The fresh harvest “wet hops” beer festival at The Cannery in Roseberry, a celebration of hops and beer, in particular wet hopping. What a huge afternoon/night it was, the perfect amuse bouche for GABS.

Massive thanks to Frenchies for getting behind this and I’m sure for doing a lot of the leg work. Now the beers, Sauce did a sensational wet hopped XXPA that had a full resinous mouthfull and that lovely piney nose, an outstanding drop (also hinted that we may be seeing a mindblowing NEIPA at GABS from them, think bubble and squeek X 100!). Rocks had an American style pale ale that was silky smooth with just the right amount of bitterness. Capital unfortunately had a problem with sourcing their hops so are saving it for GABS, their pale however was great and I think pips Bentspoke now as my favourite Canberra brewer.

In the middle we had Wayward which was serving up the Puss, sour which I just can’t say no to and had a great chat (all be it slightly intoxicated) with the guys from Wayward (still can’t get over how good their lupulin son is!). Had a pale from Claire Valley Brewing which wasn’t great but I think it was the end of the keg. Saw big Willie who was in great form as always, happy to chat with the crowd as always and served up a fantastic wet hopped creation.

Beer of the day though for me was Akashas Wet Hopped IPA. Fantastic mouth feel, pure velvet on the tongue, slightly piney with a massive hoppy nose, almost faultless beer and well done. Was really good to chat too and am very excited to see what they have coming up. The homebrew entries were all very good making it almost impossible to pick a winner. Finished the night off with Frenchies wet hopped pale which was the perfect finish to the night.

Some constructive feed back for the organisers would be that the set out was all wrong and cramped people into small spaces. Luckily it was a very well behaved crowd as it had the potential to turn nasty. I would suggest varying the licensing for the next one to include the whole floor space and stick security at the front and rear doors. Awesome job everyone and can’t wait for the next one!