The day after they were able to open for the first time since July, Victoria's brewers have received more good news from the state government.
When the Licensed Hospitality Venue Fund was first announced, anyone operating on a producer's license – which includes many of the state's brewers – found they were ineligible. As first reported by The Crafty Pint on October 6, this meant they wouldn't be able to apply for grants of between $10,000 and $30,000 set aside for venues impacted by COVID-19 closures.
Local brewers and the Independent Brewers Association (IBA) pushed for a change, with the issue reaching the mainstream media and one of Daniel Andrews' pressers, where he promised to raise the issue with his staff.
"I will do that for them and for everybody who enjoys craft beer, of which there are many, many people," the Premier said when challenged by a Channel 10 reporter. "It's a thing; it's a big thing. They are the best of their kind in the world, I'm told."
And, as of this morning, businesses operating on producer's licenses are now eligible to apply – see here – with 25 days left to register an application.
IBA general manager Kylie Lethbridge (pictured below) told The Crafty Pint she'd been hounding the Premier's office daily and had received an indication on Saturday that the change was on its way, and that it had been an oversight rather than a deliberate decision to exclude producers.
"It's a great outcome," she says, "because although $30,000 might not seem a lot to some, it's significant and meaningful. Throughout this process, the people that were messaging me every day made me realise that this is a big thing for them and will make a massive difference."
Minister for Business Support and Recovery Martin Pakula said: “We’ve listened to brewery businesses and acknowledged that the guidelines needed to change.
“This will help businesses across the state to consolidate and recover as we continue to steadily re-open the economy."
It continues the best week the state's brewers and the wider hospo community have enjoyed since June. COVID-19 restrictions were significantly eased to allow venues to reopen in accordance with COVIDSafe guidelines, a move that's seen customers flood back to their favourite pubs, bars, cafés and restaurants.
"Everybody is absolutely beside themselves," Kylie says. "They're run off their feet with bookings, which is really heartening.
"There's a lot of emotion. There was so much trepidation as to whether they'd be able to, and how long it's been going on [and] the fact that people are so loyal in wanting to come back. There were people calling around asking if places were going to open at midnight [on Tuesday night] and a lot of bars did.
"People are overwhelmed by the support they've got from their customers and excited about being able to be open, but also nervous around what's going to happen."
Any businesses interested in applying for the grants can start the process here. Eligible brewers will receive an invitation to apply from Business Victoria on November 2, 2020, at the email address they used to sign up for an eLicence in their Liquor Portal account.
Applications will remain open until funds are exhausted or until 23 November 2020, whichever is earlier.
You can read our two-part mini-series on life at craft beer venues through the twin lockdowns here and here.
James Smith launched The Crafty Pint in 2010, two years after moving to Australia from the UK. He was taken to Mountain Goat within weeks of landing in Melbourne, joined their indoor cricket team, and is still navigating the rabbit hole that is craft beer to this day.
The beers that turned you on to good beer:
- Watching pints of McEwan's 80 Shilling settle when visiting family in Edinburgh.
- Pints of flat Bass from the jug at the Cap & Stocking in Kegworth.
- A first Paulaner Hefeweizen when working in Munich in 1998: “This smells of bananas!”
- Castle Rock Harvest Pale – how could a 3.8 percent ABV beer be so good? (It turns out it was an early example of the three Cs – Cascade, Centennial and Columbus – in an English bitter).
- Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA poured through hops at the Sunset Grill in Cambridge, MA, in the company of a man who turned out to be the Beer Nut (while we were both covering a double murder case at the time).
- Ordering a Mountain Goat Hightail on my first day as an Aussie resident as it was local and I’d never heard of it; “A dark Australian beer; well I never…”
- Murray’s Icon 2IPA at Beer DeLuxe Fed Square, recommended by a guy I’d not long known who's now the main man at Fixation, served by Mik Halse, now head of sales at Hawkers. How could an Australian beer smell as good as that?!?
You've got three beers to turn someone else on to good beer; what are they and why?
- Any really good, fresh and balanced West Coast style IPA. Punchy hop aromatics are the most obvious way to capture someone's attention and these IPAs, done well, present the key components in beer (if you're sticking to just water, malt, hops and yeast) in harmony yet with the volume turned up.
- Saison Dupont. Arguably a selfish choice here as I bloody love the broad saison style and dearly hope it will finally take hold in Australia one day. Given a choice, I'd probably crack one enlivened with Brettanomyces like Molly Rose Matilde for myself but, when it comes to turning on someone new, you've got to go with the classic.
- Rodenbach Caractère Rouge. Because if you don't enjoy or can't appreciate this beer, I'll never win you over. And because Filip, the fruit and wood specialist at Rodenbach that designed it, is a beautiful human.
The last beer you enjoyed:
Fixation IPA at The Incubator.
Three things that represent you:
- The Soft Bulletin by The Flaming Lips
- Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
- Golden Plains
NB All articles written by James in the first eight years of the site appear as By Crafty Pint. Today, that's used for collaborative efforts by the wider team.
