Well what a week!

Nobody could have predicted the amazing support for the inaugural Newcastle Craft Beer Week!

The week kicked off with an amazing Wig and Pen tasting at the Burwood Merewether and patronage just seemed to continue all week.

A notable mention should go to Corey Crooks and the staff at the Albion Hotel for their spectacular Newcastle Craft Beer Week Official dinner which didn't end until the wee hours of the morning for some of us!

After a week of late nights, great beers and hard work the staff at Warners at the Bay Bottle Shop dug deep to present what we think was our best festival yet! After nearly 2 weeks of rain we were lucky enough to get a little bit of sunshine just in time to put up our marquees and put everything into place

A few new faces on the roster this year did very well, those included: The Rocks Brewing Co., Black Duck Brewery (who mentioned that their bottled product isn't too far away), Tilse's Apple Cider (Newcastle's first cider company) and Feral Brewing who's Hop Hog IPA won Ale of the Year at the 2011 AIBA's.

As always the day didn't run perfectly smooth, the boys were running around frantically to deliver stock to the respective stands before the punters arrived. With minutes to spare the boys let out a sigh of relief only to realise that Murray's Brewing had not yet arrived! Luckily only 15 minutes into the festival a rushed and tired looking Sherlock and Watson took their stand. A bit of running around for spare taps, coke and water and Murray's had a roaring trade as always. Hats off to those guys, we of all people know what a stellar week it had been so I don't think anyone can blame them for being a little bit late.

Mike from Ekim Brewing and Colin from Happy Goblin were stoked to hear that they had been placed in the mobile bar built by our local ice guru James Herrington. The stand proved so popular that Happy Goblin ran out of beer before the end of the festival!

As always the boys from Innspire took up half of the car park with their mammoth set up (even after 5 years of planning we still can't seem to out do them presentation wise). They proved to be a massive hit once again with their beers, a hand pumped cider and a range of merchandise.

This year for the first time, celebrity chef Paul Mercurio author of "Cooking with Beer" was at the festival meeting the crowd and signing his books, we have received overwhelming feedback about how nice it was to meet the author.

I think it goes without saying that all of the brewerys and suppliers this year did an excellent job and the crowd were very well behaved, with a small army of helpers the festival was completely packed up in just under 2 hours and the after party could begin.

Now I have been asked to keep the details of this after party quite vague but we have to bring you the results of the 2nd annual beer pong competition! Myself and Kyle were up first to take on last year reigning champions Holgate Brewing. The men from down south were a bit rusty this year and went down without us even conceding a cup! The same fate followed for Mudgee Brewing, The Pump House and it wasn't until a collaboration team of Tristam from The Lord Nelson and Steve from Stone and Wood that the Warners boys finally conceeded a cup, this was the closest anyone had come to beating what seem like an unstoppable Warners duo.

Kyle and myself could all but see the finish line when Julian from Holgate demanded a rematch. The game was level pegging right down to the very last cup when Julian managed to sink one and take the title back to Victoria! We are truely devastated that Holgate beat us once again, even without their star player Paul Holgate.

So that looks like a wrap for another year as we all gear up for the Christmas period, thank you to everyone who supported Newcastle Craft Beer Week and we hope to see you all in the shop soon as we prepare for next years festival!

Cheers,

Shayne