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Melbourne's toast to great beer

This story originally appeared in The Weekend West Travel section.

An uprising is brewing in the once-hidden laneways of Melbourne.

And strategic venues around the Victorian capital are quietly preparing for an invasion of a new army of tourist.

Australia is witnessing a craft beer explosion. Artisanal brands form the fastest growing segment in the country’s brewing industry.

While WA has been a force in the market, Melbourne is craft beer headquarters for nine days every year. Hop heads and malt mashers from across the globe descend on Tullamarine to test their taste buds.

SEE ROSS LEWIS' A1 ITINERARY FOR GOOD BEER WEEK

Three events, Good Beer Week, the Australian International Beer Awards and the unique three-day Great Australasian Beer Spectapular – yes, that is Spectapular – form one of the biggest brewing extravaganzas in the world.

No matter your preferred style of nectar, type of venue or food preferences, the series of events in late May each year will provide something to your taste.

The festivities could be considered Australian beer’s version of Comic-Con. Or maybe our Oktoberfest without the swill. Brewers are feted, t-shirts bearing beer designs are in thick supply and talk centres on the minutiae of production.

Good Beer Week, guided by co-founder and renowned beer journalist James Smith, underpins all the activities. Just over 250 events and 180 premises showcase everything associated with the beverage that has been part of the country’s social fabric for 200 years.

However, in recent decades beer has disappeared from dining tables, predominately replaced by wine.

The rise of craft beer and its myriad varieties has prompted a growing food matching trend.

So during Good Beer Week there is saison with pizza, Pale Ales partnered by Chinese dishes, Witbier alongside schnitzels and even Adriano Zumba’s famous macaroons and cronuts combining with Stouts.

Venues stretch from classy establishments, renowned hotels such as Young and Jackson’s, trendy pads including Chin Chin in Flinders Lane and pop-up food carts.

After all, beer is a conversation so it doesn’t matter where you have it.

For the hipsters and those tipple-lovers with Ned Kelly beards there are plenty of information sessions with visiting and local brewers, workshops for those that like to make their drinks at home and various tours.

Particular hotels near the Melbourne CBD are designated as “Pints of Origin” for the duration. They turn their taps over to the States and sell only beers from that respective region. WA’s Feral, Mash, Nail, Monk, Colonial and Eagle Bay breweries are regularly based at the Royston Hotel in Richmond.

The fun and games are interrupted on the Thursday by the AIBA awards which honour the best beers in a raft of categories. Last year, Mash from the Swan Valley was awarded the best brew in the country for its Copy Cat American India Pale Ale.

And if you have any strength left, the Great Australasian Beer Spectapular provides a three-day marathon of sheer indulgence for beer geeks, who feel as though they’re Charlie let loose in Willie Wonka’s factory.

Around 120 beer makers deliver a brew they have never produced. GABS, as it is affectionately known, encourages experimentation in the 85ml samples on offer to punters at the Melbourne Royal Exhibition Building.

In previous years there has been a Taco beer (Two Birds Brewing) and White Chocolate Raspberry Pilsner (Bacchus Brewing), a Tart Cherry Farmhouse Ale (Garage Project) and a Belgian Praline (La Sirene).

“It is not about coming up with the weirdest beer it is just about coming up with something that you haven’t brewed before,” said Steve Jeffares, who co-founded GABS with business partner Guy Greenstone. The pair share Local Taphouse bars in Sydney and Melbourne.

“So there are a number of brewers who are producing beers in a more traditional style. Some are using it as a testing ground for beers that they might like to produce.

“Little Brewing in NSW have released beers from GABS, Hassel Hop was Burleigh Brewing’s festival beer and they are now bottling it.”

Last year 2 Brothers Brewery from Victoria produced a Crème Caramel Dessert Style Ice Beer that hit the scale at 13 per cent alcohol.

GABS lasts five five-hour sessions. Only the toughest, those with cast-iron constitutions, the most adventurous aficionados and drinkers with plenty of spare time can tick off all the tastings available. Yet of the 30,000 attendees since 2011 security has never been called to evict an unruly patron.

If your beer thirst isn’t be satisfied via the nine days of events it never will.

But for those who like to expand the flavours on their palate Good Beer Week is the event Australia can happily toast.

Cheers!