cider
- Matilda Bay
- Little Creatures
- Sitting Duck Cider
- Boatrocker
- Watershed Wines
- Galli Estate
- Holgate Brewhouse
- Cavailer Beer
- Lucky Duck Cider
- James Squire
- Prickly Moses
Musical headliner Nick Barker (from Nick Barker and the Reptiles) is joined by other local artists onstage – check the lineup for who is playing at each session here. The two sessions run from 11.30am to 3pm and 3.30pm to 7pm. Entry costs $40 for which attendees get a commemorative glass, official program and 10 drink sampling tokens worth $20. More tokens can be purchased in advance or on the day. Get yours here.
Willy Beer Fest takes place at Robertson Reserve, corner of Cole and Hanmer Streets, Williamstown.
