It seems that not a week goes without someone new getting on the craft beer bandwagon. The latest establishment to do such a thing is the Canberra Centre shopping mall, who next Friday (Friday, August 29) will be hosting a craft beer and burgers night as part of their Men’s Culture – Man on a Mission campaign.

The crew from the Canberra Centre approached me about a burgers and beers evening, and after touching on the craft beer phenomenon, I had them hooked and wanting to run an event focusing on this exciting “new” avenue in beer.

The beers for event have been supplied by the some of the best microbreweries in Australia. These include two beers from Victoria’s Cavalier brewing, who did a recent beer and food matching dinner at The Durham Castle Arms. Speaking previously with head brewer Heath Shirtcliffe, he spoke about how excited he was to have his brewery venturing into an untapped market such as Canberra.

Another brewery present at the event will be Otway Brewing, the guys behind Prickly Moses. Located in the highlands outside of Geelong, the brewery has been running for over 8 years and has a great reputation, thanks in part to the high quality water they receive through rainfall in their lush rainforest location.

Two beers for tasting at the event by Prickly Moses are the Black Panther IBA, with its strong chocolate backbone and fresh, hoppy flavour and aroma, and the red ale, with distinctly earthy aromas found in all classic Irish red ale styles of beer.

But don’t let me tell you about the beers, why not come and try them for yourself?

The event will be hosted by Canberra’s premier beer snob Dan Rayner, who is the ideal person for helping you get the most out of your craft beer experience.

Food for the event will be supplied by the Canberra Centre’s own Burger Edge. The five beers will be matched expertly to five different styles of beers using the three C’s principle of beer and food matching; cut, complement and contrast.

Cut refers to cleansing the palate, done through the ABC’s of cutting; alcohol (cleanse the palate), bitterness, the hops that clears away fats and sugars and carbonation, that washes the tongue and frees the taste buds. Complement focuses on the similarities between the beer and food, where a fruity course can match and complement a fruity beer (like a wheat beer or pale ale.) Finally, contrast refers to the contrasting flavours provided by beer and food, with the most iconic contrast being a sweet beer playing off perfectly with a a strong, salty blue cheese or similar.

If you want to be a part of this unique event, you can book through the Customer Service Lounge or email customerservice@canberracentre.com.au or visit www.canberracentre.com.au. Tickets for the event are $60 each, or for $100 you can get tickets for both the Beers and Burgers night and the five whisky’s tasting the following Friday.

The Craft Beer and Burgers night takes place on Friday, 29 August and goes from 6:30 to 8:30pm, with the whisky Culture night taking place on Friday 5 September, 6:30pm to 8:30pm.

What’s impressing me?

• Hop Dog Brewery; Little South Coast brewery which do some amazing beers. Check out their range at Plonk in the Fyshwick markets
• Stone & Wood Cloud Catcher; Not sure if this little gem of a beer is available still, but it is (maybe was) a classic. It was used to help commemorate the new brewery opened up just near Byron Bay
• Beer and whisky; Try it, if you’re like me and like to indulge in a beer and whisky, the two flavours can complement one another wonderfully.

Adrian Moran has been pouring beers for over nine years and runs a weekly podcast devoted to craft beer
Twitter: @ausbeerjourney
Website: www.ausbeerjourney.wordpress.com