The new and evolved Sydney Beer Week will be back for 2017, and organisers are calling for venues to board the hop train and be part of the heady experience.
Formerly the Sydney Craft Beer Week, the craft tag has been left by the wayside as Sydney Beer Week moves to be more inclusive and representative of the direction of beer.
“We want to provide opportunities for the beer curious as well as those already passionate and knowledgeable, across as much of greater Sydney as we possibly can,” explains Festival Director Dave Phillips.
“Sydney Craft Beer Week, as the festival was previously known, did a tremendous job turning Sydney into a global craft beer city under the stewardship of Joel Connolly and with the support of the local beer community.”
Scheduled to take place 20-29 October, event preparations have begun with both breweries and venues across Sydney. SBW17 flagship events will include an opening gala tasting session, the Sydney Beer Awards presentation, the Hair Of The Dog breakfast, and the new Food Truck Corral.
Events are categorised into five streams: Food, Education, Activities, Technology and Showcase. Examples include: tap takeovers, meet-the-brewer, expert talks, beer degustations, brewery tours, music/art performances, games/sports, homebrew expos, cooking with beer, and brewing with food.
Venues interested in participating and hosting an event should contact SBW. Staff are on-hand to assist with event development.
Event venues will benefit from SBW’s 2017 growing promotional activities, to generate awareness of the festival and events.
“The campaign will reach more people in more of Sydney than ever before,” SBW’s Ben Janeczko told PubTIC.
“We welcome all interested venues to get in touch with our team, who are on-call to help develop event ideas and answer any questions.”
SBW general manager Liam Pereira, says the changing beer sector landscape is also changing both the focus and discussion.
“As the beer industry has grown and matured, and peoples’ palates have changed, the conversation is not about craft or mainstream beer – it’s more about what kind of beer people like to drink.”
