Chris Shanahan: Gypsy brewers hit Sydney

My Sydney spy, Mr Malty, rated “gypsy” brewers as the hot act of the recent Sydney Craft Beer Week (October 18–26).

These itinerant, or gypsy, brewers move from brewery to brewery taking up slack capacity, and making one-off beers, often in collaboration with the resident brewer.

For the craft beer week, a group of Sydney gypsies hosted the Gypsy Brewer Jamboree – billed as a craft beer bare-knuckle dustup, where two beers enter, one beer leaves.

The brewers gave a guiding tasting through eight beers in four tasting rounds.

Mr Malty checked out events throughout the week and apparently large numbers of enthusiasts packed the tastings – confirming the growing passion for craft beers.

Craft beer lovers attribute the gypsy beer phenomenon largely to Mikkel Borg Bjergso, creator of the now famous Mikkeller label, first produced in 2007.

11 November 2014 in goodfood.com.au
12 November 2014 in the Canberra Times